Sharon Stone Looks Back at Her Life in Parties
From nights out with James Brown and Leonardo DiCaprio to joining the chaos of Euphoria season 3, the actor and activist knows how to have a good time.
After growing up in a town whose defining distinction was a zipper factory, Sharon Stone moved to New York City in the late 1970s. At 19 years old, she signed with Ford Models and lived around the corner from CBGB. “When you’re from a small town, you either have a sense of moral authority or you die,” says Stone. “You have to lean on your sense of self, not your sense of environment.” After pivoting to acting in the ’80s, Stone experienced true fame with 1990’s Total Recall. Her costar Arnold Schwarzenegger gave her a crash course in dealing with the press: “If they ask you about your personal life and your sex life, you’re allowed to ask them about their sex life.” Although she identifies as an introvert, Stone has often hit the global social circuit to promote causes close to her heart. She’s a longtime advocate for those with HIV/AIDS and is the cofounder of Planet Hope, a charity that helps underprivileged children. All the while, Hollywood has never quit calling. Several of her films—notably Basic Instinct—have elicited controversy, so it’s only fitting for her to have joined the third season of HBO’s Euphoria, which premiered April 12. “I don’t think I’ve ever had that much genuine joy,” she says of filming for the series. “It’s a really lovely period in my life.”
Stone and her mother.
Stone was born in Meadville, Pennsylvania. Her father “grew up in a barn stall,” and, as a child, her mother worked as a maid. “My parents got married at 16 and 17. I was this wide-eyed, happy baby, and my mother was just like, What the hell is happening here?” says Stone. Above: Stone with her mother. “You can see she’s just not into being a mom, poor thing.”
“Clearly, my mother had cut my hair,” says Stone of this photo from her third birthday party. Industrial Meadville was a far cry from the glitzy Hollywood she’d one day inhabit. “Kids drove their tractors to school in the morning after they finished their chores. My town still has parking spots for buggies for the Amish people.”
Stone with George Hamilton.
In the early 1980s, Stone turned to acting and moved to Los Angeles. Shortly after her move, the actor George Hamilton handpicked her to appear alongside him in a photo shoot set in Hawaii. They became friends, and he introduced her around Hollywood. “I met this very tony group of very wealthy, very high-end people and was invited to these fancy dinner parties.” He also brought her to the Golden Globes in 1982.
Stone’s first speaking role was in Wes Craven’s Deadly Blessing (1981). On set, she met Mimi Craven (left), who became her red carpet accomplice. Here, they’re pictured at the 1993 MTV Movie & TV Awards. “We were best friends for a very, very long time. She saved my life,” says Stone. When Stone suffered a stroke in 2001, doctors initially thought she was faking her symptoms. Craven intervened and demanded they take more tests.
In 1990, Stone traveled to the Cannes Film Festival to drum up press for Total Recall a few weeks before its release. At that point, she had a string of B movies to her credit and didn’t receive a star’s welcome. “The airline lost my luggage. I was wearing the same three pieces of clothing in 14 different ways, and people were kind of side-eyeing me. I was very shy, and I didn’t know exactly what I was doing.” Luckily, she ran into the famously friendly talent agent Shep Gordon. “He put me in his car, and he took me to two or three dress shops.”
At the 1991 opening of the first Planet Hollywood in New York City, Stone ended up onstage singing with Bruce Willis (center), one of the restaurant’s co-owners. The pair had met in very ’80s fashion: filming a wine cooler commercial. “Bruce had just done Moonlighting, and he got a job doing a commercial for Seagram’s wine coolers. I was cast as the girl, and we became friends.”
Stone’s starring role in Paul Verhoeven’s 1992 film Basic Instinct cemented her status as an icon. A definitive entry in the erotic-thriller canon, the movie was the subject of controversy thanks to its infamous interrogation scene. Three weeks after its release, Stone was booked to host Saturday Night Live and parodied the interrogation. “The musical guest was Pearl Jam. I had such a crush on them.”
Robert De Niro and Stone on the set of Casino, 1992.
Stone’s high-wire turn in Martin Scorsese’s Casino earned her both a Golden Globe win and an Oscar nomination. It’s also, arguably, Stone’s most fashion-forward on-screen role. “Rita Ryack, an astonishing costume designer, made this Courrèges outfit. She copied it exactly from that period, right down to the logo,” says Stone, pictured here with her costar Robert De Niro, of the film’s early-1980s wardrobe. The one piece Stone took from the set: the Emilio Pucci top her character died in.
Stone walked her first runway in 1992, when Thierry Mugler asked her to be in an AIDS benefit show held in Los Angeles. “I wore three wigs, one on top of the other,” says Stone. In 2025, she reunited with the Mugler brand to front their campaign for an archive-inspired capsule collection, which featured two dozen reinterpretations of Mugler’s vintage designs.
The cover of Rolling Stone’s 1992 “Hot Issue” cemented Stone as an emblem of 1990s Hollywood. Stone unwittingly designed the cover outfit herself: “I walked in, and [photographer Albert Watson] handed me a T-shirt and an X-Acto knife. He said, ‘Cut this up,’ and I did it. Then he went, ‘Now put it on.’ I was like, ‘Well, okay.’ ”
In 1993, Stone closed Valentino’s spring 1994 ready-to-wear show. Long before relationships between designers and Hollywood stars were de rigueur, Stone and Valentino Garavani had formed a strong fashion bond. In 1995, she wore a custom Valentino dress to the Cannes Film Festival and had the man himself on her arm.
