Hollywood is a treacherous place. It take a certain kind of person to make it as an actor. But however hard actors have it, actresses have it that much worse. For an actress to make it in Hollywood, well, they have to be strong. Some might even say they need to be made of stone (Get it? I’m sorry. I couldn’t resist.) Whatever it takes to climb to the top of the A-list, Sharon Stone had it in spades. She had the looks, the talent, the determination and she was more than a little crazy.
For a time, Stone was the among the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood. She had the power to get a project green-lit. She could choose her directors and co-stars. Stone was A-list. But her time atop the A-list ended quickly. As the 90’s ended, Stone’s spotlight faded with it.
What the hell happened?
When Sharon Stone finally took Hollywood by storm, it seemed like she was an overnight sensation. But that was not the case. The truth is that Stone had a long uphill climb to the top. She fought tooth and nail for years to make it in Hollywood. Sharon Stone started off as a model and a beauty pageant contestant. She was a contemporary of Michelle Pfeiffer.
The two models bonded while auditioning for the role of an extra in Woody Allen’s 1980 comedy-drama, Stardust Memories. Stone got the role. But Pfeiffer’s acting career would take off while Stone’s languished.
Stardust Memories is one of Woody Allen’s favorite of his own films. But pretty much anyone who isn’t Woody Allen hates it. Although Allen denies that it was his intent, the movie plays like the director telling off his fans.
The image of a young Stone in glorious black and white blowing kisses from a train is a memorable one. I also liked the bit where the aliens told Woody they liked his earlier, funny movies better.
In 1981, Stone appeared in Wes Craven’s horror movie, Deadly Blessings.
The movie takes place on a farm in a rural community. The locals are extremely religious and distrusting of outsiders. One day, the farmer is killed by a mysterious figure who runs him over with his own tractor. Stone played one of the widow’s friends who helps her deal with the mysterious killings.
In one scene, Stone’s character has a nightmare about having a spider forced into her mouth. The scene was filmed using a real spider. Stone initially refused to do the scene until the spider had been defanged. The crew was reluctant to comply as it would make it difficult for the spider to eat going forward. But eventually, the spider’s teeth were removed and Stone filmed the scene.
Reviews were mostly negative and Academy Award-winner Ernest Borgnine was nominated for a Razzie award for “Worst Supporting Actor”. Wes Craven was still honing his craft, but there are hints of the horror master to come.
In 1982, Stone appeared in a TV movie called Not Just Another Affair and had a guest spot on the TV sit-com Silver Spoons playing, well, a bimbo with a thing for rich guys and trains.
As a working model, Stone also popped up in a ton of commercials throughout the 1980’s. For example, she was a Charlie girl.
Stone plays a business woman who also looks fabulous playing tennis. Sometimes she needs a little Finesse. Sometimes she needs a lot.
In 1983, Stone landed a role on Steven Bochco’s short-lived baseball drama, Bay City Blues – not to be confused with Bochco’s successful cop show, Hill Street Blues. The show included then-unknowns like Stone, Mykelti Williamson and Dennis Franz.
The show was pulled from NBC’s line-up due to poor ratings after airing only 4 of its 8 episodes. In 2011, ESPN acquired the rights to the show and began airing all 8 episodes.
Stone continued her tour of 80’s TV shows with a guest spot opposite Pierce Brosnan on Remington Steele. She showed her range playing a beauty queen.
In 1984, Stone returned to the big screen in the comedy-drama, Irreconcilable Differences.
Drew Barrymore, back when she was still the cute kid from ET, played a cute kid seeking to legally divorce herself from her parents. Her parents were played by Shelley Long and Ryan O’Neal who knows a thing or two about being a lousy parent. Stone played an actress who catches O’Neal’s fancy. Not only does he cast her in his musical remake of Gone With the Wind, but she steals him away from Long and they move into a mansion together.
The movie is very loosely based on director Peter Bogdonovich’s divorce. Bogdonovich fell in love with a 19-year old Cybil Shrepherd while filming The Last Picture Show. The two began an affair which lead to Bogdonovich leaving his wife. He went on to cast Shepherd in the lead in his expensive musical flop, At Long Last Love. That movie was so unpopular that Bogdonovich was counseled not to cast Shepherd in his next picture, The Paper Moon. Ironically, Ryan O’Neal who played the character based on Bogdonovich frequently collaborated with the director and starred in The Paper Moon.
Reviews were mixed to positive. Both Long and Barrymore were nominated for Gold Globes.
Stone spent much of 1984 in TV movies. She starred opposite Tom Skerritt in the thriller, Calendar Girl Murders. Skerritt played a police office investigate a series of murders involving nude calendar models. Stone played a photographer who just might be a femme fatale.
Later that year, Stone appeared opposite Rock Hudson and James Earl Jones in the TV movie, The Vegas Strip War.
Hudson, in the last TV movie before he succumbed to AIDS, starred as a casino manager who is fired by the board of directors. He walks across the street, buys a rival casino and then sets out to get revenge on his former employers. Stone plays a hostess who helps him.
Stone married the movie’s producer, Michael Greenburg. They separated in 1987 and divorced in 1990.
Stone continued visiting every private dick on TV with a guest appearance on Magnum PI.
Of course Magnum got lucky. Chicks loved the stache in the 80’s. Magnum was so pimp.
In 1985, Stone completed her tour of TV shows with the pimpest cop of them all, William Shatner, on TJ Hooker.
