Sharon Stone is crediting the rise in female filmmakers for undercutting perversely pervasive “male fantasy” characters.
The actress said during the 2024 Taormina Film Festival (via Deadline) that today’s films are “less about male-driven fantasies” as more women are writing and directing features.
“I think that now that women are writing, directing, producing, filming, and more and more a part of filmmaking, films are less about male-driven fantasies,” Stone said. “Actresses are less asked to portray the male fantasy and critics are less asked to tell us if we fulfilled the male fantasy or not. It’s more, ‘Are we fulfilling the human condition?’”
Stone also applauded how streamers have created a platform for diverse stories.
“Studio systems have changed dramatically, they’ve changed from making a variety of movies to making these gigantic $100 and $200 million films,” Stone said of the difference between 30 years ago and today. “Streamers are taking over our business, and I don’t think that’s a terrible thing. I think we’re coming back to making smaller films and a variety of films, and I think that’s a good thing.”
And Stone added that her own legacy with “Basic Instinct” is viewed as a very different kind of film now than upon its 1992 release.
“It seemed like a scandal,” Stone said, “and now it seems very, very ordinary.”
Stone recently told The Hollywood Reporter that more female directors could hopefully dismantle the “misogynistic” Hollywood system.
“Hollywood is set up to be misogynistic. It’s a business run by men. It’s a business where men make the money. Where men write, produce and direct the projects. Where men write the parts that are played by women. And those parts are not written about real women,” Stone said. “They’re written to be the fantasy of how women should be. Then, the male critics tell you if you met the fantasy or not, if you behaved in the right way.”
And despite “Basic Instinct” being written by a man, Stone explained why it was her dream role.
“I wanted to play her so badly that I had the script on top of my refrigerator for eight months. I just kept thinking, ‘I’m going to manifest this, I’m going to get this part,’ as they offered it to everybody else on the planet. I was the 13th choice,” Stone said. “The line producer told me that relentlessly though the entire shoot while he called me Karen. ‘You, Karen, were the 13th choice.’”
