Speaker 1: Hi everyone, I'm Katie Curic and this is next question.
Speaker 1: Sharon Stone is known for portraying a certain type of brash,
Speaker 1: cunning villain, like Katherine Trammel in Basic Instinct? Did You
Speaker 1: Kill Mr? Bosmas Tramel, I'd have to be pretty stupid
Speaker 1: to write a book about killing and then kill somebody
Speaker 1: the way I described in my book Lorie Quaid and
Speaker 1: total recall. Sorry, Quie, your whole life is just a dream.
Speaker 1: Or more recently, Leonora Osgood in the Netflix series Ratchet,
Speaker 1: I can't rest until I know he's dead. In reality, though,
Speaker 1: believe it or not, Sharon Stone is pretty shy and introverted,
Speaker 1: and despite her fame, has led a very private life.
Speaker 1: But now she's in the midst of a very public
Speaker 1: and personal re examination of that life in her memoir
Speaker 1: The Beauty of Living Twice. When it came down to it,
Speaker 1: I just thought I could write twenty different memoirs. But
Speaker 1: what what I really need to figure out here? And
Speaker 1: what I felt I needed to figure out first in
Speaker 1: my twenty memoir possibility was who am I? If I'm
Speaker 1: going to write about my life, the first thing I
Speaker 1: need to know is who am I? And I felt like,
Speaker 1: there was a certain point in my life when I
Speaker 1: felt very kicked, kicked off, kicked down, beaten down, broken,
Speaker 1: and I needed to know how did I get there
Speaker 1: so that I don't do that some more? And what
Speaker 1: is it that that led me to that part of
Speaker 1: my journey? I want to understand, you know, what is
Speaker 1: it that breaks me? What is it that that leads
Speaker 1: me in this direction? And it all it is never
Speaker 1: the thing that really breaks you in the end. That's
Speaker 1: the straw, that's not that's not the load. And so
Speaker 1: I just wanted to go back and see what started
Speaker 1: to build that for me, what made that who I was,
Speaker 1: and what made me vulnerable to ache there? And so
Speaker 1: I went back and looked at my journey. It's remarkable
Speaker 1: actually how heavy a low chair and carried at times
Speaker 1: in her life, from being molested as a child to
Speaker 1: the sexual harassment she endured in Hollywood to the stroke
Speaker 1: that nearly killed her back in two thousand one. I
Speaker 1: actually interviewed her about that experience while I was at NBC.
Speaker 1: We spoke at our home in San Francisco. When it
Speaker 1: hit me, I felt like I had been shot in
Speaker 1: the head. That's the only way I can really describe it.
Speaker 1: It hit me so hard it knocked me over on
Speaker 1: the sofa. In Today's conversation nearly twenty years later, Sharon
Speaker 1: and I dive right in and talk about the process
Speaker 1: of capturing her life on the page. For Sharon, the
Speaker 1: writing of this book actually happened, and the quietude of
Speaker 1: the night, the kids are in bed, and everybody's TV
Speaker 1: is off and all those electric waves aren't so strong,
Speaker 1: and the TV, the phones not ringing, and all that
Speaker 1: stuff is quiet, and I sit down and I just
Speaker 1: kind of wait for it to start happening. And you know,
Speaker 1: sometimes it's great, and sometimes I feel like my guts
Speaker 1: are inside out and I just do what I can do.
Speaker 1: And sometimes I write two pages and sometimes I write
Speaker 1: for hours, you know, And sometimes most of it's good,
Speaker 1: and sometimes some of it's not so great, and I
Speaker 1: get like a couple of paragraphs out of it. But
Speaker 1: I feel like it's that's my way. I mean, some
Speaker 1: people get up and they write from like seven to
Speaker 1: three every day, and I admire that, but you know,
Speaker 1: that's not what happens to me. I don't have that thing.
Speaker 1: I don't have That's not how it works for me.