Also in 1985, Stone starred opposite Richard Chamberlain in King Solomon’s Mines.
King Solomon’s Mines was loosely adapted from the novel of the same name to capitalize on the success of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Chamberlain was cast as a poor man’s Harrison Ford and Stone played his love interest.
There were rumors that the set had been cursed. So director, J. Lee Thompson, called for a witch-doctor, to lift the curse.
In a bit of a gamble, the producers of King Solomon’s Mines filmed a sequel simultaneously. The double-down didn’t pay off. King Solomon’s Mines flopped.
The following year, saw the release of Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold. The King Solomon’s Mines sequel got all the fanfare you would expect for a sequel to a movie most people had never heard of.
Stone did get some recognition for her role. She was nominated for her first Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress of the Year. Ultimately, she lost to Madonna. But I’m sure it was an honor just to be nominated.
When the Allan Quatermain films flopped in back-to-back years, Stone went back to paying her dues. But at least she was paying her dues on the big screen. In 1987, she appeared in Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol.
I know what you are thinking. Police Academy 4? Really? Is that any better than Silver Spoons or TJ Hooker?
Well, before you get too judgmental, Police Academy 4 was the last film in the series to feature Steve Guttenberg. If it’s good enough for the Gute, we shouldn’t be turning our noses up at it. I’m sure we can all agree that the series didn’t fully come off the rails until Police Academy 5: Even the Gute Said “No”.
Stone says she agreed to appear in Police Academy 4 because she needed a laugh. She was going through her divorce from Greenburg and the Allan Quatermain movies had been a nightmare to make. According to Stone “hanging out with a gang of comedians, it was the best therapy”.
Still struggling to make it in movies, Stone continued shilling products on TV. This time, she was selling wine coolers with a Moonlighting-era Bruce Willis.
She also appeared in a 1987 action movie with a generic title, Cold Steel.
Brad Davis starred as a cop looking to avenge his father. Stone played a mysterious “woman with a hidden agenda”.
In 1988, Stone continued her career trajectory in low-budget action movies. This time, she appeared opposite Carl Weathers and Craig T. Nelson in Action Jackson.
Carl Weathers played a cop who is so macho, he doesn’t carry a gun. Nelson plays a rich bad guy with a grudge. Nelson’s character is so evil he kills his own wife (played by Stone) and dumps her body in Jackson’s pad.
According to Weathers, the movie started with some idle conversation on the Predator set:
I was doing Predator and talking to Joel Silver, who loved blaxploitation movies. Joel said, “Well, you know, why don’t you put something together?” So during that time of shooting down in Puerto Vallarta, I created this story and came up with this guy — or at least this title —Action Jackson. And Joel found a writer who wrote the screenplay, and that was it. We got it made.
That sounds about right.
Reviews were negative because, come on, it’s Action Jackson! The movie opened at #3 that weekend behind the Sidney Poitier-Tom Berenger action movie, Shoot to Kill. Weathers hoped for an Action Jackson franchise, but sadly it wasn’t meant to be.
Stone also appeared in the Steven Seagal film, Above the Law. Bearing in mind that I have never seen a Steven Seagal film that I have liked, I’m tempted to go back and try to catch this one. It is generally regarded as one of the movies that made Seagal a star. And director Andrew Davis went on to direct The Fugitive. Of course, Davis also went on to direct the dreadful Chain Reaction, so maybe The Fugitive was just a lucky break.
Although Above the Law helped to catapult Seagal to stardom (or at least Seagal’s B-grade action hero version of it), it didn’t do a lot for Stone.
In 1988, Stone appeared opposite Miguel Ferrer in the TV movie, Badlands 2005.
Stone played the boss of two US Marshals in the distant future of 2005. One of the marshals is human and the other is a robot because 2005 is the future. After a drought that started in 1995, water has become more precious than gold and the American West is run by outlaw road gangs.
Sound familiar? The movie is directed by an Australian director named George Miller. But NOT the Australian director named George Miller who directed the Road Warrior.
Stone also appeared in the TV movie Tears in the Rain. If that sounds like the title of a cheesy romance novel, that’s because it is. It was one of a series of films produced in the Harlequin Romance Movie Series. Stone played a young woman whose dying mother’s last wish is for her to hand deliver a letter to a lord in England. When the lord refuses to see her, she falls in love with his son. I think we all see where this is going…
From 1988-1989, Stone appeared in the WWII miniseries, War and Remembrance on ABC. The mini-series was a sequel to the highly-successful The Winds of War from 1983. In the original mini-series, Stone’s character was played by a different actress. The sequel was a critical and commercial success.
In 1989, Stone appeared opposite Martin Sheen and Christian Slater in the sci-fi drama, Beyond the Stars.
Slater starred as a teenager who wants to be an astronaut. He befriends an astronaut played by Sheen who may have discovered something during his time on the moon.
The cast also included Olivia d’Abo and F. Murray Abraham.
Stone also starred in the Spanish drama, Blood and Sand or Sangre y arena. She played a woman who falls in love with an up-and-coming bullfighter.
In 1990, Stone finally caught a break. She was cast in a villain role in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s summer sci-fi flick, Total Recall. Stone plays Schwarzenegger’s wife (or does she)?
Director Paul Verhoven originally wanted Stone to show more skin during a scene with Schwarzenegger. Stone refused so Verhoven shot the scene as-is. He claims he got her back on their next film, Basic Instinct.
Stone got to chew a lot of scenery, look great and kick Arnold’s ass. Of course her character was dispatched with a one-liner. But still, Total Recall was easily Stone’s most high profile roll to date.
