Sharon Stone has opened up about how she felt that she was dropped from Hollywood after suffering a near-fatal health scare back in 2001.
The popular actress revealed that she suffered a stroke and a brain haemorrhage which was the result of a nine-day brain bleed, which usually have “one per cent chance” of survival.
Speaking at THR’s Raising Our Voices luncheon, the 65-year-old said: “I recovered for seven years, and I haven't had jobs since. When it first happened, I didn't want to tell anybody because you know if something goes wrong with you, you're out.
“Something went wrong with me — I've been out for 20 years. I haven't had jobs. I was a very big movie star at one point in my life… I broke a lot of glass ceilings on the top of my head.”
“I want to tell you that it hurt. It hurt to get paid. It hurt to fight the studio heads. It hurt to make boundaries — boundaries about who could come in my trailer and what they could ask for; boundaries about the fact that I didn't want to sign my contract in my makeup trailer on the day that I started a show. It hurt to say that I had, like any corporation, the opportunity to have my lawyer read my contract and that I didn't have to start the show signing my unread contract in the makeup trailer.”
She continued: “Diversity can mean more than one thing. Diversity can be an injury, diversity can be the color of your skin, diversity can mean standing up for yourself. If you are diverse, you must demand a position in this business.”
The Basic Instinct actress previously opened up about her store to Variety back in 2019, explaining that she was very touch and go. “I didn’t get to the hospital until day three or four of my stroke,” she explained. “Most people die. I had a 1% chance of living by the time I got surgery — and they wouldn’t know for a month if I would live.”
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The mom-of-three added: “People treated me in a way that was brutally unkind… From other women in my own business to the female judge who handled my custody case, I don’t think anyone grasps how dangerous a stroke is for women and what it takes to recover — it took me about seven years.”
Sharon has had a hugely successful television and movie career, and has recently starred in Netflix’s Ratched, The New Pope, Murderville and The Flight Attendant. She is perhaps best known for her roles in Basic Instinct and Casino, for which she won a Golden Globe.
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