Sharon Stone says she 'nearly died' after 'Basic Instinct' opened the door to Hollywood's dark side
Sharon Stone is opening up about how she survived Hollywood's dark side after starring in her hit movie "Basic Instinct."
The actress became an international star after she played Catherine Tramell, a seductive crime novelist and alleged serial killer, in the 1992 erotic thriller. However, Stone recently shared that portraying Tramell took a psychological toll on her and drew dangerous people into her orbit.
During an appearance on the "Mayim Bialik's Breakdown" podcast this week, Stone spoke about times when she's gotten too close to dark characters she's played and "scared the living s--- out of myself." Bialik asked her for an example, and she replied, "When I did ‘Basic Instinct,’ and I had to really look at darkness, and yet I was very still young and inexperienced."
She continued, "I didn't understand about holding the core, the core self, the golden self, and then wrapping the character around it with the power of the self driving it. But just bringing it all in there and looking at it all, I opened some dark doors, right?"
"And some of those dark doors really scared the living s--- out of me, because I saw some real, real darkness," Stone remembered. "And what happened then is that real dark people identified and came into my life thinking, 'Oh, you really are like me. You're like me.'"
"And so darkness came into my life. Dark people, dark things, dangerous things came into my life because they thought, 'You're like me.' And then people believed some of the dark things that were said about me because they thought, 'Oh, you couldn't do that if you weren't like that because you've mirrored me to me.'"
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While speaking with Bialik and her co-host, Jonathan Cohen, Stone said the experience taught her to be more discerning about what and whom she allowed into her life.
"Really the one thing you got to remember is just because the devil's a very interesting person at the cocktail party doesn't mean you should invite that person, give them a seat. Don't give that person a seat," she said.
The Emmy Award winner explained how she learned to protect herself from people drawn to darkness, emphasizing the importance of maintaining her "core self."
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"Don't ever give up the core," she said. "You can't be porous."
"You just can't be porous because if any of it gets in, all of a sudden the dark people, they want to be around you," Stone continued. "They want to come to you. They think, 'Oh, you're like me.' And when they find out that you're not like them, they get upset. They get very upset."
Stone recalled that at one point, she felt that the darkness almost consumed her. She credited her survival to the strength of her "core self" and anchoring herself in a higher spiritual frequency.
"When the darkness came, I nearly died," she said. "But the light saved me. The light is what saved me. And the universal consciousness of light that vibrated at my frequency is what saved me."
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"Fortunately, enough of me held to the light and that just the crack where it got in was dangerous," Stone added.
During her podcast appearance, Stone also revealed that she received a life-or-death spiritual message following her near-fatal stroke.
In September 2001, the "Casino" star suffered a massive, life-threatening stroke at the age of 43. Stone spent nine days in the hospital after a ruptured artery that caused a brain bleed, requiring emergency surgery to repair the vessel.
While speaking with Bialik and Cohen, Stone claimed she encountered five glowing entities of light in a surreal vision during the early days of her recovery.
"When I was first home from the hospital, I couldn’t sleep at night, and I was sleeping in the day," Stone remembered. "When I was laying on the couch, sleeping and awake, these orbs sort of presented themselves to me. These five orbs presented themselves to me and they sort of talked to me, but in a digital language."
She admitted that she had never previously spoken about the experience because she found it almost impossible to explain. Stone said that she believed the encounter carried a premonition that she would soon lose custody of her then one-year-old son Roan.
"I just kept saying to them, ‘I don’t know if I’m supposed to stay here or if I’m supposed to die,’" Stone recalled of her conversation with the orbs. "And they said, ‘You’re supposed to stay.’ And I said, ‘I can only stay if two of you will stay with my son. Because I don’t want him to be alone, and I think he’s gonna get taken from me.’"
"Sure enough, he was taken from me," she continued. "And I said, ‘We have to have an agreement. The two of you will stay with him and protect him.’ And they agreed. And they said, ‘But your destiny requires that we stay with you.’"
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Stone and her ex-husband Phil Bronstein adopted Roan in 2000. A year later, Bronstein filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. The former couple shared custody of Roan after finalizing the divorce in 2004, though Bronstein became Roan’s primary caretaker. Stone later adopted sons Laird and Quinn, now both 20, as a single mother.
The actress has previously said she could not fully discuss the original custody decision because of a confidentiality agreement, but she has claimed her "Basic Instinct" image was used against her in court, saying a judge asked Roan whether he knew his mother made "sex movies."
After Bialik asked how long her experience with the orbs lasted, Stone replied, "Several days."
"Wow," Bialik said.
However, Stone told Bialik that she was not frightened by the encounter.
"I was curious," she said, "but very much at peace."