If we had forgotten what a diva looked like, Sharon Stone it refreshed our memory. She showed up in Zurich in leopard, silver and gold looks to receive the Zurich Film Festival’s top prize, the Golden Icon Award, and literally kidnapped the Swiss citizen for two days. Tall and thin, divine in her 63 years, she made the fans who chased her around the various sites of the cities, in a real marathon, relive the golden years in which she was the famous writer and psychologist who con Basic Instinct by Paul Verhoeven transformed it into a night from a model to a sexy icon of world cinema.
A rich life for a girl born and raised in Pennsylvania. An existence also full of daring descents and ascents, if we think of the cerebral stroke that hit her in 2001, and the very serious health problems that followed and that also gave a shoulder to family, career, money and international fame. And only two months ago through her social networks we learned that fate has struck her again, taking away her beloved one-year-old grandson for organ failure. But Sharon is a model of a deeply wounded woman who has been able to rise again, being reborn through new battles. Short blond hair, when she speaks she creates absolute silence and makes her eyes moisten, especially for women, she loves them so much and defends them like a lioness at every opportunity. Above all she knows how to tell herself to the bone, Sharon Stone, as she did in the memoir The beauty of living twice, released last spring.
You have known real success, the one that turns life upside down. How did receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award affect you?
«I stopped to take stock of everything that has happened to me up to here. Especially with the pandemic, which is not over yet, being rewarded was even more significant. Because I have three teenage children and I spent the period of Covid locked in the house, between the noise and the dirty socks left around everywhere, like we lived in a campsite. Let’s say that I had forgotten a bit that I was a movie star, remembering it moved me deeply ».
When she enters a room the air stops: she likes being a star?
“Who wouldn’t want to be a movie star? Everyone would like to be. Or rather, everyone has this idea. But then when it happens it’s different, it upsets you. One day you are driving and you stop at a stop, and nobody cares. A week later you stop at the same stop and thirty people get into your car. You can’t drive anymore, you start wondering “if I leave, will they fall out of the car? And will it be illegal? And will I be in trouble? “. Suddenly you no longer know what the rules are, you no longer know how you have to live ».
If you were to say, today, why he wanted the part of Catherine Tramell in Basic Instinct?
“Not because she was particularly tall, but because I found her brilliant and very complicated. A total psychopath, I thought she was absolutely fascinating. I have always loved Orson Welles, ever since I saw him The stranger, which he directed, co-wrote and starred in, alongside Edward G. Robinson and Loretta Young. His was one of the very few performances that became keys in my work, real keys. It made me understand what I wanted to try to do too: dominate a character ».
She has become the icon of dominatrixes.
“I think I did it so well that people didn’t understand how difficult it was. That character destroyed me, tore me apart, I even had nightmares about that crazy calculator. “
At forty he stopped working – his words – and to this were added his health problems.
«Here it is not like in France, where Sophie Marceau still makes films. But you know what? When I saw all the images of my career, before receiving the award last night, I told myself that things have gone very well, actually. I had plenty of time to work on breast cancer research, fought for the homeless and raised my children. Financially it wasn’t great, but in terms of karma it worked out perfectly. I really lived with my children, who are now 15, 16 and 21 years old ”.
And what are your boys like?
“My youngest son wants to act, but he doesn’t want to share this with me, he acts like he does it all by himself. The second son wants to be a heart surgeon, he is 16 years old but has already seen a four and a half hour brain surgery in the operating room. The oldest, on the other hand, attends a school for chefs ».
What kind of woman was your mother with you?
“A very, very tough woman. My mother, my mother’s mother and her grandmother were servants, and she was given away when she was nine, just to do that job. At that age she was already a perfect cook and maid, it is no coincidence that our house was really clean (laughs, ed). A few years ago I asked her why she never let me lean on her. He replied “because I taught you to stand on your damn legs alone”. It seemed to me a very cold and difficult thing. But then I wrote this book, The beauty of living twice, and we talked about it. I understood that for her teaching me to stand up meant teaching me to love myself, and not to let anyone take this love away from me ».
Has he forgiven her for that hardness?
“When you think you know a parent, you can begin to have some compassion, not only for her but for yourself as well. Because he cannot give you something he has never received, but only the best of what he has had. And in your brain you have to learn to translate what it gives you into love. And today I know I have received love ».
What is the most important thing you have understood about life so far?
“That we are not here to understand each other, nor to like each other. We are here to love each other, and if we are not, no matter what religion we belong to or not, we are simply not there, and we hide our fear behind ideas. The truth is to be present, the truth is to be compassionate ».
If he went back, would he make the star again?
“Of course, because worse than being a movie star is just not being one. So you have to work on it, it’s a complicated journey. Your destiny changes, everyone’s destiny changes. It doesn’t matter if you are a Hollywood star or a plumber, your destiny will change. And it is up to you to learn to change with your life ».
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