Sharon Stone spills the beans about her impeccable body and why she once thought she could never look hot
What are your thoughts on your character in Fading GigoloIJ
She doesn’t really know that she has a sort of innocence. Dr Parker doesn’t really know about the art of love or it is in the formal sexuality, but she doesn’t really know about love. It’s like a flower that hasn’t really bloomed. You know there is a Buddhist expression that says if you are present in the movement then life is infinite and I think that is such a true concept and contract and I think that Fiorvante (John Turturro) does that for Dr Parker, but for every woman that he allows to unfold in his presence. And in that he takes each of them from where they are to the next phase of understanding of what love can be and by doing that he takes himself to the next phase of understanding of what love can be. He shows everyone and himself that simply by being present, the heart opens.
The movie somewhere deals with a not-so-good looking guy becoming an object of desire for women. Do you think that happens in realityIJ
I never knew I was hot or could be beautiful until I saw Basic Instinct and I was so shocked when I saw how pretty they made me. I thought, ‘Wow! That’s awesome!’ And that’s when I realised I could play hot parts. I didn’t start out being the hot girl. People used to say they couldn’t hire me because I wasn’t hot and wasn’t sexy. And then I learned how to be hot. Until then I was a nerd — the clever girl.
Fading Gigoloinstills a mature sense of hope of finding love at an old age. Do you think you have succeeded at everything in lifeIJ
I don’t care if I fail because what’s failureIJ You know whatIJ I failed at the biggest things there are in life. I failed in my health, I failed in my marriage, I failed in everything and I’ve picked myself up and gone on. I was really lucky not to die, so it feels fantastic to be older and alive and to be playing older and alive people.
I was going to ask you about this new stage in your career with movies like Fading Gigolo and lovelace a little earlier.
That’s the great thing about being an older lady. I’m coming in, I’m playing a mom, a career woman, I’m at another phase of life, I can play all kinds of different parts that I might not have been considered for before. I feel like another door has opened, that there’s another room of possibilities. It’s wonderful.
Nobody recognised you in lovelace, and now you’re back to being Sharon Stone in Fading Gigolo!
It’s funny, because when I play this character everybody thinks I am playing something closer to myself, but in fact I totally transformed myself to play this character. I didn’t know how to go around looking like this.It is more fun to continue to look glamorous and closer to that part — obviously I’m not going to go out and look more like that character, Dorothy Boreman (lovelace), because I don’t want to! But I’m not anything at all like this (Fading Gigolo) part, and I’m not like that part.
But, you know, I’m a grown-up lady, I feel certain that I’m going to play adult characters and mothers and ultimately grandmothers. I feel sure that I have gracefully surrendered the things of youth!
How do you still manage to be in such great shapeIJ There has to be a secret.
That saying — ‘Dance like nobody is watching’ — I do that. I dance like nobody’s watching and I dance hard until I sweat and I think that that’s very good. It’s good for the mind and the body. I also joined a gym, I used to just do pilates. I had pilates in my house but I have found that since I’ve hit 50, that I’ve felt that I’ve needed more muscle tone and I started using more weights. So I joined a gym and I do weights... I really like it.
Even after thirty years in the business, you haven’t done any plastic surgery or facelift. That seems stunning and surprising!
I can’t tell you how many doctors try to sell me a face lift. I’ve even gone as far as having someone talk me into it, but when I went over and looked at pictures of myself, I thought, What are they going to liftIJ Yes, I have come close — but, frankly, I think that in the art of aging well there’s this sexuality to having those imperfections. It’s sensual.
If you have things that you want to fix, you should go right ahead and fix them. I don’t think there is anything wrong with cosmetic surgery at all. I think it’s great. But I don’t think it’s alright to distort yourself. You can’t treat an illness with cosmetic surgery, and that’s why it would be great if there were qualified therapists in plastic surgeons’ offices, and that people would go to a therapeutic meeting before plastic surgery. I think that should be part of the FDA requirement.
Did you always take aging so gracefullyIJ
There was a point in my 40s when I went into the bathroom with a bottle of wine, locked the door, and said, ‘I’m not coming out until I can totally accept the way that I look right now. I examined my face in the magnifying mirror, and I looked at my body and I cried and I cried and I cried. But eventually I moved on realising I’m very happy about being a grown up woman. I think there’s a lot of sexuality, and glamour, and allure, and mystery to being a woman that you just don’t have when you’re young.
So, what do you think about dating nowIJ
Men expect that they’ll give you their phone number and you’re going to pursue them. I think that what has happened in the modern dating world is that men expect to be pursued. Who wants that kind of manIJ I want a man who still has his man card.