'He pulled out his penis in front of my face': Actress Sharon Stone revealed she experienced sexual harassment from a Sony film executive during a work meeting with him.
In an interview on American TV host Kelly Ripa's Let's Talk Off podcast, the 65-year-old actress said the incident occurred when she was an unknown actress in the '80s, before she rose to fame and became a sex symbol in films such as Basic Instinct and Casino.
Stone, who did not name the official, described how excited she was by the meeting and even chose a special outfit for her. "I walked into his office, and it was in the '80s, so the couch was right on the floor," she said in a podcast published Wednesday. "There was a huge low sofa, so my knees were around my neck, and I was sitting folded up on the couch. He himself was walking back and forth in the office."
"He didn't know what to do." Sharon Stone (archive), photo: Reuters
The star also recounted how the same executive told her that he saw that everything they said about her was true, that she was stunning and that he hadn't encountered someone like her in decades. "Everyone is talking about you. You are the most articulate, the smartest, the most beautiful," he told her.
Then, Stone said, he stood right in front of her—and pulled out his penis in front of her face. "Of course I was very young and I did what I do when I was stressed, because in essence I'm a very sociable person – I started laughing," she said of her reaction to the disturbing act. "I laughed and cried intermittently and couldn't stop because I was hysterical. He didn't know what to do, so of course he let him back in, and then he went to the door behind his desk."
She added: "I was sure he left. I sat there hysterically until his secretary came in and led me outside. It wasn't the last time I experienced such strange things in my career. When asked why she hadn't told the story before, she said she feared Sony wouldn't have cast her if she had talked about what happened.
Sharon Stone and Michael Douglas in Basic Instinct, photo: Courtesy of Yes
The actress went on to say that she would always be willing to accept an apology from men in Hollywood who had mistreated her over the years, but she had a strong message for those who didn't: "Never sit next to me, because if you sit next to me again, I'll stand in public and say, 'I told you not to sit next to me.'"
Stone's shocking admission comes 5 years after in a 2018 interview with CBS, she responded with a burst of nervous laughter when asked by the interviewer if she had ever found herself in a situation where she felt uncomfortable and had experienced sexual assault or harassment in Hollywood. "I've been in this industry for 40 years," she replied. "Can you imagine the industry I entered 40 years ago, looking the way I do? I've seen it all."
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