Speaker 1: I have days where it's like I need to paint today,
Speaker 1: Like you really have to like get out of my hair,
Speaker 1: Like I have to paint today, you know, and I
Speaker 1: wander around with the paintbrush in my teeth. So you
Speaker 1: obviously have this just this huge well of creativity that
Speaker 1: that you have been mining in recent years, you know,
Speaker 1: with your painting, with your writing of short stories, with
Speaker 1: your writing of this memoir. And you know, those are
Speaker 1: all very different pursuits. But when it came to the memoir,
Speaker 1: you would you would probably expect, or readers might express
Speaker 1: expect that the the person behind the memoir reached some
Speaker 1: level of self actualization or self awareness. And I'm curious,
Speaker 1: what did you learn about yourself when you were done
Speaker 1: with this? Did you did you see your own persona
Speaker 1: and your own you know, human being with with more clarity?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean I think really the biggest day
Speaker 1: of change was the day I read the book for
Speaker 1: the audible book. Yeah, yeah, reading sitting here. Interestingly enough,
Speaker 1: the director turned doubt to look like a doppelganger of
Speaker 1: my best friend. And that was kind of, first of all,
Speaker 1: kind of stunning. When she appeared on the zoom and
Speaker 1: I said, wait a second, you have to see this
Speaker 1: picture of my best friend. You're not going to believe it.
Speaker 1: And then I put the picture of my best friend
Speaker 1: in front of me, and I read the book to
Speaker 1: my best friend. And I just sat here alone in
Speaker 1: my room reading this book out loud to my friend.
Speaker 1: And it pulled it all together to me in a
Speaker 1: new way, like the completion of it and the reading
Speaker 1: it out loud in this very quiet space. It put
Speaker 1: it into perspective for me in a new way. And
Speaker 1: it really did change my life. And it really made
Speaker 1: me see everybody around me with a different kind of clarity.
Speaker 1: And what about how how you saw yourself? I think
Speaker 1: it made me really own myself out loud. It gave
Speaker 1: me the confidence to say, this is who I really am,
Speaker 1: and you can't define me as something else anymore. I'm
Speaker 1: not going to allow that to happen anymore. And my
Speaker 1: boundaries and my confidence about myself changed so dramatically that Um,
Speaker 1: I changed my life, super dramatically, Like I've fired a
Speaker 1: lot of people around me. People around me fired me. Um,
Speaker 1: my life changed. Really, it's changing. It's changing as we speak.
Speaker 1: My life is changing a lot. Do you feel like
Speaker 1: you're shedding a skin in a way, I feel like
Speaker 1: I'm a caterpillar that turned into a butterfly almost, you know,
Speaker 1: not like I'm shedding a skin exactly as like I'm
Speaker 1: I'm almost free of a shell that was like crushing
Speaker 1: me that like I couldn't get out, Like I felt
Speaker 1: like I was trapped and I couldn't get out like
Speaker 1: this whole other um oppressive construct of like no, this
Speaker 1: is who you are and who you're gonna be. I
Speaker 1: got it off me. It's like, no, it's not gonna
Speaker 1: keep going on. I'm not doing that. I'm not being that.
Speaker 1: You can't make me be that another step I'm not.
Speaker 1: It's off me. Now, it's off me. It's off me
Speaker 1: out loud, It's just off me, Like and get off me,
Speaker 1: Like no, I'm no. The answer to that is a
Speaker 1: giant no and get off me. And anybody who wants
Speaker 1: to insist on that you're done? Who puts that constrictive
Speaker 1: shell on you? Is it? Is it expectations placed on women?
Speaker 1: Is it? Hollywood? Is it a way that you are
Speaker 1: seeing as a BEAUTI full woman? I mean, what what
Speaker 1: kind of came together to produce that very restrictive really
Speaker 1: typecasting or shell or expectations that you were really kind
Speaker 1: of suffocating under. Um, that's a big question, Katie. You know,
Speaker 1: it's a lot of misogyny. It's people who abusive people
Speaker 1: abuse abuse, it's abuse, it's misogyny, it's intentional, uh, misrepresentative behavior. Um,
Speaker 1: it's let me just say that, if you're a trauma
Speaker 1: survivor and you're hiding anything like I was, people can
Speaker 1: be abusers can smell that like a truffle pig can
Speaker 1: smell a truffle. They just can't And I don't know
Speaker 1: how that works. And if you are are have been
Speaker 1: abused by addicts, addicts can smell that like a truffle
Speaker 1: pig can smell a truffle. So I would say I
Speaker 1: have really made huge efforts not to be codependent. But
Speaker 1: if you have been abused by addicts, then you know,
Speaker 1: get the tow alanon, get the to a program where
Speaker 1: you can get help with that, because um, you're a
Speaker 1: target for that. So UM, I had to get myself
Speaker 1: to some help. I had to get myself to Alanan
Speaker 1: and I had to get some actual help with how
Speaker 1: to detach from abuse, to really get it off me. Um.
