In an interview for her upcoming memoir, The Beauty of Living Twice, Sharon Stone made some comments concerning Meryl Streep.
What We Know:
- Johanna Schneller, an interviewer for Zoomer magazine, cited a passage in Stone’s memoir in which she discusses how Hollywood forces women to compete for jobs. She then asked Stone what it was like to “finally” work with Meryl Streep on Steven Soderbergh’s 2019 film The Laundromat.
- Before Schneller could finish her thought, Stone immediately latched onto the phrasing of the question, “You didn’t say, ‘Meryl finally got to work with Sharon Stone.’ Or we finally got to work together.” She emphasized, “Because that’s the way her life went, she got built up to be, ‘Everyone wants to work with Meryl.’ I wonder if she likes that.”
- Stone explained that the phrasing of Schneller’s question provided the answer. She argued that because Hollywood had set the precedent that everyone should admire or envy Streep, everyone was pushed to compete against her. This iconography, Stone said, is what is done to certain women.
- “I think Meryl is an amazingly wonderful woman and actress,” Stone continued, “But in my opinion, quite frankly, there are other actresses equally as talented as Meryl Streep.” She went on to list actresses such as Viola Davis, Emma Thompson, and Kate Winslet. Stone said she was much more suited to be a villain in comparison to Streep when referencing her own roles in Basic Instinct and Casino.
- When her comments circulated on Twitter, many agreed with her standpoint, however controversial. Viola Davis, in a 2018 panel, even explained how she had a comparable career to Streep and other white actresses but hardly experienced the level of success, “People say, ‘You’re a Black Meryl Streep. You are. And we love you. We love you. There is no one like you.’ OK, well if there’s no one like me, you think I’m that? You pay me what I’m worth. You give me what I’m worth.”
I agree with Sharon Stone and more importantly I think Meryl Streep would as well.
— shane (@shanecenters) June 22, 2021
In response to reactions to her statement, Stone tweeted on Wednesday, “To be clear; Meryl Streep is one of the greatest actors of all times. Just not to the exclusion of others.”
