Sharon Stone On Her First $100 Paycheck And Her Fight To Direct

Sharon Stone is a screen icon, with a résumé littered with pieces of the pop culture zeitgeist and acclaimed box-office hits. Among the latter are movies like Basic Instinct, Total Recall and Casino, which made $260.42 million, $259.13 million and $89.49 million domestically, respectively, adjusted for inflation.

As her latest film, All I Wish, gets ready to hit theaters and VOD, she’s fighting hard to make her own directorial debut — it's a fight she's been having for over two decades.

I caught up with Stone to talk about how she’s been literally laughed at for asking for the money to make her own movie yet refuses to give up, the 25th anniversary of Sliver and why she still has the first $100 she ever earned, framed and sitting on her shelf at home.

Simon Thompson: Domestically, your movies have taken over $1.53 billion, adjusted for inflation. Did you realize that?

Sharon Stone: Wow. I did not realize that, no, but that's a big number. I guess that means I make a lot of people happy at the movies.

ST: That's something that you've been consistently doing now for a couple of decades. What do you think is your enduring appeal?

SS: I think it's that I love what I do. When I go to work I love being there, I love the people that I work with, I love the crew, the production designers, the set decorators, I love everyone there and I love the sense of being a team. I love that we work together and we make something out of nothing, we're capturing it on film and bringing this magical thing into people's lives.

ST: Is that how it has always been for you?

SS: I was sick and I was in the hospital for a long time. I remember hallucinating some of the scenes from Cinema Paradiso and I think about that because it was so deeply moving and touching to me. I was also hearing the song Bridge over Troubled Water when I was in and out of consciousness. I think that art and film and music and paintings touch us so deeply that they stay in our subconscious. When we do our jobs well we can touch people even in their darkest time. I think that's a wonderful gift that we have, to give people a break away from days that aren’t always great and things that aren’t always wonderful. Not everybody gets up every day to a perfect day.

ST: Because you have such a deep connection with art, why haven't you directed something yet?

SS: I'm actually in the process of getting a script financed that I want to direct and I'm just getting it all organized. I had a very interesting meeting yesterday with the lawyers where they said to me, 'OK, well, we can see that you want your budget to be somewhere around $4 million to $5 million?' I started laughing and was like, 'Really? So when Mel Gibson went out to direct his first movie you suggested he should ask for $4 million to $5 million for Braveheart?' It's like when you're a woman and you go out to direct a movie, after working for decades in the film business, immediately they suggest you try to make a film for $4 million. I've done 70 movies. Why should I try to make a movie for $4 million? No, I'd like to have a budget to make my movie. I've been in the film business my entire life, thank you very much. I'm not new, I'm not just beginning, and I have made movies with every great director and every great cinematographer ever. When you're a woman and you start going out to make a movie everybody suggests you should make it for no money but when you're a man and you go out and start to make a movie people finance your movies.

ST: Something that resonated with me about your character in All I Wish is that she comes a point in her life where she has to throw off the shackles of expectation and just live life and take a risk. Is that the kind of attitude that you also have towards your career now?

SS: I've always sort of done that. After I did Basic Instinct I asked a studio to give me $8 million to direct a movie and everybody laughed at me. For a woman in the film business, even though my film made so much money, there wasn't even a space to ask the question. 25 years later I'd like to ask the question, 'Now can I get finance to direct a film?' I spend days and days on sets when I'm not working turning up anyway to spend my time with my great directors and to see what they're doing. I have the honor of spending time with the best filmmakers alive, the best cinematographers, the best producers, and the best studios under my belt and it's just that I want that to mean something.

ST: Some actors are 'show and go' but you want to stick around and learn. Are people surprised when you do that?

SS: I don't think they think that's what I'm doing. I think they think I'm just hanging around. I don't think they think that I'm hanging around to learn.

ST: 2018 marks the 25th anniversary of Sliver. It's one of your most successful movies. What are your memories of it?

SS: Well, frankly, most people making that film were nuts. They were trying to repackage me after Basic Instinct and I think they were just attempting to take that movie's energy and squeeze another hit out of it. I think they kind of did it but they could have done a better job.

ST: Do you remember your first professional paycheck? What it was for, how much it was and how you felt when you received it?

SS: I do because I'm a poor kid from Pennsylvania. I framed my first $100 bill and I still have it here on the shelf behind me. It was for a modeling job in New York.

ST: Is that something that still gives you inspiration, reminds you how far you've come and keeps you hungry?

SS: I think that it's a big step for anyone to step away from what's known, from their environment, from their families, from the morays of their culture and chase their dream. I think that takes a lot of guts, it takes a lot of self-preservation and perseverance. For me, I feel like it's okay but there have been many, many times when the tide was out. I had to have the strength to just understand that my business is one where the light goes around you, like a clock, and the light doesn't always shine brightly on you. You have to find things to do and devote yourself to things that you care about in the meantime. You can't function in a business like mine from a place of desperation. You have to have a full life, a rich life, and for me, the rest of it has been a life of service. You must have something that feeds you, that fulfills you and that fills the well of your heart, your soul and your creativity. You have to have something that is your stability.

All I Wish hits theaters and will be available on VOD and Digital HD on March 30, 2018.