Speaker 1: And it's been an amazing Uh. It actually makes my
Speaker 1: head hurt to address this, but let's say that's what
Speaker 1: my head hurt to start with. That's what my head
Speaker 1: how my head began to hurt to begin with. Um,
Speaker 1: it's been a really um, a giant setting down of boundaries.
Speaker 1: Just my boundaries are. I love my boundaries, and my
Speaker 1: boundaries love me. Did you not always have them? I mean,
Speaker 1: is this bard in Heaven? I mean, I think the
Speaker 1: whole world is probably aware of how much I didn't
Speaker 1: have boundaries. I think the whole world has seen really clearly,
Speaker 1: with their own two little eyes, how much I was
Speaker 1: abused for not having boundaries. I think the whole world
Speaker 1: has experienced Sharon Stones abuse and lack of boundaries. I
Speaker 1: think we all are really clear that I have been
Speaker 1: abused for lack of boundaries. I think the whole world
Speaker 1: is really understanding that I have been manipulated by lack
Speaker 1: of boundaries, and understanding that I can actually say, get
Speaker 1: the fuck off me. My answer is no, and no
Speaker 1: actually means and oh back it up. I think that
Speaker 1: the whole world has seen the tire treads across my face,
Speaker 1: and yes, I am learning very well the meaning spelling
Speaker 1: and definition of the word boundaries. When we come back,
Speaker 1: what shocked sharing the most about putting her story out
Speaker 1: in the world. That's right after this. You write so
Speaker 1: much about trauma and was that in and of itself traumatizing? Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it continues to be. I mean, the studio has
Speaker 1: decided to release a director's cut of Basic Instinct with
Speaker 1: no permission, discussion, or financial renumeration for me of of
Speaker 1: a director's cut of Basic Instinct. As the thirty years
Speaker 1: celebration of the film, um talk about boundaries, talk about
Speaker 1: a lack of acknowledgement of the female perspective in two
Speaker 1: whenever they're thinking of doing it, Um talk about no
Speaker 1: understanding of me too and me me Sharon Stone too. Um. Yeah, like, hello,
Speaker 1: the world never stops trying to drive up women's brains
Speaker 1: and park there without a parking mass And did you
Speaker 1: express your disappointment or outrage to the fact that that
Speaker 1: was being done without any consultation. My lawyer has spoken
Speaker 1: to Sag and we're expressing it. But you know, when
Speaker 1: you're a young girl and you get your first film,
Speaker 1: this is not what you anticipate they're going to be doing.
Speaker 1: Thirty years later, when you get your first big break
Speaker 1: in Hollywood. But you know, there's so many people. I mean,
Speaker 1: let's face it, the man who invented the microwave got
Speaker 1: two bucks. This is not a new story. You write
Speaker 1: a lot about your mom, and I'm curious if you
Speaker 1: reached a deeper understanding about her through the process of
Speaker 1: writing this book, because I know that that that she
Speaker 1: reveals the abew she experienced as a young girl to you,
Speaker 1: and and and you know, I think an interesting thing
Speaker 1: about looking back at your life, you can you can
Speaker 1: have a different vantage point of the people around you
Speaker 1: and the people that you love or we're loved by.
Speaker 1: How did this book change your relationship with your mom
Speaker 1: or your understanding of it? I mean, understanding something doesn't
Speaker 1: make it acceptable, and understanding doesn't fix it. Understanding does
Speaker 1: it make my mom okay? Now, understanding does it make her?
Speaker 1: Understanding doesn't go back and change her whole life. And
Speaker 1: understanding isn't going to change what she values or how
Speaker 1: she's coped, or it has tempered some of her behavior.
Speaker 1: It is tempered the things that she puts forth as
Speaker 1: the good foot, But it hasn't it hasn't changed everything
Speaker 1: she thinks about secrets and lies and everything about what
Speaker 1: she finds as a comfort zone. You know, my mother,
Speaker 1: my mother still feels a little bit more comfort in
Speaker 1: in a certain degree of danger and a certain degree
Speaker 1: of discomfort and a certain degree of not having. You know,
Speaker 1: love and hugs and appreciation and cuddles and extra care
Speaker 1: aren't her number one comfort zone. You know. That can
Speaker 1: creep my mother out. That can make my mother run.
Speaker 1: You know, too much love, too much, um acceptance, too much,
Speaker 1: too much transparency is too much for my mom. You know.
