It's one thing for an actress to grapple with lesser roles while she's attempting to launch her career. It's another thing to do it as a 52-year-old former superstar. Just ask Sharon Stone, now 57, who found herself struggling through a limited guest run on the 11th season of
This fall, Stone will star in and executive-produce a new series on TNT,
Only recently has Stone begun to talk openly about the brain hemorrhage and its crushing impact on her life. As she recalls it, she felt unwell for three days before she went to the emergency room. It turned out she'd had a stroke, and she lost consciousness soon after being admitted. "When I came to, the doctor was leaning over me. I said, 'Am I dying?' And he said, 'You're bleeding into your brain,' " she remembers. "I said, 'I should call my mom,' and he said, 'You're right. You could lose the ability to speak soon.' " Stone's mother flew in from Pennsylvania so quickly that she arrived at her daughter's bedside still in her gardening shorts.
Several days and two angiograms later, Stone was finally diagnosed with a ruptured vertebral artery. She says that at one point she woke up to find herself being wheeled into surgery and got into a screaming match with a doctor about alternative treatments. "I was hemorrhaging so much that my brain had been pushed into the front of my face," she says. Surgeons ultimately repaired the artery with 22 platinum coils.
The stroke and its aftermath transformed Stone in ways she's still discovering. "It took two years for my body just to absorb all the internal bleeding I had," she says. "It almost feels like my entire DNA changed. My brain isn't sitting where it used to, my body type changed, and even my food allergies are different." It took months for her to regain feeling in her left leg and years for her vision to return to normal; she also fought to eliminate a persistent stutter. On the plus side, "I became more emotionally intelligent. I chose to work very hard to open up other parts of my mind. Now I'm stronger. And I can be abrasively direct. That scares people, but I think that's not my problem." She laughs. "It's like, I have brain damage; you'll just have to deal with it."
Of course, Stone has never been one to base her behavior on other people's expectations. Over the years she has cultivated multiple contradictory personae: bold seductress, nutty bookworm, serene Buddhist, skilled fund-raiser, and occasional loose cannon. (Cinemas in China threatened to boycott her films after she publicly speculated that the devastating May 2008 earthquake in Sichuan might have been karmic retribution for the country's treatment of Tibet. She later apologized.) She also maintains a frank approach to her sex appeal, having done her first nude photo series in 1990, for
Well aware that perfection is an illusion at any age, Stone declares that today's nude shoot is actually easier for her to face than the
One of Stone's lesser-known pursuits is songwriting. In 2005, she co-wrote the single "Come Together Now" to raise funds for Hurricane Katrina relief, and she recently started collaborating with composer Andrea Morricone, son of film-score legend Ennio Morricone, on a few pieces they hope to record in the coming months. Morricone says that Stone's natural way with words has been enhanced by her years of exploring the nuances of dialogue as an actress. "The songs she writes are really meant to be sung, which is the art of a real lyricist," he says.
As we wrap up the interview and she prepares to slip out of her bathrobe, Stone smiles slyly, picks up my tape recorder, and holds it to her mouth, enunciating slowly into the microphone. "If there's anybody out there who's an adult and who would like to ask me out," she says, "please call
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