TMS Muse of the Week: Sharon Stone
(Peter Duke)
Of all the famous blonde women to be touted as ‘the next Marilyn Monroe,’ one that I think got very close to hitting the same relevancy, impact and impression publicly is Sharon Stone. Like, Marilyn, Sharon began her career as a favorite model of fashion photographers and was initially hired for movies as the obligatory beautiful woman, desirable lady or ‘hot chick.’ This was already apparent in her screen debut as a blonde starlet in Woody Allen’s satirical pastiche Stardust Memories (1980); and was even more prominent as another young, sexy ingenue—who may or may not be slightly based on Cybill Shepherd—in Charles Shyer’s divorce dramedy Irreconcilable Differences (1984). But in between those movies, horror fans noticed Sharon in one of Wes Craven’s less popular spooky flicks, Deadly Blessing (1981). The film wasn’t a hit with critics or audiences, but it was the first time Hollywood realized the model-actress had legitimate range with a character or genre. Though Sharon would spend most of the 1980s in mediocre comedies and action flicks, her big break would come soon enough, fortunately.
The thing with Sharon is, while she has a similar look and appeal as Marilyn, her roles and performances are actually closer to Lauren Bacall and/or Rita Hayworth. In fact, Rita and Sharon played the same part in screen adaptations of Vicente Blasco Ibáñez’s 1908 novel Blood and Sand [Rita in Rouben Mamoulian’s 1941 picture and Sharon in Javier Elorrieta’s 1989 movie]. While Kathleen Turner was Hollywood’s femme fatale for modern neo-noirs in the ‘80s, Sharon took over the role in the 1990s. When the first decade of her acting career was wrapping up, she was cast as the dubious love interest in Dutch film director Paul Verhoeven’s third Hollywood effort, Total Recall (1990). The hit followed Robocop (1987) as Verhoeven’s successful blend of over the top action, stark satire and blatant sex appeal, plus co-starred Arnold Schwarzenegger at the prime of his stardom. Sharon, who got her own praise for combining alluring with mischievous as Arnold’s not-so-trustworthy wife in Recall, was very quickly reunited with Verhoeven on what would be her trademark role: Catherine Tramell in Basic Instinct (1992). A successful, provocative novelist accused of murder the same way as one of her characters opposite Michael Douglas’ homicide detective and Jeanne Tripplehorn’s police psychologist, hype continued to build for Sharon and Basic Instinct became her biggest starring film.
(Paramount Pictures)
Though most of the notoriety surrounding Instinct was a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shot of Sharon uncrossing her legs without undergarments on [a scene Sharon and Paul still don’t see eye-to-eye on]; plenty of people found Sharon perfect as a modern day femme fatale who is alluring to both men and women. For those who worried Sharon might be typecast or pushed into this niche—and her resume showed her still peddling schlock like Phillip Noyce’s Sliver (1993), Sam Raimi’s The Quick & the Dead (1995) and Jeremiah Chechik’s unnecessary Diabolique (1996) remake after Basic Instinct—the bombshell proved plenty of her worth as an actor when she earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actress with Martin Scorsese’s crime biopic Casino (1995). Arguably the most interesting of Scorsese’s blondes, Sharon’s Ginger McKenna starts out sultry, beautiful and confident, and by the end is an addicted, neurotic mess. There’s no need to wonder who else could have pulled off this intense character growth, because Sharon did it perfectly herself. On top of this, I personally think Casino, as well as a 1983 B&W photoshoot she posed for photographer Peter Duke, are the best she ever looked.
Sharon continued acting after her hey-day died down, with some interesting projects like Dreamworks’ Antz (1998), Peter Chelsom’s The Mighty (1998), Albert Brooks’ The Muse (1999), Jim Jarmusch’s Broken Flowers (2005) and Steven Soderbergh’s The Laundromat (2019); and recurring parts on TV such as ABC’s “The Practice” (2003), HBO’s “Mosaic” (2018) and HBO’s “The Flight Attendant” (2022). But even then, Sharon seemed to still be cursed with appearing in plenty of crap —including Pitof’s infamously disastrous Catwoman (2004)—and has racked up a total of 10 Razzie nominations and three wins since 1988. Along with an awkward fundraising scandal involving the World Economic Forum in 2005, it’s hard to tell if Sharon will ever reach the same heights she did in the ‘90s again. Yet she has accomplished enough to be placed in entertainment history because of Basic Instinct, Casino and Stardust Memories, and is acknowledged for her efforts in raising awareness and charity work related to AIDS/HIV and poverty. Smart, stunning and talented, Sharon is up there with the icons.