Sharon Stone Says Hollywood’s Pay Gap Hasn’t Changed in 30 Years—You Won’t Believe What Role She Walked Away From

Sharon Stone says little has changed since her breakout role in “Basic Instinct” when it comes to Hollywood’s gender pay gap. Speaking to Deadline in November 2023 at the Red Sea Studio in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Stone revealed she recently turned down a leading role after learning she would be paid $500,000 — while a male co-lead was set to earn between $8 million and $9 million.

The interview resurfaced recently in an Instagram post by the account unstoppablyher.

Say Pay, Different Decade

“Thirty years ago, when I did ‘Basic Instinct,’ Michael Douglas made $14 million and I made $500,000,” she said. “Last year, there was a $100 million film being made by a studio, and the actor, who was new, was going to be paid something like $8 million or $9 million – someone we don’t really know – and the studio offered me again $500,000 to be the female lead. And I thought, 30 years later this is still happening. So, I don’t think it has changed much. So, I turned it down and the studio head said, ‘Well, good luck to you, Sharon.’ And I said, ‘Well, good luck to you.’ And two weeks later he was fired,” Stone told Deadline.

She also spoke about how difficult it was for her to envision herself as a film director and then hinted that if women want to direct a big movie they ought to go to Saudi Arabia despite the Middle Eastern nation’s reputation for human rights abuses, saying it’s unjust for America to not have funded female directors.

“As our country [USA] is sort of divesting itself from being a first world country – now we’re considered a second world country on the global map – it’s really interesting to see as we, as women, lose our rights, here in Saudi women are gaining their rights, and it’s so intriguing to watch how this is happening,” Stone told Deadline.

“When I did ‘Basic Instinct,’ I wanted to direct a film and I got laughed out of the studio. And now you see that two out of the six women that had their films nominated in Cannes, were women that were funded out of Saudi Arabia. And so, people say, ‘Well how could you go to Saudi Arabia and look at all of those injustices in Saudi Arabia?’ And I said, ‘Well, I don’t know – I think it was pretty unjust that I couldn’t direct in America.”

Stone has an estimated net worth of about $25 million, and still acts. in 2001 she suffered a brain hemorrhage in which people around her took advantage of her finances while she was recovering.