Sharon Stone: The Unbelievable Brightness of Being
Q: So who gave you a black eye in January of last year?
A: [Laughs] Roan was learning to walk. I was laying on the floor, and he fell over me and landed on my head.
Q: I read that you saved someone's life by performing a reiki healing technique on him. The person--Greg Henson--said you did it in the store where you met. Have you become a healer during your hiatus from Hollywood?
A: I was freaked out that he put it in the paper. I don't know if I saved his life or he just got better. He had cancer in his face. I won't disrespect his privacy by discussing the intimacies of the situation with you. But I will say that I did healing work with him. He believes that this is the reason that his cancer went away. I am incredibly grateful that his cancer is in remission. I'm a person who doesn't just believe in miracles, I count on them as a way of life.
Q: Do you lay your hands on many people?
A: When it comes up. I'm learning a lot about healing. I'm more of an intern than a doctor.
Q: Okay, so what's with your having a drink until 2 a.m. at the Four Seasons Hotel with Adrien Brody?
A: Good question, because my friends from Montreal were in town staying at the Four Seasons, so I swung by at 7:30 to pick them up and Adrien was having a drink with John Madden. I know Adrien and his folks, so I went over to say hello. We talked for three minutes, then I returned to my friends, and we went out to eat. I was in bed by 11.
Q: Do you pay attention to the gossip of Hollywood?
A: I'm a TV Guide subscriber, yeah.
Q: What do you think of Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher?
A: Maybe I've been out of it a long time and I'm just an older citizen, but I suspect it was just for fun to open the movie, and it was just a joke.
Q: You received a lot of press from remarks you made in our last interview about Gwyneth Paltrow: "She's very young and lives in rarefied air that's a little thin. It's like she's not quite getting enough oxygen." Any contact with Paltrow after that?
A: Since then she and I have had a delightful occasion to get together and have a wonderful conversation and work out these differences that occurred by the very fact of our not meeting. She's gone through a lot of things in her life and has become an elegant young lady.
Q: What did you think of Michael Moore's acceptance speech at the Oscars?
A: What he said was very interesting. If he had said it in a quieter tone of voice, he probably could have gotten all the way through his speech.
Q: Is there any actor's work you've seen in the last few years that you admired?
A: I'm a gigantic Javier Bardem fan. He is The Man. The way I was obsessed about Russell Crowe and Leo DiCaprio, I am obsessed about Bardem. He is the talent for which there is no comparison.
Q: What films have you liked lately?
A: The Matrix is it. It's big and deep and brilliant and spiritual. It leaves a subliminal message on the mind of the unknowing. I just love it. I also think that Keanu Reeves has the most exquisite face and proportion of body. It's blissful to watch him as this character, he's The Guy.
Q: Is he God?
A: I think God is love. And God exists in all of us.
Q: Martin Scorsese said that you reminded him of Susan Hayward, Joan Crawford and Grace Kelly. Do you see the connection?
A: I think it's innately who I am. It's part of my beingness. I was going to be a star if I lived under a hay pile in Idaho. It was part of my destiny. I don't feel a sense of entitlement because of it, or a sense of shame. It just is.
Q: By the time this interview appears, will we have seen you on "The Practice"?
A: Yes, in episode 2 in September. I'm playing a lawyer who believes that God talks to her. Her firm lets her go, and she hires the firm in "The Practice" to represent her.
Q: What books are you reading?
A: I read constantly. I just read a detective thing I liked and am trying to option. And I just finished Alice Munro's story collection, Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage. I also liked Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, which was enchanting. It's about a boy in a Chinese work camp who reads Balzac, and his world changes.
Q: Have you ever read Lao Tzu?
A: His teachings have been in my main study for many years. The Tao Te Ching, I've carried with me for 12 years. I have it in my bag; I read it constantly.
Q: What was it like to throw out the first pitch at an Oakland A's baseball game?
A: I made it to the plate! Ninety feet! I called them and asked to take pitching practice, and I did. It was the game after September 11. They had a sniper in the audience covering me. So I was like: "Shoot me if I don't make it to the plate." [Laughs.]
Q: Have you ever thought about what your life would be like if you weren't a star?
A: It's my destiny, and I'm comfortable with it.
Q: You're 45 now. Do you think a lot about 50?
A: Only about where I'll have the party, New York or Paris? And which 50 people will I invite? I'm not one of those women who lies about her age. I don't get being ashamed of your age.
Q: So, has Sharon Stone mellowed?
A: Yeah baby, like a great Bordeaux. I just keep getting better. I'm one of those people for whom shelf life is a good thing.
_________________________________________