Speaker 1: Writing this book and coming fully into transparency is for
Speaker 1: me like like the greatest thing that ever happened. Like
Speaker 1: I'm enjoying it more than I could ever possibly have imagined.
Speaker 1: It's for me, like you know, apple strutle and ice cream.
Speaker 1: It's like, oh my god, I didn't know that people
Speaker 1: were going to be nice to me after I wrote
Speaker 1: this book. That's such a really big thing. But I
Speaker 1: hadn't as a hated What did you think they were
Speaker 1: going to think or be like to you? Well, people
Speaker 1: haven't always been traditionally particularly nice to me. Traditionally people
Speaker 1: have always been rather cool to me, you know, with
Speaker 1: the exception of people that I really know intimately, people
Speaker 1: have always been quite cool and rather you know, observing
Speaker 1: of me as opposed to being warm and embracing of me.
Speaker 1: This is quite new, and it's so wonderful and so
Speaker 1: so absolutely thrilling. Why do you think they weren't nice
Speaker 1: to you? I think people were afraid of me. I
Speaker 1: don't think. I don't think people understood me. And I
Speaker 1: think that in my business people were using that as
Speaker 1: that way to pretend that I was different than I
Speaker 1: am and or is my friends know how I am,
Speaker 1: and you know call me and say, you know, I
Speaker 1: can't believe you did this because you're so shy. How
Speaker 1: are you coping because you're so paralytically shy. I can't
Speaker 1: believe that you actually did this. And Um, for my mom,
Speaker 1: I don't think that she's allowing herself the warmth and
Speaker 1: the love that she could have. She did a little
Speaker 1: at first when we first started discussing all this. While
Speaker 1: I was writing the book. She actually went to my
Speaker 1: kids school for grandparents Day for the first time, and
Speaker 1: when the kids asked her about her childhood, she told
Speaker 1: her childhood that she grew up in someone else's house,
Speaker 1: that she was the housekeeper, that she didn't have her
Speaker 1: own family and the kid. You know that everybody stood
Speaker 1: up and cheered her and said she was such a
Speaker 1: hero and she had never experienced herself in that way,
Speaker 1: and she was so proud and so like open, and
Speaker 1: that she could experience herself as a survivor not as
Speaker 1: a secret victim was enormous for her and it changed
Speaker 1: her a lot. But I don't know that she understands
Speaker 1: fully that she can do that, that she doesn't have
Speaker 1: to be a secret, and that she doesn't have to
Speaker 1: stay in the shadow like a mushroom. You know, she's
Speaker 1: still so scared, and so I understand her, but she's
Speaker 1: still running in her fear. And my family is still
Speaker 1: a lot in their fear and in the kind of
Speaker 1: behavior that fear creates, and um and a lot of
Speaker 1: that fear is very antisocial. We'll take a short break,
Speaker 1: but when we come back, a newly exposed Sharon Stone
Speaker 1: finally feel seen. You talk about people being afraid of you,
Speaker 1: and and I'm wondering if it's because of what you
Speaker 1: write about your aunt and namesake aunt von You say
Speaker 1: there is such a prejudice against real beauty, especially when
Speaker 1: it comes with real intelligence like it did with my aunt.
Speaker 1: Do you think that. I mean, you're a very beautiful woman,
Speaker 1: and and you know, Candice Bergen talked about the burdens
Speaker 1: of that with her down Yeah. I love that she
Speaker 1: like ate a whole pumpkin pie and just ate the
Speaker 1: stood in her kitchen, just ate the insides of a
Speaker 1: punkin pie, the whole thing. Um. But but but I
Speaker 1: do sort of wonder if if you could relate to
Speaker 1: to what it was like to be a young Candice
Speaker 1: Bergen um where people have these expectations and really don't
Speaker 1: see you as a full person, but see you unfortunately,
Speaker 1: I mean as just see your beauty and that is it. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, Canadas and I are friends. And she was
Speaker 1: at my house and I have a screening room in
Speaker 1: the basement and she we were downstairs and we're going
Speaker 1: to put on a movie and first you put on
Speaker 1: the TV on the big screen, and of course it
Speaker 1: came up with an old movie that she was in
Speaker 1: which she was young and she looked so gorgeous. I
Speaker 1: was like, WHOA, look at you, and she was like
Speaker 1: making jokes about herself and yes, I see, you know,
Speaker 1: and in her case it introverted her a lot too.