To capitalize on Total Recall, Stone also posed nude for Playboy. Stone had trained very hard for the movie and wanted to show off her buff bod. Schwarzenegger was impressed with her dedication and took to calling her “the female Terminator” on the set. But the pictorial may have been a bit too much exposure. Stone came across as desperately chasing fame.
While I’m sure some viewers rushed out to grab a copy of the issue with the hot chick from Total Recall nude, I don’t think it really advanced her acting career at all.
Despite the exposure of appearing in a major motion picture and a Playboy pictorial, Stone was still appearing in commercials:
In 1991, Stone appeared opposite Kevin Bacon in the rom com, He Said, She Said.
Bacon and Elizabeth Perkins played rival editorial page contributors who fall for one another despite their differences. The movie’s gimmick is that it tells the same story twice. Once from his point of view and a second time from her point of view. Guess what? They aren’t the same.
The movie had two directors. Ken Kwapis directed the male character’s point of view and Marisa Silver directed the female character’s version of the story. The two directors were engaged at the time and got married shortly after the movie was released.
Next, Stone starred opposite Ronny Cox and Michelle Phillips in the thriller, Scissors.
Stone played a woman who is attacked on an elevator. After the attack, her analyst played by Cox tries to help her work through the incident. Eventually, she finds herself trapped in an apartment.
Stone also appeared in the thriller Where Sleeping Dogs Lie. Dylan McDermott stars as a down-on-his-luck writer who takes a job house-sitting a mansion. He discovers that a murder occurred there. Stone played his literary agent pushing him to write his next book. Tom Sizemore played a stranger with the key to the murder mystery.
Continuing a very busy year in 1991, Stone appeared opposite Andrew McCarthy in John Frankenheimer’s thriller, Year of the Gun. Stone and McCarthy played photographers in Italy in the 70’s. They run afoul of the infamous Red Brigades when Stone takes the wrong picture.
Reviews were mixed. Even Siskel and Ebert were split. Siskel gave the movie a thumbs-down whereas Ebert gave it a thumbs-up.
Rounding out 1991, Stone had a cameo role in the thriller, Diary of a Hitman. Forest Whitaker starred as a hitman on his last job. Sherilyn Fenn played the woman he is hired to kill. And Stone appeared briefly as Fenn’s sister.
The movie is based on a play. Fenn and Stone were both acting students of the film’s director.
That came to an end in 1992 with Basic Instinct.
Pretty much every actress in Hollywood passed on the part to play Catherine Tramell in Paul Verhoven’s sexy thriller. Michael Douglas wanted Kim Basinger, but she said no. Meg Ryan, Michelle Pfeiffer, Kathleen Turner and Geena Davis also declined.
I doubt Stone would have ever been considered for the role save for the fact that Verhoven knew her from Total Recall and the fact that he was desperate. Realizing that no known actress was going to gamble on the part of a lesbian femme fatale, Verhoven had to cast an unkown. And Stone was hungry enough to fit the bill.
Verhoven is an interesting film-maker. It’s easy to view movies like Basic Instinct, Starship Troopers and Showgirls as crap. However, it’s also possible that Verhoven knows they are crap. Viewed as satire, these films are higly entertaining.
Verhoven clashed very publicly with screenwriter Joe Esterhas over Basic Instinct. Both Verhoven and Esterhas are big personalities with big egos. However, where Verhoven tends to push the sex and violence for the purposes of satire, Esterhas is just kind of sleezy. Ironically, it was usually Esterhas who was reigning in Verhoven on Basic Instinct.
Basic Instinct was huge. It was controversial for its depiction of lesbians as ice cold serial killers. But it was also a critical and commercial smash. Stone was nominated for a Golden Globe and became an “overnight” sensation.
The question was, how could Stone possibly follow-up a break-out film like Basic Instinct?
The success of Basic Instinct inspired a lot of copycat movies. The “sexy thriller” genre turned into a glut. 1993’s Sliver had the distinction of starring Sharon Stone and being based on a screenplay by Esterhas. But it also replaced Michael Douglas with a lesser Baldwin (ie. any Baldwin not named Alec – in this case Billy). Tom Berenger co-starred.
Stone and Baldwin reportedly hated each other. According to director, Phillip Noyce the co-stars asked to film their scenes separately whenever possible. Reportedly, Stone once bit Baldwin’s tongue with such force that he couldn’t talk right for days afterwards.
Spoilers: The original ending revealed that Baldwin’s character was the killer. But test audiences hated it. So scenes were refilmed and another character was chosen to be the bad guy.
Without Douglas or the over-the-top direction of Verhoven, Sliver was just another Basic Instinct rip-off. The reviews were terrible and the box office was only so-so. Stone was nominated for her second Golden Raspberry and once again lost to Madonna. This time the Material Girl won for another Basic Instinct rip-off, Body of Evidence.
Stone was one of many celebrities to make a cameo appearance in Arnold Schwarzengger’s big budget action outing, The Last Action Hero. Schwarzenegger and director John McTiernan called in a lot of favors to get their friends on screen. Stone, who co-starred in Total Recall with Schwarzenegger, parodied her image from Basic Instinct.
As it turns out, all those celebrity cameos couldn’t save The Last Action Hero. It became the first major stumble of Schwarzenegger’s career.
In 1994, Stone starred in two films. The first was the drama Intersection which co-starred Richard Gere and Lolita Davidovich.
