Sharon Stone Details How Hollywood Career Ended Over Serious Diagnosis
Sharon Stone opened up about how having a stroke and brain bleed in 2001 impacted her Hollywood career.
“I recovered for seven years, and I haven’t had jobs since.”
The star also detailed how she stands up for herself.
Sharon Stone has never been one to keep quiet about the realities of Hollywood. From reflecting on ageism in the industry to sharing how her activism for AIDS affected her career, Stone consistently speaks her mind about how her time as an actress has been anything but easy. Now, she’s opening up about a nearly fatal health scare that impacted her ability to get acting jobs.
The Oscar-nominated actress kicked off The Hollywood Reporter’s Raising Our Voices luncheon with an emotional speech about the challenges she has faced as a result of speaking up for herself and her health.
At the event, per a The Hollywood Reporter report, Stone detailed how a 2001 stroke and brain hemorrhage affected her acting career. “I had a stroke in 2001, I had a 1% chance of survival, I had a nine-day brain bleed,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. And while that prognosis was reason enough for concern, she specifically recalled her struggles to get work after her recovery.
When she first received her diagnosis, the Basic Instinct star kept the health scare private. “When it first happened, I didn’t want to tell anybody because you know if something goes wrong with you, you’re out.”
And as Stone has come to discuss, that might’ve been true for the star. “I was a very big movie star at one point in my life,” Stone said. “Something went wrong with me—I’ve been out for 20 years. I haven’t had jobs.” She recalled that standing up for herself “has caused me a lot of problems in the business” and she says it kept her from booking new roles.
At the gala, she also reflected on instances throughout her career in which she had to be her own advocate. “I broke a lot of glass ceilings on the top of my head,” which Stone said wasn’t easy. “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.”
Despite the ups and downs of her career and life, Stone doesn’t seem to be stepping down from the fight anytime soon. She’ll keep speaking up for herself and for everyone in Hollywood who shares her experience, and we can’t wait to see what’s next for the star.
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