Hollywood star Sharon Stone is the latest star to voice her opinion on gender and wage gap issue in Hollywood. She said she was paid much less than any man even after her breakthrough role in Basic Instinct.
“After Basic Instinct, no one wanted to pay me,” Stone said on Friday night at a fashion event to honour her sister Kelly Stone at The Setai in Miami, reports People. “I remember sitting in my kitchen with my manager and just crying and saying ‘I’m not going to work until I get paid’. I still got paid so much less than any man,” she added.
The 57-year-old actor, an advocate for women’s rights, recalled the time she had difficulty landing an acting job after starring in the 1992 erotic thriller, further said that the issue extends beyond the movie industry in Hollywood, saying that change, “has to start with regular pay, not just for movie stars, but regular pay for the regular woman in the regular job.”
She recalled being a struggling actor and working the tables as waitress early in her career. “I waited tables and scrubbed floors and everything else on the way up, and you must make the same, and it’s not cool that you don’t. “More than 50 per cent of marriages end in divorce and the women are working and taking care of their kids and that’s how it goes and you have to say ‘Yes’ because you have to feed your children. It’s a sort of economic blackmail.”
{{/usCountry}}She recalled being a struggling actor and working the tables as waitress early in her career. “I waited tables and scrubbed floors and everything else on the way up, and you must make the same, and it’s not cool that you don’t. “More than 50 per cent of marriages end in divorce and the women are working and taking care of their kids and that’s how it goes and you have to say ‘Yes’ because you have to feed your children. It’s a sort of economic blackmail.”
{{/usCountry}}Stone also added that the issue extends beyond the movie industry in Hollywood, saying that change “has to start with regular pay, not just for movie stars, but regular pay for the regular woman in the regular job.”