Intersection was a remake of the French film Les choses de la vie. Gere played an architect whose life flashes before his eyes as he speeds into a collision at an intersection. Stone played his heiress wife and Davidovich played his mistress.
Stone called director Mark Rydell repeatedly begging for a part in the movie. Rydell assumed Stone would want to play the mistress rather than the frigid wife.
Reviews for the remake were universally negative. It opened at #3 at the box office behind Mrs. Doubtfire which was in its 9th week in theaters. It’s total gross was just over $21 million dollars which was less than half the movie’s budget.
Stone ended 1994 by starring opposite Sylvester Stallone in The Specialist.
Stallone played a bomb expert named Ray Quick. Seriously, that’s his name. It seems appropriate that Stallone play an expert on bombs. By this point in his career, he had starred in quite a few. Rhinestone anyone? Zing! Stone played a woman named May Munro who wants to get revenge against the mob for the death of her parents. James Woods, Rod Steiger and Eric Roberts play the bad guys.
Steven Seagal was originally approached to star, but he wanted $9 million dollars and to direct. Stallone was given a 15-minute deadline to agree to be in the movie. Otherwise, he was told, the role would go to Warren Beatty. Reportedly, Stallone demanded that Woods’ screentime be reduced because he was concerned (and rightly so) that Woods would steal the movie. Of course the only way Sly could have prevented that would be to cut Woods out of the movie entirely.
The Specialist was a hit at the box office. But it currently has a 4% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It was nominated for five Golden Raspberries including one each for Stallone and Stone (Stone “won”, Stallone did not). Together, they won Worst Screen Couple in a tie with Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise for Interview With the Vampire.
At this stage of Stallone’s career, hits were few and far between. So credit for the success of the film went largely to Stone and her shower scene.
1995 was a pretty good year for Stone. She started it off with Sam Raimi’s ode to spaghetti westerns, The Quick and the Dead.
Stone played… well, she basically played the Clint Eastwood role. She was a gunfighter looking to avenge her daddy (Gary Sinese) who was killed by Gene Hackman. Fortunately for her, Hackman has set up a tournament for gunfighters. It’s kind of like the Western equivalent of Mortal Kombat. Russel Crowe played a preacher and Leonardo DiCaprio played Hackman’s cocky son.
Stone was given a list of directors to approve. She hand-picked Raimi based on his work on Army of Darkness.
Crowe originally auditioned for a smaller role. But at Stone’s insistence, he landed the male lead. Stone also insisted on casting a young DiCaprio. When the studio balked at casting unkowns in the roles, Stone paid DiCaprio’s salary herself. (Hey Leo, how about paying it forward? Sharon could use a job. Inception 2, maybe?)
The Quick and the Dead bombed. The reviews were mixed. It’s not a good movie. But it’s a fun movie to watch for Raimi’s technique.
In between movies, Stone popped up in a guest spot on the hit sitcom, Roseanne. It was the cool thing to do at the time.
Up to this point, most of Stone’s hits (and a few of her bombs) had one thing in common. Nudity. Stone was looking to be taken seriously as an actress and not just a sex symbol. Her best bid for legitimacy was Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas follow-up, Casino.
In Casino, Stone appeared opposite Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci playing DeNiro’s self-destructive wife. It was a tour de force performace that won Stone an Oscar nomination. But she lost to Susan Sarandon.
Stone had stiff competition for the role of Ginger. Just about every a-list actress in Hollywood at the time was up for the part. Scorsese was close to casting Madonna, but Stone convinced him she was right for the part. Stone’s costumes for the movie were quite elaborate. One dress weighed 45 pounds which irritated an old injury causing Stone a great deal of pain. On the upside, she was allowed to keep her entire wardrobe from the movie.
Casino got good reviews and did well enough at the box office. But it suffered in comparison to Goodfellas.
1996 saw Stone continue to struggle to be taken seriously. First, she starred in the American remake of the French film Diabolique.
Stone and Isabelle Adjani played a wife and mistress who team up to murder a cruel school master played by Chazz Palminteri. Kathy Bates played a retired investigator who pokes her nose into the whole plot.
Stone clashed with director James G. Robinson over a nude scene. Stone refused. She got her way.
Diabolique received terrible reviews and tanked at the box office.
Then she appeared in the death row drama, Last Dance.
Stone played a death row inmate. Rob Morrow played a clemency lawyer trying to save her from execution.
Last Dance bombed, but it got mixed reviews. Most critics singled out Stone’s performance for praise.
The thing that strikes me about Last Dance is that if it had been better, it could have done for Stone what Monster did for Charlize Theron. But Last Dance was nowhere near as good a film as Monster. Instead, Stone was nominated for a Razzie Award for “Worst New Star” (as The new “serious” Sharon Stone)for both of her movies in 1996. She lost to Pamela Anderson for Barb Wire.
In 1998, Stone appeared in three films. The first was Barry Levinson’s sci-fi thriller Sphere.
Sphere was based on the Michael Crichton’s novel of the same name about a team of scientists who discover a mysterious sphere beneath the ocean. Stone co-starred alongside Dustin Hoffman and Samuel L. Jackson.
Just before filming was ready to begin, Warner Brothers got cold feet about the budget. They were worried they might have another Waterworld on their hands. So they slashed $20 million dollars off the budget. The script had to be rewritten to accommodate the budget cuts. The production was put on hold while the script was rewritten. During the break, Hoffman and Levinson made the vastly superior Wag the Dog.
