Sharon Stone admits her most lucrative gig isn’t acting after losing $18M post-health scare
Despite her status as a Hollywood icon, Sharon Stone says modeling still brings in more money than her film roles.
“I’m still modeling, and I still make more money today modeling than in film,” the 67-year-old told Business Insider in a recent interview. “It’s still a huge part of my reality.”
She added, “I’m still one of the oldest women consistently modeling today. I’m very, very grateful I still get to do it.”
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Stone began her career as a successful model before branching out into acting. She’s appeared in a number of memorable films, including “Basic Instinct” and Casino,” but she told The Hollywood Reporter last year that after she suffered a stroke in 2001, she was taken advantage of financially.
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“I had $18 million saved because of all my success, but when I got back into my bank account, it was all gone,” she revealed. “My refrigerator, my phone — everything was in other people’s names.”
At that point, she said, “I had zero money.”
Stone explained that she got through that time by deciding “not to hang onto being sick or to any bitterness or anger. If you bite into the seed of bitterness, it never leaves you. But if you hold faith, even if that faith is the size of a mustard seed, you will survive. So, I live for joy now. I live for purpose.”
Stone was a relative unknown when she hit superstardom with “Basic Instinct” in 1992, and she’s said that she made relatively little from the film.
“I put in my contract that I could keep the clothes,” she told InStyle in 2022. “People thought I was crazy, but the truth is I wasn’t getting paid much compared to my male co-star. I made $500,000; Michael (Douglas) made $14 million. So keeping my costumes was a really smart thing to do.”
Stone has also complained that it’s “very expensive to be famous.”
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“You go out to dinner, and there’s 15 people at the table, and who gets the check? You get the $3,000 dinner check every single time,” she told InStyle at the time.
Even after “Basic Instinct” premiered in 1992, Stone was living on a public-access street and didn’t have any security. She said in 1994, following the infamous O.J. Simpson chase, she was visited by officers who told her she could be in danger. Police were unsure of the situation and were taking extra precautions.
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They ultimately encouraged Stone to find a safer community. “[The police] were like, ‘Find a secure house behind a gate.’” The home she bought, additional security she hired and the management team she employed all amounted to a hefty sum.
Stone also told InStyle that eventually, she’d likely have to downsize.
“Will I make enough money to stay living where I’m living? Probably not. But the kids will leave home and go to college, and I’ll sell my big, fancy house, and I’ll go live like a normal person. I will continue to make a life.”
