Sharon Stone feels she is being robbed of an acting career due to ageism in the movie business.
The ‘Basic Instinct’ actress – who turned 66 in March – added the roles she has been offered have got limited to clichéd bit-parts as she gets older.
She told The Times: “People would like to say, ‘You’re too old or you can’t do this or you can’t do that.’
“It’s a little bit hard to cast me as the grandmother. It’d be easier to cast me as the lawyer or the judge or the cop – so they’re not really sure what to do with somebody like me.
“I still don’t have my acting career back. I would really like to work again as an actor so much – not just a weak, supporting, bulls*** part.
“I’d like to really have the parts that I have earned and can do.
“I would really like to have my own real career back. I would really like to have my life back.”
The haemorrhage Sharon suffered more than 20 years ago led to a nine-day brain bleed.
She was living in San Francisco with her then-husband Phil Bronstein, 73, and their adopted son Roan Joseph Bronstein, 23, when she was hit by the illness.
Doctors gave her a one per cent chance of survival, and Sharon said: “I pretty much realised it was serious when I came to on the floor and I couldn’t get up and I kept calling for help and I couldn’t get it.
“I thought, ‘I’m having a stroke.’”
She added about how the stroke brought her career to a standstill: “There was no way she could carry on acting.
“I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t read… when I reached for something, I had no depth perception. It was complete psychological chaos.”
The fallout from Sharon’s illness included the end of her marriage to Phil, after which the couple entered a bitter custody battle, which the actress lost.
Phil was awarded primary custody, with Sharon getting visits from her son every month.
She admitted about how she hasn’t bounced back from the illness and family trauma: “It took seven years to really recover and I did lose custody of my child. And I did lose my career and I did lose $15 million – every cent I had – in child support and court fees, so I didn’t really bounce back and have a rebirth.
“I would really like to have my life back. I didn’t rebound and it isn’t some kind of wonderful story. It’d be great if it was, but it isn’t. I survived.”
