LEADING LIGHT

Sharon Stone holds no regard for the norm. From her pathbreaking roles in cinema to her resolute advocacy for issues close to her heart, she has challenged the status quo for decades. Here, she talks to Sonam K Ahuja about fame, feminism, and finding love online.

SKA: First of all, I want to say I love your work. It’s so inspiring to see the longevity you’ve had in your career. It gives me hope that I’ll be working for many years to come.

SS: Well, we’re here to tell the stories of life. So as long as we’re living, we can tell stories about it.

SKA: Yeah, it’s amazing. As actors we’re working during an incredible era of cinema. It’s powerful, and women are using their voices. We’re speaking about representation, equal pay, sexual harassment, in Hollywood and in India as well. How does this shift make you feel?

SS: We’re finally able to have a voice in many more ways. And I think it’s very important that we think about the things that we want to get done. There’s been so many rules and restrictions put around women—now we need to lift those rules so that we can be seen and be equal. Without all the ideas of how women are supposed to behave and meant to behave.

SKA: I think women often conform to what we think people want from us, and it’s difficult to break out of it, because there’s a lot of judgment and scrutiny. But looking at the work you’ve done—you’ve always broken stereotypes. You were ahead of your time. Can you talk about what drives this in you?

SS: My father was a feminist. His mother had money, and then when the family business fell apart, the money didn’t come back to her. It went to her nephew. And my father and his brother, who were very young then, suffered a lot because of that. My father made a decision that that would never happen to me and to my sister, because he just thought it was absurd that women should be treated in a way that was different than men. And you know, he raised us never to think of ourselves differently.