Sharon Stone: Scary Is Sexy
It's been more than 10 years since "Basic Instinct" made actress Sharon Stone an instant sex symbol.
But recently, her professional life has been sidelined by personal events: a marriage on the rocks, motherhood and even a near-death experience. Now she's back with her first movie in three years, "Cold Creek Manor."
The Early Show Entertainment Contributor and People magazine Senior Editor Jess Cagle sat down with Stone to talk about her new movie and changing life.
Stone chose the thriller "Cold Creek Manor," co-starring Dennis Quaid, to jumpstart her career. It's a film that may scare the daylights out of people.
She says, "I think people like to be scared. I think it gets your heart going fast, makes you feel kind of alive. And I think it's kind of sexy."
Her character, Leah Tilson, leaves the big city life for the quiet of a country estate. The house isn't haunted, but the ex-owner, played by Stephen Dorff, is a modern-day monster.
"Oh my god, it's like working with Dracula," Stone says with a laugh. "It's like Bela Lugosi."
Stone has not been seen on the screen recently, but she's hardly been out of the headlines.
She says, "If I go through anything else, they're going to write some country western song about me I think."
Three years ago she adopted a son, Roan. Then, not long after his first birthday, she faced a life-threatening brain hemorrhage.
A lot of people who have had near-death experiences say that it changes their life and their outlook on what they do. In Stone's case, she says she now cherishes every moment.
She says, "I think I got some respect slapped into me certainly. The joy of being a mom has also given me a certain dedication to life. It slows down any sort of compulsive reactive behavior."
Her personal challenges didn't end there. In July, Stone's husband, newspaper editor Phil Bronstein, filed for a divorce after five years of marriage, and the couple had to deal with it publicly.
Asked if she wishes she were not famous, Stone says, "I don't live my private life in the public eye. I happen to pass through the public eye and so sometimes people think that my private life is available to the public when it really isn't."
And she has read reports about her that are not true, she notes, "I mean there's something out there now that I'm dating someone, I haven't even been on any dates. And in fact I never even met the person or even knew the person existed that I was supposedly dating."
At a benefit for an AIDS charity, "Project Angel Food," she did get a couple of kisses however.
She explains, "I kissed two people, each person for $40,000. Project Angel Food feeds terminally ill people who are affected with the HIV virus. And one was a woman and one was a man. But only the kiss with the woman was sensationalized."
The movie opens nationwide Friday. Next for Stone, she teams with Halle Berry for "Catwoman." She's already starting her martial arts training for the movie.