Sharon Stone: Sweet Charity

Hollywood's best bad girl, Sharon Stone, reveals that she's always been good, "on the inside." Which is why she's made a commitment to raise $76 million for AmFAR. Here Stone lays out her plan to get you (yes, you) involved, clarifies exactly what she won't do for money, and reads us a poem she's written about God's love.

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It's a long way from the silent detonation of 1987's Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold, one of Sharon Stone's less achieved, and badly received, contributions to cinema, to the gigantic hoopla of I992's Basic Instinct, Stone's launch to stardom. It's also a long way from Basic Instinct to 1995's Casino, for which Stone received a Golden Globe Award and an Oscar nomination. But perhaps the longest way of all is the one from that nameless, beautiful face that glowed through the train window at the beginning of Woody Allen's 1980 Stardust Memories, signalling all that was unattainable in man's sexual yearnings, to the willfully radiant, instantly recognizable face that now shares photo ops with Magic Johnson, Carrie Fisher, Dr. Mathilde Krim and anybody else with the clout and will to help the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR).

Sharon Stone was never exactly cut out for the implied passivity of goddessdom. In public, she has always undercut the image of blonde seductress with self-parody. On screen, she has taken roles that brought out the savvy and toughness inside the pinup. And in private, she has dealt with Bismarckian dispatch with those who misjudged her or doubted her no-nonsense approach to fame. So it's hardly surprising that Stone has finally discovered a suitably aggressive way of exploiting her own exploited image. What is surprising is that Stone, who has played the bad girl so frequently in films (and perhaps in real life), turns out to be, in her own mind, a good girl, and it's the good girl who's now getting her way by stepping up as AmFAR's fund-raising, speech-giving Chair of the Campaign for AIDS Research. There are cynical spins you could put on this, sophisticated ones that encompass both sincerity and scale of effort. Don't bother. Stone knows about every one of those spins, and her motivation and method outstrip them all.

I spoke with Stone at the West Hollywood offices of her Chaos Productions, which are serenely laid out with sandstone-colored walls and shutters, comfy pine furniture, big sofas, Santa Fe and African art and high technology. She came in cheerful and low-key in the most glamorous black sundress Grace Kelly never wore, and we sat down to talk not about fame, not about movies, not about Hollywood dish, but about charity.

VIRGINIA CAMPBELL: You've decided to stop talking to the press about your personal life--and, for that matter, your career--for awhile. For the benefit of all our readers who might be tempted to stop reading right now, can you say something that will encourage them to keep on listening to what you have to say here?

SHARON STONE: I gave this interview in the nude.

Q: Since this is Movieline's special issue on Hollywood style, could you explain what an interview on your charity work has to do with the price of beans?

A: Well, now that fur is out, I guess we have to start being nice to each other. Hey, doesn't that leave you guys outta the picture?

Q: Well, no. Although Movieline can be heartless about Hollywood, we're not heartless about AIDS, the homeless, or a select few other matters, is your transition from the star of Basic Instinct to the star of Casino parallel to your transition from the purported tabloid home-wrecker of the Sliver era to AmFAR's Chair or the Campaign for AIDS Research?

A: Purported being the operative word here--oh, anyway, fuck 'em--I guess I was always good... on the inside anyway. Sob.

Q: How did you come to be AmFAR's new spokesperson?

A: Elizabeth Taylor couldn't go to Cannes back in 1995 and so Dr. Maihilde Krim, who is the cochair of AmFAR and one of its founders, asked me to step in for her and host AmFAR's event at the festival. At the party, I spoke about the need to step past our sadness and grief and restore the force of a united commitment. Someone later told me that they had never before seen sharks cry. About five or six months later, Dr. Krim flew to my movie location and asked me to accept this post.

Q: I heard you spoke extemporaneously and started crying. Did you have a prepared speech? And what came over you as you looked out on the audience?

A: That everyone in this room had been touched by the effects of this disease. That we were all worn and weary, and yet that our hearts were strong and well-intended. That after all of the Hollywood bullshit, we were all just people struggling to get through the day. I hadn't been able to prepare a speech. I was overwhelmed to be speaking about this. I just stood there and said whatever came up.

