Sharon Stone has been a Hollywood icon for over a quarter century, but when it comes to getting paid, her acting work isn’t the most lucrative.
“I still make more money today modeling than in film,” Stone, 67, told Business Insider. “It’s still a huge part of my reality.”
Stone started her career as a model, quitting school at 15 and moving to New York City to enter the fashion world. She was quickly signed by Ford Modeling Agency and found herself working regularly in Milan and Paris.
Photo 12/Universal Images Group/Getty Images
By 19, she returned to New York and began pursuing acting as a path to her initial goal: directing.
“Back then, I wanted to be a director, but the pesky vagina has stood in my way. Because how could you possibly have a brain and a vagina?” Stone told BI. “It seems to have confounded so many.”
In those early days, Stone rollerbladed around Manhattan to her auditions, her giant modeling portfolio in tow. She got her big break in 1980, when she was cast as one of the extras in Woody Allen’s “Stardust Memories,” and was later asked to step in for a spot in the movie’s opening scene, where Allen, sitting on a train, sees a beautiful woman across from him on another train.
United Artists
“I was 19 and they put me in this tight dress, and I was so awkward about my body,” Stone recalled. “The hair person put a real gardenia in my hair. It really meant the world to me that she did that. It made me feel important.”
Stone became a hot commodity in Hollywood after “Stardust Memories.” After regularly working in B-movies through the 1980s like “King Solomon’s Mines” and “Police Academy 4,” she landed the role that would change her life when she scored the female lead in the 1992 sensation “Basic Instinct.” Though the role made her an icon, she wasn’t paid like one.
“Basic Instinct”/TriStar Pictures
In 2023, Stone revealed she was paid $500,000 for “Basic Instinct” while her costar Michael Douglas earned $14 million.
She went on to earn an Oscar nomination in 1996 for her performance opposite Robert De Niro in Martin Scorsese’s “Casino,” and won an Emmy in 2004 for her guest spot on “The Practice.” But her career was also dogged by money troubles: the actor revealed in 2024 that she lost $18 million in savings after suffering a stroke in 2001.
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“When I got back into my bank account, it was all gone. My refrigerator, my phone — everything was in other people’s names,” Stone said. “I had zero money.”
Over the years, Stone has modeled for high fashion brands like Dior and Dolce & Gabbana, and recently did ads for Mugler.
“I’m still one of the oldest women consistently modeling today,” Stone said. “I’m very, very grateful I still get to do it.”
Next, Stone will star in “Nobody 2,” opening in theaters August 15.