Leonardo DiCaprio, Stone, and Ellen Barkin at an Oscars party in 1994.
For 1995’s The Quick and the Dead, Stone secured the lead role and helped find her partner in crime. She was intent on casting Leonardo DiCaprio, who was just starting his career. “Leo had something that every other boy [auditioning] did not—a kind of unique vulnerability.” To get DiCaprio the job, Stone paid his salary herself. Off set, they became friends. “My sister and I took him go-kart racing for his 17th birthday. He was trying out flirting on me, just to see how it would go. Oh my God, it was hilarious. Now he’s the global heartthrob.”
Stone with James Brown.
Stone emceed many starry concerts thrown for veterans at the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base, in California. Of all the performers, Stone hit it off best with James Brown. “He said, ‘I want you to sing backup with the girls.’ And I was like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me!’” remembers Stone. “I did it a few times, which is even crazier.” Above: She’s pictured joining Brown during an encore at his birthday concert in Augusta, Georgia, in 1994. Stone assumed she’d be singing backup again but was surprised with a duet of “I Got You (I Feel Good).” “I managed to shake my moneymaker and get through it.”
Stone with Quentin Tarantino and Dennis Rodman.
While some A-listers stayed far away from the madcap MTV Movie & TV Awards, Stone, a two-time winner, was a frequent guest. Left: She poses with director Quentin Tarantino at the 1995 edition. “Quentin colors outside the lines, and he really appreciates it if you understand that the sweetest fruit is at the end of the branch,” she says. Right: Stone at the 1996 awards with Dennis Rodman.
In 1996, Stone stepped out on Rodeo Drive for an event benefitting Inner-City Arts. There, she had a moment with the Spanish opera singer Plácido Domingo. “He came over to my table and said, ‘I’m in love with you.’ I was being a wiseass, so I said, ‘Sure you are. If you’re in love with me, you’d sing to me right now.’ So he just started singing opera to me at the top of his lungs at my table. The entire room was like, What is going on?”
Stone with Donatella Versace.
Being friends with Donatella Versace “is like a warm bath,” says Stone. The actor’s 2004 divorce from journalist Phil Bronstein was a topic of tabloid intrigue, and Versace offered her a safe haven. “She invited me to Gianni’s house in Lake Como, Italy. She asked our friend Prince Albert [of Monaco] to send his butler to take care of me. Down by the lake, there’s this beautiful semicircle seat around an eternal flame that has a baby deer over it, which is Gianni’s grave. I hiked down every day and sat in there and meditated with Gianni.”
Stone has campaigned tirelessly for HIV/AIDS-related causes throughout her career, but this meeting with Magic Johnson (above left) at a 1996 amfAR benefit had extra meaning: The Los Angeles Lakers legend was the unlikely inspiration for her performance in Basic Instinct. “When Magic was playing, I went every chance I got because I was obsessed with his no-look pass, ” she said. “I decided that my character understood the no-look pass, and that was how she functioned. I based her movements on how Johnson ran his team without ever looking at them.”
Stone with her brother Michael; her mother, Dorothy; and sister Kelly.
Stone often makes giving a family affair. She and her sister, Kelly, cofounded Planet Hope, a charity that provides educational resources for underprivileged kids. Above: Stone at a 1994 event, where she was honored with a Spirit of Compassion Award, alongside her dates for the night: (from left) her brother Michael; her mother, Dorothy; and Kelly.
Anne Heche, Stone and Cher at the Women in Film 7th Annual Lucy Awards.
In 2000, Stone starred opposite Ellen DeGeneres in If These Walls Could Talk 2, directed by Anne Heche, DeGeneres’s partner at the time. Stone and Heche (far left) joined Cher, who had starred in the original film, to pick up an award at the 2000 Women in Film Honors. “That I got to spend the day with Cher was really a highlight of my life. She’s probably one of the coolest women who ever walked the planet.”
Stone has three adopted sons: Roan, Laird, and Quinn. “I made this very brave decision to raise three boys, knowing that no one would want to date me, because men are innately selfish. It’s the greatest thing I ever chose to do,” says Stone, who’s pictured with her boys. “When they were little, they would ask, ‘What kind of family are we?’ I would say, ‘We’re a happy family.’ When they started first grade and the other kids all had dads, they said, ‘They have dads.’ I would say, ‘Wait till the third grade.’ And by the third grade, half of their friends did not have dads. And I was like, ‘See, we’re a happy family.’ ”
Stone picked up painting during the pandemic and hasn’t stopped. Of the image above, she says, “I’m an obsessive swimmer. I got out of the pool, and I saw something on the painting that I wanted to fix. My friend took that picture, and I was like, ‘Well, now the whole world can see that I have no ass.’ ” She’s since staged solo shows in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Connecticut, and Berlin.
Stone in season 3 of Euphoria.
Stone’s role on Euphoria pairs her with Maude Apatow, who plays Lexi Howard, the quiet sister of Cassie (played by Sydney Sweeney). Maude “is very special, very smart, and super professional,” says Stone. “I’ve told her that she is my secret daughter-in-law. I’ve claimed her.” Stone also got a chance to share a set with fellow Euphoria newcomer Homer Gere, the son of her Intersection costar Richard Gere. “I really loved that because Richard and I have been friends for 100 years.”