Speaker 1: It really introverted her too, you know, because she had
Speaker 1: made a lot of fun of herself and became a comedian.
Speaker 1: Because when she first tried to act, everyone really attacked her.
Speaker 1: I remember an interview or a review from and I
Speaker 1: forget her name, the biggest interviewer in New York, who
Speaker 1: wrote that Candice Bergen ran the emotional gamut from A
Speaker 1: to B. Right. I remember that they wrote the most
Speaker 1: horrible stuff about her that they would never say about
Speaker 1: another actress. They would never be that, you know, stringently
Speaker 1: intensively attacking and and and sarcastically attacking of an actress,
Speaker 1: you know. And I remember a review that I got
Speaker 1: that I was like a fine chardonnay. I would have
Speaker 1: the shelf life of a fine chardonnay. And I remember
Speaker 1: writing back to the reviewer and saying, you're not much
Speaker 1: of a wine connoisseur, you know, like, get ready, buddy,
Speaker 1: I'm a fine bordeaux. Buckle up, um, Like you just
Speaker 1: don't you don't get it, like you just you're you're
Speaker 1: really you know, you don't know what's happening. Sorry, um.
Speaker 1: And I don't normally respond to critics, but I remember thinking,
Speaker 1: you're just trying to make a cheap shot about me.
Speaker 1: You're not trying to review what I did. You're just
Speaker 1: trying to be an asshole. Um. Yes, I think that
Speaker 1: people really do like to be They like to think
Speaker 1: that you're the You're the You're the end of their witticism.
Speaker 1: You're they're going to use you as you know, target practice.
Speaker 1: It's yeah, it's awful. It's clear that writing has sort
Speaker 1: of made you feel whole well, and and the reception
Speaker 1: to this book has made you feel seen. What it
Speaker 1: makes me is that I have, for five seconds, the
Speaker 1: control of the narrative about me. Like, no, I don't
Speaker 1: own house in Australia, I don't own a house in
Speaker 1: New Zealand. I don't own one in Middle America. I'm
Speaker 1: not dating Jared Letto, who I've never met. I don't
Speaker 1: you know. It's like all these stories you make up
Speaker 1: about me, It's like, guess what, none of that is
Speaker 1: my story. Like for five minutes, I get to actually
Speaker 1: tell you something that's true about me. And that not
Speaker 1: only that, but I'm just so struck by how emotional
Speaker 1: you got, that that people are seeing the real you
Speaker 1: and they're liking the real you, and they are caring
Speaker 1: about the real you, which you haven't felt in a
Speaker 1: very long time. Well, when people are on the roof
Speaker 1: of your car and ripping the bumper off, and ripping
Speaker 1: the rear view mirror off, and ripping your clothes off
Speaker 1: your body and then making up fake stories about you,
Speaker 1: you don't really feel cared for. You're talking about the paparazzi,
Speaker 1: paparazzi fans. You know, the response to me has been
Speaker 1: quite aggressive. It hasn't been like that we like you
Speaker 1: kind of response. It's been the like we want it,
Speaker 1: like devour you response, or that we have like all
Speaker 1: these really strong opinions about you, but not that we
Speaker 1: see you, or we know you, or we'd like to
Speaker 1: have you over for a grilled cheese. Do you think
Speaker 1: that's because of some of the roles that you've had
Speaker 1: that people p pull blur the characters you've played with
Speaker 1: the person you are. And I have to say I
Speaker 1: can take responsibility for some of that too, because after
Speaker 1: I did Basic Instinct, you know, I talked with Cindy Berger,
Speaker 1: my publicist, about like She's like, well, now you're going
Speaker 1: to have to decide how you're going to be in
Speaker 1: public and I was like, well, I don't know what
Speaker 1: that means. And she's like, well, like when you do interviews,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to decide how you're gonna be. And
Speaker 1: I was like, well, what do you mean And she's like, well,
Speaker 1: you know you're very shy and you know you stay
Speaker 1: home and read books. Like what are you gonna do
Speaker 1: in your interviews now? And I thought, you know? And
Speaker 1: she said, well, you know, you're gonna have to have
Speaker 1: a public image because people are going to try to
Speaker 1: attack you, and they're going to try to find things
Speaker 1: that are wrong with you, and they're going to try
Speaker 1: to make you. They're gonna try to look for things
Speaker 1: that you do wrong so they can rip you up.