Sphere received mostly negative reviews. Even Hoffman was critical of the film. Despite Warner Brothers’ precautions, Sphere was still a box office bomb. It opened in third place behind Titanic and The Wedding Singer. It ended up grossing less than half of its $80 million dollar production costs in the US.
Stone continued her bid to be taken seriously with a supporting role in the coming-of-age drama, The Mighty.
The Mighty is based on the book Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick. It’s about the friendship between two boys who are outcasts. One boy, played by Kieran Culkin suffers from Morquio syndrome. He is very intelligent but prone to flights of fancy. The older boy is heavy and dyslexic. He has flunked seventh grade twice and is being tormented by a bully. Stone played Culkin’s character’s mother
The Mighty received mostly positive reviews despite being pretty melodramatic. Unfortunately, those reviews didn’t translate into box office. On the upside, it nabbed Stone another Golden Globe nomination.
Stone finished out 1998 with voice-work in the Dreamworks animated feature, Antz.
Woody Allen starred as an Ant named Z who is unsatisfied with the totalitarian structure of ant society. He falls in love with an any princess played by Stone. His friends are voiced by Jennifer Lopez and Sylvester Stallone. The all-star cast of voice actors also included Gene Hackman, Christopher Walken, Anne Bancroft, Dan Aykroyd and Danny Glover.
I don’t usually spend a lot of time talking about animated features because voice work doesn’t usually have much of an impact on an actor’s overall career. But Antz is a special case. It is the second computer-animated feature following Toy Story and the first from Dreamworks. And it was also part of a classic Hollywood throw-down.
Dreamworks was founded by Jeffrey Katezenberg. Katzenberg had been the head of Disney Studios under Michael Eisner. Eisner and Katzenberg ended on bad terms. There was a lawsuit. It was ugly. When Katzenberg left, he was fully aware of Pixar’s plans for A Bug’s Life. So it’s pretty apparent that he rushed his own insect-related cartoon into theaters before A Bug’s Life could be released.
Although Katzenberg vehemently denied the charge, Pixar head John Lasseter and Steve Jobs were unconvinced. Lasseter, who was friendly with Katzenberg following his departure from Disney felt especially betrayed. Lasseter claimed that if Dreamworks had released a computer-animated feature on any other subject, he would have closed Pixar and taken the whole company to see it. Instead, Lasseter claims he has never watched Antz.
In the end, both films received positive reviews and were hits at the box office. Unfortunately, Antz had a budget of over a $100 million dollars (largely due to racing Pixar to the finish line) so it fell short of recouping its costs in the US. But it was profitable thanks to international and ancillary revenues.
In 1999, Stone starred in Sidney Lumet’s remake of John Cassavetes’s 1980 film, Gloria.
Stone played a woman who serves a prison sentence for her boyfriend. When she is released three years later, she decides to dump the chump since he never visited her. He also refuses to give her the money he promised her for taking the fall. Eventually, Gloria comes across an orphaned boy and needs to decide whether or not to take him in.
Director Lumet was asked why he took on the project. Lumet said he liked working all the time. Since he couldn’t find a good script, he would settle for a “fair” one. Gloria was the last movie in which George C Scott appeared to be released in theaters.
Stone was clearly aiming for respectability again with Gloria. But instead, the movie was trashed by critics and bombed at the box office. It opened at an embarrassing 15th place behind Mighty Joe Young which was in the 5th week of its release. It grossed less than $5 million with a budget of $30 million. Oh, and Stone got another Golden Raspberry nomination. This time, she lost to Heather Donahue for The Blair Witch Project.
Later that year, Stone tried her hand at comedy with a supporting role in Albert Brooks’ The Muse.
Brooks wrote, directed and starred in the movie as a screenwriter who has lost his edge. Meanwhile, a friend played by Jeff Bridges is having the best year of his career. Stone played a muse who has been inspiring Bridges creativity. She agrees to do the same for Brooks for a price. Andie MacDowell co-starred as Brooks’ wife.
Stone received another Golden Globe nomination for her comedic turn in The Muse. Helmut Voss, then president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, who awards the Globes, ordered all 82 of its members to return luxury watches sent by Stone as gifts. He was worried the expensive gifts would come across as bribes. Stone lost to Janet McTeer for Tumbleweeds
Reviews were mixed and the movie flopped at the box office. It opened in 10th place in between The Astronaut’s Wife and Dudley Doo-Right. Five movies opened in theaters that week and none of them performed well. Ultimately, The Muse grossed less than it’s $15 million dollar budget.
Stone ended 1999 by starring in the drama Simpatico opposite Jeff Bridges and Nick Nolte.
All three of them play con-men who earn big money on a racing scam. Stone and Bridges get married and settle down in Kentucky where they are preparing to sell their prize race horse. Meanwhile, Nolte has become a drunk – which I imagine wasn’t much of a stretch for him. He decides to launch a blackmail scheme to win Stone back from Bridges.
The movie was trashed by critics. It only played in 256 theaters during its widest release and grossed less than a million dollars.
By 2000, Stone appeared in the HBO movie If These Walls Could Talk 2 opposite Ellen DeGeneres. The first If These Walls Could Talk was an anthology of stories dealing with the issue of abortion.
The follow-up dealt with lesbian issues. Stone and DeGeneres played a gay couple trying to have a baby through artificial insemination. Their segment was directed by DeGeneres’ then-girlfriend, Anne Heche.
Later that year, Stone starred opposite Billy Connolly in the British comedy, Beautiful Joe.
