Sharon Stone on women over 40: ‘This is a time…when our worth is the most enhanced’

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Sharon Stone has been promoting her new memoir, The Beauty of Living Twice. Vanity Fair got the exclusive rights to publish some excerpts from the book, and Sharon is spilling tea about filming Basic Instinct, how producers tried to convince her to sleep with costars so they would have more chemistry and on and on – you can read VF’s excerpts here. I’ll admit that I’ll probably be interested in reading this memoir, but the excerpts so far haven’t been crazy-scandalous in the sense of “wow, I never knew that!” The stories from Basic Instinct are especially “stale tea,” as are the revelations that male movie producers were and are sexist, harassing d-bags. I did find this sort of interesting though – Sharon told Oprah that she thinks women over 40 are more powerful and enhanced than the younger girls. Sure.

For Sharon Stone, now is the right time to release her upcoming memoir The Beauty of Living Twice. In a PEOPLE exclusive look at this Saturday’s Super Soul interview, Stone tells Oprah Winfrey her memoir is coming after decades of reflection and coming to believe that as women reach the age of 40 “white male society starts to tell women you don’t have worth.”

“I think that as we grow older, we have this societal pressure where people start to try to tell us that our worth is diminished,” the Basic Instinct star, 63, says. But that’s not how Stone sees it.

“I think this is a time in our life when our worth is the most enhanced,” she tells Winfrey. “I believe that’s because it’s the first time in your life when your worth becomes so much more. You become the most powerful than you’ve ever been.”

Also in the interview, Stone will speak to Winfrey about the trauma and abuse she experienced as a child, as well as her near-death experience and her recovery after having a near-fatal stroke.

In an excerpt from her memoir, excerpted by Vanity Fair, Stone recalled multiple instances of being approached by movie producers to have sex with her costars. The actress recalled one producer who brought her into his office, and “explained to me why I should f— my costar so that we could have onscreen chemistry. You guys insisted on this actor when he couldn’t get one whole scene out in the test,” Stone said she remembered thinking at the time. “Now you think if I f— him, he will become a fine actor? Nobody’s that good in bed. I felt they could have just hired a costar with talent, someone who could deliver a scene and remember his lines. It was my job to act and I said no.”

[From People]

First of all, I’m pretty sure that Sharon’s “blind item” of the costar who couldn’t act his way out of a paper bag is probably Billy Baldwin. I saw Sliver. They had zero chemistry. As for Sharon talking about “this is a time in our life when our worth is the most enhanced”…it’s complicated. Like, I understand the point Sharon and many other women are making, which is that it’s sexist and ageist to act like women over the age of 40 don’t exist or aren’t worthwhile or don’t have a lot to contribute. It IS sexist and ageist and stupid. But I guess I just hate ageing and my body hurts a lot and I’m tired, too tired to argue about how it actually kind of sucks to be past 40! But I am wiser now and that’s nice.

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Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

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12 Responses to “Sharon Stone on women over 40: ‘This is a time…when our worth is the most enhanced’”

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  1. BayTampaBay says:

    Billy Baldwin made no sense as the choice for the male lead in that movie .

  2. Bobbie says:

    Other women see your enhanced value, particularly your friends. But I dont think men do. Unless u live in France!

  3. Bibi says:

    I think women get more seen than they used to. The world didnt even have the idea of MILF before american pie – so at least we are not invisible anymore, too bad Milf is a sexual word. But I think that is about to change big time. women are educated, we have jobs, money and we know now how to take care of ourselves. There was a $h*t time in the past where women over 40 were still stay at home moms with no money, looking like grandmas at 35, dressed with elastic waist clothes they had on for 20 years. they did everything around the house, raisng the kids with zero recognition, the invisible hero – while the men compared them to their hot young secretary. The wind is not blowing that way anymore. not for me. when I hear men saying some women dont look too good for their age, I ask them what they got going – I can assure you – the majority of them shut up, sit down and hide their beer bellies.

    • Darla says:

      Bibi I got such joy out of this:

      “when I hear men saying some women dont look too good for their age, I ask them what they got going – I can assure you – the majority of them shut up, sit down and hide their beer bellies.”

    • Meg says:

      That ego from some men, to have the nerve to criticize how women look expecting them to fulfill their fantasies otherwise they have no value they are ‘invisible ‘when they look every bit their age much like Trump does-is it just them exercising their ego

  4. Erin says:

    Ugh, it’s my 40th birthday today and I have very mixed feelings on this sentiment.

    • girl_ninja says:

      Happy Birthday!

      Feel what you feel and go through your own thing. No one can tell us how to feel.

      I hope you enjoy your 40’s and beyond.

    • Scotchy says:

      40’s are an amazing decade at least for me thus far. Welcome welcome and happiest happiest of birthdays. Society just doesn’t know how to handle all of us glorious middle aged beauties so f%^k em. Congrats on making it here:)

  5. Regina Falangie says:

    We grow more powerful as we age and it freaks men out so they try to make us feel bad about getting older. It’s their projection of their (male inferiority) fear and an attempt to keep us down. I know my power, I feel it. So far my 40s have been wonderful!!! Embrace it and own your power. They can only take it away if you let them. ❤️

  6. WithTheAmerican says:

    Men who don’t find the confidence of mature women sexy are to be avoided. IMO.

  7. Emily_C says:

    40s really are so much better. I’d like to have the body I had at 30, but I’ll take the tradeoff of the other good stuff we get in our 40s. I am so much less anxious to please and so much more comfortable with myself now. It’s great.

  8. iconoclast59 says:

    When you reach 40 or so, you stop giving a flying f**k about what other people think. THAT is where the power comes from! But I get what Kaiser says, too — my mind feels so sharp and alive, but my body’s betraying me. I think of Bette Davis’ quip: “Getting old ain’t for sissies.”

    On a completely unrelated note: That suit in the header photo is bonkers, but I love how Sharon’s head is styled. Aviator frames look really good on her!