Speaker 1: You know, so if you make your public image a
Speaker 1: certain way, they'll be less able to trip you up
Speaker 1: because you'll have said I'm either more or wild than this,
Speaker 1: So it won't matter if you you know, make a
Speaker 1: mistake in public or you know, there were all this
Speaker 1: is when you were thirty two years old. We should
Speaker 1: remind people, right, And so I was like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: so like if I get caught kissing someone, then if
Speaker 1: I'm like this, then it won't be a scandal. And
Speaker 1: so there was all this because you have to remember
Speaker 1: this was a period. This is thirty one years ago,
Speaker 1: so this is a period when women on film were
Speaker 1: supposed to sit with their legs crossed at the ankles.
Speaker 1: When there was a bigger scandal when I did that
Speaker 1: scene that I was lifting my arms over my head
Speaker 1: and you could see my arm pits because you weren't
Speaker 1: supposed to show your naked arm pits. This was unfeminine
Speaker 1: that I was lifting my arms over my head and
Speaker 1: continually showing my naked armpits. You know, this was a
Speaker 1: very big can we do that? Because she keep showing
Speaker 1: her armpits. This is why I was so rattled that
Speaker 1: all of a sudden we'd seen up my skirt because
Speaker 1: we were like, you can't show your armpits. You know,
Speaker 1: little did I think they were going to see up
Speaker 1: my skirt because people were like, we can't see your armpits,
Speaker 1: and I was like, armpits. What's with the armpits? You know?
Speaker 1: Because we were still like you had to keep your
Speaker 1: knees together, you could, you were supposed to cross your
Speaker 1: legs at the ankle. There were a lot of throughout
Speaker 1: my career where we allowed you could cross your legs
Speaker 1: at the knee, but you couldn't put your ankle over
Speaker 1: your knee and cross your legs even in pants. This
Speaker 1: was like women couldn't sit like that in movies. You
Speaker 1: were There were all kinds of things as I was
Speaker 1: coming up as an actress that you could and couldn't
Speaker 1: do as a woman on film. So as things just
Speaker 1: kept being okay because you know, everything had to go
Speaker 1: before a board for ratings, and so when the film
Speaker 1: was coming out, you know, you could only say the
Speaker 1: F word like once in a movie and still get
Speaker 1: an R rating. It's not like now, Like I was
Speaker 1: watching a show two nights ago that had naked men's
Speaker 1: testicles in the sex scenes, and I was so like,
Speaker 1: oh goodness, Like you were seeing everything and I was
Speaker 1: like wow, like you know, like it was such a
Speaker 1: big deal everything As I was growing up in the
Speaker 1: film industry, this is what I was growing through in
Speaker 1: the film industry because everything was super specific what you
Speaker 1: were and were not allowed to do. So we were
Speaker 1: supposed to show our womanhood in very specific ways, like
Speaker 1: it was a certain year when you were allowed to
Speaker 1: not wear panny, those when you were allowed to have
Speaker 1: bare legs, on film. Isn't that crazy? Right? And so
Speaker 1: what happened is this scene got super sensationalized to such
Speaker 1: a degree that it became so much more than it
Speaker 1: ever really was, and it became historically so much more
Speaker 1: than it ever really was that even now people are
Speaker 1: talking about it when it doesn't mean anything anymore. You know,
Speaker 1: in this film, I just saw they had erect penises,
Speaker 1: and I was looking at it, like are they fake penises?
Speaker 1: Are the guys really showing erect penises? And this was
Speaker 1: like on HBO, and I was like, and they're making
Speaker 1: still such a big deal about my one tiny thing
Speaker 1: that nobody cares about it anymore, but just because it's
Speaker 1: attached to me, you know, and people wanted because of
Speaker 1: that moment in time too. Yeah, but like, hello, this
Speaker 1: is thirty thirty plus years ago, and people are still like,
Speaker 1: let's talk about that. It's like, why, why in God's
Speaker 1: name do you want to talk about that? It's like
Speaker 1: engine history and nobody cares anymore. But it's like this
Speaker 1: continual attaching to me because it creates some sort of
Speaker 1: stigmatization of me, And it's like, guess what you're done
Speaker 1: stigmatizing me? This has anything to do with me. This
Speaker 1: is something that you know, you guys turned into a
Speaker 1: giant situation. It's not a giant situation like Knock It Off.
