Sharon Stone: I "Made Friends with My Dark Side" to Act in Basic Instinct
In an interview for Town & Country's October cover story, Sharon Stone opened up about the advantages and pitfalls of being pigeonholed as a sex symbol in Hollywood—even though she's not entirely sure how she become one in the first place.
"People, I guess, really needed a sex symbol," the actress said, adding, "I mean, I never thought I was that sexy." She did offer a theory on her Basic Instinct appeal, though: "When I did Basic Instinct, I explored my dark side and made friends with my dark side. I got to not be afraid of my own self. I think people find that sexy."
Whatever it was, it certainly made an impact. Decades later, her Ratched costar Jon Jon Briones told T&C how surreal it was to work with her: "I mean, she’s Sharon—Basic Instinct—Stone."
But her icon status was limiting in its own way. "It’s difficult, because everybody expects you to be that all the time," Stone explained. "It was very difficult for Marilyn Monroe. She did movies that really mattered, like Bus Stop, The Misfits, but she still couldn’t get completely out of being that thing. It’s very hard to shake."
At 62, Stone's found peace with it all—and also a measure of self-determination. "I think you have to choose how you want to age. People look at me as a certain thing, and it gets in the way of them casting me as things I could play," she said. "But I’m sure that I have my own destiny, and I’m now trying to meet it with as much integrity as I can, and be as open to growth as I can be."
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