Someone asked Sharon Stone if she’s ever experienced any form of sexual harassment during her time in the entertainment industry. Her response was perfect.
During a recent appearance on CBS Sunday, Sharon Stone – like so many in Hollywood at the moment – was asked about the #MeToo movement, the Time’s Up initiative and the showbiz industry’s generally poor treatment of women.
“We were raised to accommodate men, particularly in my generation,” she said. “And women so often lose their own identify to the identity of the men that they’re with.
Stone added: “We’re starting to acknowledge our own gifts as women, and not think that we have to behave as men in order to be empowered or powerful or valuable.”
However, things got a teeny bit awkward when anchor Lee Cowan asked if the Mosaic star had ever experienced sexual harassment herself.
“I don’t know how to ask this in a delicate way, but were you ever in a position like that?” he probed. “That you felt that you were uncomfortable.”
Stone’s response? To laugh for, ooh, about half a century.
Check it out:
“You’re laughing, but I don’t know if that’s a nervous laugh or an ‘Are-you-kidding-me-of-course-I-was’ laugh?” asked a confused Cowan.
Wiping away her tears, Stone – without giving any specifics – allowed that she’s “seen it all” throughout her decades-long career.
“I’ve been in this business for 40 years. Can you imagine the business I stepped into 40 years ago?” she responded.
“Looking like I look, from nowhere Pennsylvania? I didn’t come here with any protection. I’ve seen it all.”
Unsurprisingly, her response has been widely shared on Twitter – with many praising Stone for her no-nonsense response to such a deeply personal question.
Of course, Cowan need only have looked to the Trivia section of Stone’s IMDB page to get an idea of just some of the sexism that she has experienced in the industry.
No wonder, then, that the actress chose to wear all-black at the 75th Annual Golden Globes in solidarity with the Time’s Up movement.
The initiative, as we previously reported, will seed a legal defence fund, backed by $13 million in donations, to help less privileged women protect themselves from sexual misconduct and the fallout from reporting it.
It will also include the legislation needed to protect against sexual abuse and harassment in the workplace, as well as a drive to reach gender parity across Hollywood.
You can read all about Times Up and learn how to get involved here.
Images: Rex Features
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