Speaker 1: Do you think it was used to market the movie
Speaker 1: Hello Hello? You had Michael Douglas and you had an
Speaker 1: unknown actress like market it on your star. When you
Speaker 1: you tell me that you think there are a few
Speaker 1: more books than you want about your dad Dash, it
Speaker 1: seems like you have a lot to say, Sharon, about
Speaker 1: a lot of things. So when you start looking at
Speaker 1: the next several years, are you a planner? Are you
Speaker 1: just sort of letting the universe speak to you and
Speaker 1: use you as a vessel for what you're going to
Speaker 1: do next? You know? Or do you miss acting? Do
Speaker 1: you want to do? Uh? You know what? What do
Speaker 1: you want to do? Well? I have to say some
Speaker 1: of the most wonderful women in this business have offered
Speaker 1: me employment and I'm going to be doing some great
Speaker 1: work in acting with some amazing women in this business,
Speaker 1: and so I won't be missing acting. Well, can you
Speaker 1: tell us anything about it? Or if you tell me,
Speaker 1: we have to kill me. Well, you know everything about everybody,
Speaker 1: so you'll probably know soon anyway. But I don't think
Speaker 1: I should announce it yet. That's exciting. I'm going to
Speaker 1: let my employers announce it. Um. But I can say
Speaker 1: that great women are employing me, and I'm really really
Speaker 1: honored by that. Um, I'm so honored by that. I am.
Speaker 1: I can say that cool, great, marvelous, smart, funny, uh,
Speaker 1: amazing women are employing me, and and a bunch of
Speaker 1: them uh. And some men to some men to have
Speaker 1: come through with me, men that I've worked with before,
Speaker 1: and some new men are calling me. And I can
Speaker 1: just say that it's it's turned it's turned itself around.
Speaker 1: It's really turned itself around in a really beautiful way.
Speaker 1: And it's also kind of made the title of your
Speaker 1: book truly resonate the beauty of living twice. I think
Speaker 1: you've probably lived more than twice. Don't you think you're
Speaker 1: you've lived more lifetimes than even that. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm a Buddhist and that's our thing, so of course. UM.
Speaker 1: But what I think now is that I live a
Speaker 1: little bit more with an overview of lives lived and
Speaker 1: intention of living, um, which is that I feel like,
Speaker 1: no matter what I do, my living is more purposeful.
Speaker 1: I see that in you if I may say that,
Speaker 1: I mean, you have many lives within a life, and
Speaker 1: your work with discussing lives with people is so profound,
Speaker 1: and the way that you work and the depth with
Speaker 1: which you work and the goodness with which you've always
Speaker 1: worked is so profound. And I imagine that you feel
Speaker 1: like you live many lives because you live so many
Speaker 1: lives within this life you're living. And your lives that
Speaker 1: you're living right now are so good, and they're so focused,
Speaker 1: and they're so it's so purposeful what you're doing right now. Well,
Speaker 1: that's softly nice, thank you. I imagine you must so
Speaker 1: that you've lived many lives, well, many chapters, right like
Speaker 1: every chapter is different and and not all wonderful as
Speaker 1: we know, but important and meaningful and um and and useful.
Speaker 1: Right well, I think at the end, I mean, one
Speaker 1: time I I was working with His Holiness the Dalai
Speaker 1: Lama and we were at we did universities. We were
Speaker 1: I was his like opening act at universities. And that
Speaker 1: was what m I talked about, was that we write
Speaker 1: the book of our life and we carry it with us.
Speaker 1: And certainly not every chapter is an easy read or
Speaker 1: a winner. Sometimes we just feel like those chapters are
Speaker 1: so devastating, but that's what makes a good book. That's
Speaker 1: what makes a book a good read, and that's what
Speaker 1: makes our life a good read because we can turn
Speaker 1: the page when those pages or those chapters are so difficult.
Speaker 1: But we're still going to carry that with us. So
Speaker 1: it's right on, you know, let's keep writing on and
Speaker 1: let's see how our book turns out, and if we're
Speaker 1: proud of the book that we wrote. As life goes
Speaker 1: on and as as you said, we've known each other
Speaker 1: a really long time, and I've watched you write your book,
Speaker 1: and I've seen some of the tougher chapters, and you've
Speaker 1: written them so beautifully, Katie, And you've used some of
Speaker 1: the really harder chapters two make the world a better place,
Speaker 1: make your world a more profound place and a more
Speaker 1: loving place. And somehow you've managed to bring more love
Speaker 1: into your life. And I want to learn from your
Speaker 1: book how to do that to my life so that
Speaker 1: my next book has more love in it too, Um,
Speaker 1: Because you're such an example. Um, You're such a brave example.