Connolly played a florist who finds out he is dying from a brain cancer. His luck turns around when he wins a jackpot at a race track. Stone played an exotic dancer deep in debt to the mob. She steals his winnings to pay her debts.
Beautiful Joe was only released in theaters in Europe. In the US, it debuted on Cinemax.
Finally, Stone appeared in the offbeat comedy, Picking Up the Pieces.
This is one of those movies where Woody Allen appears as an actor without writing or directing. Woody played a butcher who murders his cheating spouse and cuts her body into pieces. Stone played the wife. He leaves the body pieces all over the New Mexico desert. When a blind woman finds her hand, she regains her sight. People flock from all over to see if the hand can perform other miracles.
The cast included David Schwimmer, Kiefer Sutherland and Cheech Marin. Marin said he only agreed to appear in the movie to meet Woody Allen. Marin has called it one of the worst movies of his career – which is really saying something! When asked why he agreed to be in the movie, Allen said the movie was “a lucrative offer.” Of the finished film he said:
I believe if the movie had been made in Spanish or Italian, it might have had a prayer. In English it was an uphill battle for some very nice and talented people.
From 2001-2002, Stone served as narrator for an HBO cartoon series based on Crockett Johnson’s kid’s book, Harold and the Purple Crayon.
In 2003, Stone appeared opposite Dennis Quaid and Stephen Dorff in Mike Figgis’ god-awful thriller, Cold Creek Manor.
Stone and Quaid played a couple who decide to escape city life by buying a dilapidated old house in the country. Their efforts to turn the place into their dream house are thwarted when the previous owner, played by Dorff, shows up.
Reviews were universally negative. As Peter Travers wrote in his review for Rolling Stone, “It’s sad to see risk-taking director Mike Figgis do a generic thriller for a paycheck and then not even screw with the rules . . . the only things haunting this movie are cliches.”
Cold Creek Manor opened in 5th place at the box office behind Once Upon a Time in Mexico which was in its second week in theaters. It failed to recoup it’s production costs.
Stone also appeared on three episodes of the hit legal drama, The Practice on ABC. Stone won an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress – Drama Series.
I couldn’t find a clip of Stone’s acceptance speech. But here she is later in the evening presenting with fellow Emmy-winner and Practice co-star, William Shatner.
In 2004, Stone appeared as the villain in the Halle Berry Catwoman movie. I don’t really think I need to tell anyone how terrible Catwoman was.
Both Stone and Berry were nominated for Golden Raspberry awards. When Berry won, she actually showed up to accept the award and called the movie a “piece of shit”. Stone might have done the same if she had won, but I doubt it.
After years of “development hell” Basic Instinct 2 (hilariously subtitled “Risk Addiction“) finally got released in 2006. It was at least 10 years too late.
By 2006, Basic Instinct and Stone had become punchlines. Absolutely no one had any interest in a sequel. Replacing Michael Douglas with David Morissey couldn’t have helped. And neither did the toxic reviews. However, Stone did win one last Golden Raspberry for the role.
Basic Instinct 2 bombed and killed any hopes of a third film. Sharon Stone continues to work. But she can be seen primarily on TV where she spent so long paying her dues. Her days as an A-list movie star are definitely behind her.
So what the hell happened? This one is pretty simple really. Stone made her name as a sex symbol and she never really broke free of that. Hollywood is merciless to actresses who dare to grow old. But that’s even more true for an actress whose star power is so closely tied to her sex appeal.
Beyond that, Stone has a reputation as a bit of a nut. She famously lied about being a member of Mensa. She can be counted on to misstate facts and make stupid quotes. And he career choices beyond lucking into Basic Instinct are largely pretty terrible.
Stone just never appealed much to me as an actress.
I never felt like she was particularly terrible. All those razzy nominations could easily have been shared with the screenwriters.
Like many performers, she needed strong, appropriate material to show off what she could do. “Casino” was that, and she did decent work in it. She certainly tried to do what was best for her career and develop it for her mature years, but it just never really happened for her.
This was in large part due to her limited range as an actress.
Sharon Stone probably only works best at playing brittle, aggressive, sexy, and crazy/Cluster-B personality characters like in “Total Recall”, “Basic Instinct”, and “Casino”.
“The Quick & The Dead” is definitely a bit of a guilty pleasure. That has very little to do with Stone’s performance in it, but I have to give her props for helping to get it made.
Yeah, Quick and the Dead could have been a classic. Great cast. Talented director. I love Raimi! But the script was weak. Raimi tried to hide the lack of narrative with his camera tricks. But ultimately, it wasn’t enough. I share your assessment of Stone. But I’ll give her credit for being a very appealing on screen presence. In the right role, she demanded your attention. I actually think if she had tried less hard to be taken seriously and just made more B-grade action movies like The Specialist, she might have lasted longer on the A-list. But she always… Read more »
The CineFiles: The Most Disappointing Films & An Important Message From Your Host:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G-3vjilhOo
“The Quick & the Dead” is the third movie that’s mentioned. More to the point, Sharon Stone’s performance in particular was criticized (mostly for her apparent overacting).
I haven’t watched the clip. But I disagree that Stone overacted. I thought she was good in the movie. It had other flaws, but Stone was fine.
