BBC 100 Women: Sharon Stone’s emotional message to her younger self

When I ask Sharon Stone what she would tell her younger self about resilience, her response surprises us both.

We’ve talked through politics, painting, and Hollywood, but she suddenly puts her hands over her eyes, pauses, and then starts to cry.

“You’re going to make it,” the 66-year-old Hollywood actress says will be the message.

The actor, philanthropist, writer, producer – and, most recently, painter – recounts the moments when a brain hemorrhage nearly ended his life 23 years ago.

“You don’t know it, but you’re going to make it,” he repeated. “I’m going to get it tattooed on the inside of my eyelids.

“I wanted to know him many times,” she says.

“When I was on the floor and I couldn’t get an ambulance,” she continues. “When I went home. [from hospital] And I read in People magazine that we won’t know for 30 days if I’m going to live or die.

An artery had ruptured, causing bleeding on the brain and a stroke. She says she was given a 1% chance of survival and had to relearn basics like walking and talking.

She lists the challenges she’s faced since, including financial woes and a custody battle with ex-husband Phil Bronstein over their adopted son Rowan.

Until my question, Stone explained, she hadn’t fully recognized what she had been through. “It’s been so long and it’s okay… it’s over… everyone made it to the beach,” she says.

Resilience is this year’s theme. BBC World Service 100 Women seasonand she lights up when I tell her she’s on our list of inspiring and influential women.

Stone was catapulted to superstardom with her performance in the 1992 erotic thriller Basic Instinct. He saw it as a sex symbol, and has spoken about being typecast as a result.

But he used his fame to raise large sums of money for philanthropic causes, including HIV and AIDS research.

“I’m really proud that I took the idea that was created in that movie – that I was really sexy – and used it to fight a disease where people were being punished for their sexuality, because I He was getting punished for himself.” she says

Stone’s work on HIV and AIDS earned her the 2013 Nobel Peace Summit Award – an award given by the Nobel Peace Prize laureates that recognizes cultural and entertainment figures who have contributed to social justice and peace. He has played his role.

Last year, he was awarded Global Citizen of the Year by the United Nations Correspondents Association.

After Basic Instinct, Stone won a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in Martin Scorsese’s 1995 film Casino.

I’m interviewing him in Turin, Italy, after the city’s film museum honored him with the Stella della Mole award for lifetime achievement in film.

Along with her charity work, Stone has also been outspoken on politics, including her opposition to US President-elect Donald Trump. She posted a photo of herself in a “Mrs. President” top on Election Day in support of Kamala Harris.

“I see the world a little differently than a lot of people in my country. That doesn’t mean I’m not patriotic,” she says.

But she says she will “respect the position of the president… because that’s what democracy does”.

However, he has now embarked on a new chapter as a successful artist, exhibiting and selling his art around the world.

His renewed focus on painting began during the pandemic. She works in a studio next to her home in Los Angeles.

His artworks are bold and expressive, and – in his own words – “huge”. This, she explains, is partly because she was inspired by an aunt who painted murals on the walls of her house – and partly because she’s good at painting small. Can’t see.

She says she never imagines what the final creation will look like when she paints. “I’m just so deeply into it,” she says. “It’s so immersive. It’s just wonderful.”

We also talk about online dating – because yes, Hollywood icon and superstar Sharon Stone has been using dating apps, as have many others trying to find love. He was even temporarily blocked from Bumble after other users thought his profile was fake.

But websites “don’t give you what dating is all about, which is chemistry”, she says. “You have to smell it for yourself like a truffle pig,” she laughs, adding that “you can’t smell the pages”.

Stone says the brain hemorrhage left her “a very different person,” even changing the foods she enjoyed and was allergic to.

The film industry has also changed. In the past, Stone says, “women were playing men’s fantasy” — which, she notes, was writing, directing, producing, editing and distributing films.

She says that she was not convinced by the actions of some of the characters she played. But now, she says: “I think we’re getting to a place where women are just playing out how a woman would act in that situation.”

I ask Stone what resilience means to him.

“We can choose to bitch and moan or we can choose happiness — I think you just have to keep choosing happiness,” she says. “Be present. You fell. Get up. Someone pushed you down. Now they want to help you. Let them.”

As the interview ends, the team retouches her makeup. She drinks some water. And then she stands up, hugs me and thanks me for my question about her younger self, which she says was “really touching.” Then she hugged me again and left.

BBC 100 Women Named 100 inspiring and influential women from around the world every year. Follow BBC 100 Women. Instagram And Facebook. Join the conversation using #BBC100Women.