Speaker 1: You know, your your book has so much courage in it, Um,
Speaker 1: And you know, for someone who everybody thought was just perky.
Speaker 1: You know, you have so much guts and so much
Speaker 1: decency and such a drive to keep moving your life
Speaker 1: forward positively, and yet to continue to investigate so many
Speaker 1: difficult things. It's it's just astounding to me. And I
Speaker 1: think that's what we need to do. We need to
Speaker 1: investigate and choose to live positively. And that's the hardest
Speaker 1: thing to do. Um, And that's what I want to
Speaker 1: try to do now that I've looked at the hard parts.
Speaker 1: I want to figure out how to do what you do.
Speaker 1: Investigate positively, find the love, find the the good. You know.
Speaker 1: But I think you do that that Sharon, I do,
Speaker 1: and I think, um, you know your book. Your book
Speaker 1: does that as well. And I think it's just so
Speaker 1: exciting that you know, both of us, we're not letting
Speaker 1: society define who we are or what we are, what
Speaker 1: we can do. And I think I see more and
Speaker 1: more women refusing to accept that, you know, when I
Speaker 1: see women like Reese Witherspoon saying I want to control
Speaker 1: my material, or Carrie Washington and people like that, and
Speaker 1: you and you know saying we have a voice in
Speaker 1: this and we're not just kind of these people waiting
Speaker 1: you know, we we are not waiting for other people
Speaker 1: to bestow upon us opportunities. We're going to create our
Speaker 1: own and um and and that's why I'm so excited
Speaker 1: to see what's next for you, and so excited that
Speaker 1: you've found this way to channel all this incredible um
Speaker 1: depth and creativity and and and that you are writing
Speaker 1: your own book. I just think it's awesome and thank
Speaker 1: you for doing this, because I love talking to you
Speaker 1: and I'm so glad that we've we've connected again. The
Speaker 1: good part of social media, honestly, right, I get so
Speaker 1: many cool things from share and everyone. She'll be like,
Speaker 1: this is so cool, keep sending me d M s
Speaker 1: and UM and I'm just so happy. Congratulations on the
Speaker 1: success of your book and and as I said, on
Speaker 1: telling your own story. Thanks very much. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: A big thank you to Sharon Stone my Instagram d
Speaker 1: M buddy, whose book is called The Beauty of Living Twice.
Speaker 1: And that does it for our summer book series, ran
Speaker 1: There might be a few bonus surprises though for you
Speaker 1: still to come, but otherwise we're going to take a
Speaker 1: little break to enjoy what's left of the summer. Can
Speaker 1: you believe by the way, how fast it's gone by,
Speaker 1: and prepare for a pretty big fall. My own book,
Speaker 1: which is called Going There because I Really Go There,
Speaker 1: is coming out October, and as you might have heard,
Speaker 1: I'll be going on tour, so come on join me everybody.
Speaker 1: To find out when and where I'm heetted, and to
Speaker 1: grab your tickets, go to ticketmaster dot com slash Going There.
Speaker 1: But if you can't see me in person, you can
Speaker 1: still find me here on the podcast. Starting septem Next Question,
Speaker 1: We'll have a whole new slate of episodes featuring juicy
Speaker 1: interviews with some pretty important people, and even some exclusive
Speaker 1: podcast only stuff around my book who We're gonna get
Speaker 1: pretty personal. Gulp. That's all coming this fall on Next
Speaker 1: Question with Me Katie Couric. Find it and subscribe on
Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you
Speaker 1: get your favorite shows. So later, enjoy the rest of
Speaker 1: your summer, everyone, Next Question with Katie Kurik is a
Speaker 1: production of I Heart Media and Katie Curic Media. The
Speaker 1: executive producers are Me, Katie Couric, and Courtney Litz. The
Speaker 1: supervising producer is Lauren Hansen. Associate producers Derek Clements, Adrianna
Speaker 1: Fasio and Emily Pinto. The show is edited and mixed
Speaker 1: by Derrek Clements. For more information about today's episode, or
Speaker 1: to sign up for my morning newsletter, Wake Up Paul,
Speaker 1: go to Katie correct dot com. You can also find
Speaker 1: me at Katie Curic on Instagram and all my social
Speaker 1: media channels. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit
Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.