10 Actors Who Were Horribly Mismatched To Their Character Professions: http://whatculture.com/film/10-actors-who-were-horribly-mismatched-to-their-character-professions.php/3 9. Sharon Stone – Gunslinger (The Quick and the Dead) Sam Raimi’s The Quick and the Dead is an obvious B-movie western parody, for sure, but it still might’ve helped if our lead actress hadn’t been so unconvincing in her role as a badass gunslinger. Granted, Stone tries her best with this one, I guess, and maybe it’s hard to accept her as a character of this type because – plainly put – we’re not accustomed to seeing female western heroes, but it mostly always feels like she’s Sharon… Read more »
Interesting to read her history. Though, to be honest, I only ever know of her from Basic Instinct.
I doubt most people could name two Sharon Stone movies. If they did, I bet the second one would be Total Recall.
Basic Instinct is almost the sum total of Stone’s career.
Glad you liked the article. Thanks for reading!
The only 3 movies I’ve seen Stone in are Bobby, Casino and Lovelace. But I was a kid during her Basic Instinct and Silver days so that explains it.
She was actually one of the standouts in Bobby for me. Her scenes with Demi Moore were well played. I think Stone might be a braver actress than some people who remember her only from her sexpot roles might expect. She certainly isn’t afraid to look old or bad in front of the camera.
I agree. She seems to really enjoy doing character work now that her A-list days are behind her. I was really taken aback by her performance in Lovelace. I had no idea it was her until I read the credits.
Oh btw, great site! I really enjoyed reading the articles, especially the WTHH ones. I like that they focus more on the movies and career choices made with the personal stuff added only when they are relevant to the subject’s career trajectory.
Glad you like it. The career is definitely the focus around here. I never follow the tabloid stuff. The only reason I include it at all is that if I don’t, people start pointing it out in the comments section. So it really only comes up when it is absolutely essential to understanding the big picture.
Never thought too much about Stone. Possibly the overexposure she received during her best years turned me off. I remember her in Total Recall and Basic Instinct. I think you nailed this one…she got old.
Sharon Stone had the classic supernova career, burning very brightly for a short period and then fading away. Like everyone else I’d struggle to name two or three of her films outside of Basic Instinct and as you rightly point out, the industry is brutal to ladies once they pass a certain age. You really opened my eyes with some of her back story in this article. I hadn’t realised she’d tried to break into a movie career for so long and I also wasn’t aware of her association with Michelle Pfeiffer in their early days. You can add Sharon’s… Read more »
I chose Stone as a subject for a few reasons. The biggest reason was that the Mel Gibson article took a long time, so I wanted someone whose career could be summarized rather quickly. Stone fits that bill. She had a one movie peak and then a quick fall from grace. Also, I knew she had a reputation for being a little daffy (no offense to Mr. Stardust or Mr. Duck.) So, I thought there might be some good stories to dig up. The nutty stories weren’t as juicy as I hoped. But I was entertained to find out about… Read more »
stone did good with basic instinct and total recall from paul verhoeven. she also did good in the specialist.
what about Alpha Dog?
What about it?
She was in that movie, wearing a fat suit and stuff, acting all dramatic.
Glad I missed it.
You are so RIGHT ON with the things you express. . . I am a big movie appreciator and watch all different kinds of films. I like your taste in films and talent as well. I love Albert Brooks, still one of my all time favorites, is Defending Your Life, and his acting in Broastcast News. I so miss William Hurt from the A-list of actors, great actor. And once again, you have a great writing personality!! I read a lot, you are so quick witted, and insightful, while leaving a touch of class, in describing the challenges that exist… Read more »
I’m glad you subscribed and will be sticking around. I’m not used to people telling me I’m right!
I miss William Hurt too, but at least he still works. I agree with you about Albert Brooks. He’s criminally under-rated! Don’t get me started on how his voice work saved Finding Nemo. Loved Broadcast News. I wish it had a bigger place in movie history. Great film.
whoops, I meant Broadcast News. . 8)
A little sad you left out her role in “Irreconcilable Differences.” Not a great film, but I thought she was quite memorable in it, particularly when she belted out that the Civil War wasn’t going to get her down.
I can’t believe I overlooked that one! I’ll have to update the article. Thanks for the catch!
When are we gonna see What the Hell Happened to Cuba Gooding Jnr? Have you seen The Devil’s Tomb?? And this guy won an Oscar!!
He’s on the list. He went from Oscar winner to punchline really fast, didn’t he?
the specialist was good to see stone and stallone together in that action flick.
I have to admit, I am not a Stallone fan. I rewatched Demolition Man a few weeks ago and I have been meaning to write a bit about the experience. I am amazed that Stallone had as big of a career as he did. I really do not see the appeal. Especially in the 90s when he was coasting on fumes of his earlier success. Stone was still a hot commodity at the time The Specialist was released although her star was fading fast. She was doing less nudity as she was trying to transition into a serious actress. But… Read more »
well stallone is back on top of the box office and i hope expendables 2 will be a hit.
I don’t know if I would say he’s on top of the box office. But Expendables was a very impressive late career come back commercially speaking. I admit, I had written him off some time in the 90s. I never expected to be talking about his career in the present tense in the 21st century. Should give all the other (male?) WTHH candidates hope. If Stallone can stage a resurgence at this point in his career, they can to.
Stallone seemed as if he was about to catch fire again when he did COPLAND, but it was a few more years until ROCKY BALBOA, which really was a pretty good flick. His next, RAMBO, was a great, ass-kicking action picture, then came THE EXPENDABLES.
I agree with you about Rocky Balboa. I was very pleasantly surprised by that one. Bad word of mouth has kept me away from Rambo though. Maybe I will have to track that down.
