Sharon Stone has disclosed the identity of the film producer who she claims demanded she sleep with her co-star in the 1993 film Sliver to improve his acting performance.
The actor alleged that Robert Evans, the Hollywood mogul who headed production at Paramount and died in 2019, told her to have sex with William Baldwin.
The Hollywood star had initially revealed the meeting in her 2021 memoir but without disclosing the identities of those involved.
Stone told the Louis Theroux podcast that Evans claimed she was responsible for addressing Baldwin’s poor acting in the film about a woman discovering tenants’ secrets after moving to an exclusive New York City apartment building.
She said: “[Evans is] running around his office in sunglasses explaining that he slept with Ava Gardner and I should sleep with Billy Baldwin, because [then] his performance would get better.
“If I could sleep with Billy, then we’d have chemistry on screen and save the movie. The real problem was me because I was so uptight, and not like a real actress who could just fuck him and get things back on track.
“The real problem was I was such a tight-ass.”
Stone rose to fame in the 1980s and 90s, appearing in hit films such as Total Recall, The Mighty, Casino, The Last Action Hero and Basic Instinct, where she starred opposite Michael Douglas.
The actor believes the studio bosses were to blame for their poor casting decisions. “I didn’t have to fuck Michael Douglas. Michael could come to work and know how to hit those marks, and do that line, and rehearse and show up.
“Now all of a sudden I’m in the ‘I have to fuck people’ business.”
Stone also suggested in the interview that she was labelled as difficult and was never offered a prominent part after Martin Scorsese’s 1995 gangster film Casino, where she was nominated for an Oscar.
She was told by the director Francis Ford Coppola that she would lose out on an Oscar for her performance as Ginger McKenna, with Susan Sarandon triumphing for her role in Dead Man Walking.
The actor said Coppola told her: “It’s because this room can’t hear opera. They don’t let us win because they don’t want us to take over the system.”
Stone attended the ceremony despite Coppola’s warning she would leave empty-handed.
“You have to pretend it’s fantastic, and it’s not fantastic,” she added. “And then I didn’t get any good parts ever again for the rest of my entire life.”
Stone went on to feature in Catwoman, Lovelace and Basic Instinct 2. In 1999 she was nominated for a Golden Raspberry award for the remake of the John Cassavetes thriller Gloria.
She said: “Did anybody notice me in Lovelace? That was a performance you could sharpen your knives on. Did anybody notice that? Nope.
“Do you see any acknowledgment for any of this stuff? Nope. I’m the invisible actress.”
Stone believes Hollywood did not want her to succeed. “It’s easier to say ‘she’s cold’ or ‘I don’t like her’, or ‘she’s difficult’ or ‘she must be sick’, or ‘she’s too old’ or ‘she’s hard to cast’, or ‘we don’t know what to do with her’,” she said.
“‘What if she comes in and gives another performance and she gets nominated instead of Robert De Niro? That’s not what we want to have happen.’”
Stone moved into television roles and appeared in drama series including Mosaic and Agent X, where she was also executive producer.
In 2015, she criticised the gender pay gap in the industry and across all professions. The actor said at the time: “After Basic Instinct, no one wanted to pay me.
“I remember sitting in my kitchen with my manager and just crying and saying: ‘I’m not going to work until I get paid’. I still got paid so much less than any men.”