Q: What appeals to you about AmFAR as opposed to 18,000-plus other AIDS organizations?

A: They asked me. And I admire Dr. Krim tremendously. She is ferociously committed to AmFAR. Her integrity is a force of nature. If she wants something from you that she believes will make a difference, she will risk friendships and reputation to get it. Her humanity is far greater than her need to be loved.

Q: I know you lost your close friend and acting coach Roy London to AIDS, among many other friends. What did Roy teach you that you're using here and now?

A: That I am enough.

Q: What's your biggest coup so far in your work for AmFAR?

A: I think I've helped wake people up again. I've reminded them that they have a commitment to ending this disease, and that it is possible.

Q: The American public has been described as "bored, burned out or convinced that [AIDS] is no longer their problem." What strategy do you think will once again make the AIDS cause hip, fashionable, important or whatever, in the public imagination and conscience?

A: My approach is a practical, humane one. I tell them that you cannot pro-create with a condom, and I think future generations is a nice idea. Secondly, I tell them that AIDS is not a legacy to leave our children---we must have the [sense of] responsibility to deal with it now.

Q: Are you going after the heart and pocketbook of average Americans?

A: No. I'm going after their integrity and awareness. Certainly the rest will follow.

Q: Are you going to try to bring red ribbons back or invent a fresh image?

A: I'm going to try to give a more informed image, because the truth is now filled with hope. A difference is being made. People with HIV are being helped through the success of research, and, in more cases than not, HIV-positive mothers can now birth healthy babies.

Q: Would you like to put to rest, once and for all, the gossip that you and Elizabeth Taylor, the driving celebrity force behind AmFAR till you came along, have been at odds?

A: I admire E.T. tremendously. Rock Hudson was also my pal. Her loyalty, dignity, and support to him and subsequently to this cause tells me that she is one helluva woman. I am proud to work with her.

Q: You've vowed to raise $76 million for AmFAR in three years. What was your start date, and how much have you raised?

A: We started last October or November, so in less than a year we've raised nearly a third of our goal, I'm really happy about that and thrilled with the way people have thrown in with me on this.

Q: Reportedly, AmFAR's fundamental research approach, which is inherently expensive, has helped yield results in the area of protease inhibitors. For the benefit of people who can keep box office returns and little else straight, what's a protease inhibitor and why should we be excited?

A: We should be very excited, because these protease inhibitors seem to be having an enormous effect. There hasn't been enough time to tell the long-range story, but as for now this is a wonderful breakthrough, and AmFAR funded some of the initial work that led to this approach. Protease inhibitors tend to reduce the amount of virus in a number of patients. With some patients, the reduction is so dramatic that the virus becomes undetectable. The theory is that if you can reduce the active virus, people will feel better and per-haps live longer. This is what the research community is looking into now.

Q: In a few years when your charity work has been widely successful--if there are still any buildings in Los Angeles not named after David Geffen-- what public structure or institution would you like to see named after you?

A: The Sharon Stone School for Pretentious Behavior, Sexual Provocation, and Overall Disregard for Acceptable Conduct.

Q: Was giving to charity valued and emphasized in your family when you were growing up?

A: Yes, my parents gave most of the love and affection that belonged to me to my siblings or the neighbors. Clearly that is why I continue to cloy for the love and attention of strangers.

Q: Did you ever volunteer as a kid or a teen?

A: Yes. When I was about 14, I was a candy striper in a Catholic hospital. I am not, however, a Catholic and I found the nuns a bit confusing and terse, though quite dramatic.

Q: What was your first involvement in/with charity in Hollywood?

A: My first exercise in charity was the patience I had with casting directors who spoke on the phone while I gave my audition.

Q: How generous is Hollywood in general, considering its mass of wealth?

A: More generous to some than others.

Q: Are stars as generous as studio executives, producers, etc.?

A: Only in the abstract.

Q: Are there people you've encountered whom you consider shockingly ungenerous?

A: Yes. Some people live in fear and believe in scarcity. Some people are afraid to give away anything: love, money, friendship, fidelity, old shoes. They are sure they'll run out.

Q: Are there stars and industry people who give on an astounding level and whom no one realizes are as generous as they are?

A: Yes. And they like it that way.

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