I think Stallone as he was getting older, also tried to do movies in which he didn’t have to do the heavy lifting like “Driven” (he even brought in his “Cliffhanger” director Renny Harlin) for example. Unfortunately, his actual leading man, Kip Pardue, was for a lack of a better term, pretty much a charisma vacuum.
I remeber Driven very well. Stallone was really hoping that he could transition to an elder statesman kind of thing. Like Sean Connery in his later years. But mentoring Kip Pardue and Estella Warren didn’t pay off.
Whatever Happened to …? – Vol. 2: Kip Pardue:
http://znculturecast.wordpress.com/2013/07/02/whatever-happened-to-vol-2-kip-pardue/
talk about kurt russell he needs hope.
Stone never was much of an actress and she was already 34 when “Basic Instinct” was released.
Beautiful woman, and a talented actress. But she is a textbook example of a one-hit-wonder. I didn’t realize til looking at boxofficemojo how badly all of her star vehicles bombed. Looking back, it’s actually surprising that she got a stream of A-list roles for 7 years after Basic Instinct, with one flop after another. But at this point, who cares? Sharon was very prolific in the 90s, and most of the movies she did were super fun. Sliver, The Specialist, The Quick and The Dead, Last Dance, Diabolique, Sphere, The Mighty, and Gloria (super underrated movie!) are all very entertaining,… Read more »
I have to admit, I haven’t actually seen most of the films you listed. I did recently rewatch Quick and the Dead and it was even more fun than I remembered. But Sphere was a mess. And Sliver was watered down Basic Instinct. If you like stone, you should check out The Muse. It’s one of her better movies.
I prefer Sliver to Basic Instinct. Michael Douglas seemed out of place in BI. He was and looked too old, and this was most apparent in the disco scene.
The Muse is the only movie with Stone from the 90s I haven’t seen (i’ve even seen the 4 direct-to-videos she did in 1991 right before BI, because a Stone fan uploaded them all on YouTube). Unless they’ve been taken down, Diabolique and Gloria are still on there–I reccomend them (for Stone fans; not everyone’s cup of tea).
I haven’t seen either one in years. I have seen BI more recently. And I don’t think it has aged well. These days, it plays better as straight-up comedy, which may have been what Verhoven intended. It’s so hard to tell sometimes with that guy. I saw Sliver in the theater and didn’t think much of it. Haven’t seen it since. Maybe I’ll check it out again next time it comes on cable. The Muse is an Albert Brooks movie. Odds are you either like Brooks or you don’t. If you don’t, you probably won’t like The Muse any better… Read more »
You guys are out to lunch!!! Sharon stones career was completely sold by Casino. I don’t care about basic instinct or any other movie you mentioned in this blog. I’ve watched Casino like 10 times in the last week. I can’t stop and don’t tell me it’s all de Niro and Pesci she sold her role beautifully. This was hands down Stone’s best film performance without question. Please you need to watch the movie again if your review was that it was “ok”
It’s definately her greatest performance. She was remarkable in The Mighty, Gloria, and Bobby as well, but not many went to see those films. She’ll always be best known for Basic Instinct, which is unfortunate because it’s a piece of crap movie. Of course a relentless self-promoter like Stone would prefer to be famous for that rather than not being famous at all.
Casino was a boring, overlong piece of garbage.
I only saw it once. I think you’re being harsh. But I do remember being disappointed. I was hoping for something more like Goodfellas.
That was sort of the problem with CASINO; it was little more than a drawn-out-to-the-point-of-dull remake of GOODFELLAS. Didn’t like it at all. I like that Sharon Stone was finally recognized with an Oscar–in spite of a lot of the wretched movies in which she lands, she has talent to burn–but the movie itself was a big step down from GOODFELLAS.
I keep meaning to rewatch it to see if it fares better on second viewing. Back then, there was no way for me to separate it from Goodfellas which was very fresh in my mind. It falls far short of that standard, but lots of films do.
I have never motivated myself to sit through it again. Which probably says something. I agree that Stone did have a lot of wasted talent.
Sharon Stone in Casino: http://oscarnerd.blogspot.com/2012/03/sharon-stone-in-casino.html Sharon Stone received her only Best Actress nomination to date for playing Ginger, a prostitute who becomes the wife of the mobster Sam ‘Ace’ Rothstein. Although Stone won the Golden Globe for her performance, I don’t think she was such a serious contender as she didn’t receive a nomination from her fellow SAG members. I suppose if Sarandon had already been an Oscar winner, Sharon could have built up enough momentum to win the Oscar – she was a great star turning in a great performance in a Scorsese movie and so on. I suppose… Read more »
“How I wish I lived in a world where Albert Brooks was more popular than Adam Sandler.”
You & me both, pal!
Wouldn’t it be awesome? How has the general piblic not embraced this guy? He’s a genius. Oh, guess I answered my own question…
Thanks for writing this. I just was thinking about Sharon Stone the other day. I knew of Basic Instinct and that movie with the Baldwin (now I remember it is Billy).
Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it!
I think the idea was that if you cast Stone, the movie had better be an R. If I remember correctly, post -BI the movies in which Stone did nudity were hits and the ones in which she did not were usually disappointments. (Casino being an obvious exception). That’s probably a gross over-generalization. But I think that’s kind of how Hollywood and audiences saw her at the time. One of the recurring themes of these articles is actors or actresses strugling to reinvent their images. Stone obviously knew she couldn’t play erotic thrillers forever. She tried early and often to… Read more »