Sharon Stone Shares Candid State of Her Career Following Stroke

Sharon Stone opened up about how a stroke and brain hemorrhage she suffered in 2001 affected her career–and it's not in the way you may think.

While speaking with reporters during The Hollywood Reporter’s Raising Our Voices luncheon gala on Wednesday, May 31, the 65-year-old actress recalled struggling to get hired after recuperating from the injury.

"I recovered for seven years, and I haven’t had jobs since," Stone said. "When it first happened, I didn’t want to tell anybody because you know if something goes wrong with you, you’re out. Something went wrong with me — I’ve been out for 20 years. I haven’t had jobs. I was a very big movie star at one point in my life."

Stone continued, discussing how she was forced to advocate for herself years before her medical emergency. "I broke a lot of glass ceilings on the top of my head," she said. "I want to tell you that it hurt. It hurt to get paid. It hurt to fight the studio heads. It hurt to make boundaries — boundaries about who could come in my trailer and what they could ask for; boundaries about the fact that I didn’t want to sign my contract in my makeup trailer on the day that I started a show. It hurt to say that I had, like any corporation, the opportunity to have my lawyer read my contract and that I didn’t have to start the show signing my unread contract in the makeup trailer."

The Casino star said that standing up for herself "caused [her] a lot of problems in the business," and even suggested it's one of the reasons she's been denied roles.

But she hasn't let her lack of screen time define her career. Instead, she's worked with the World Health Organization and the United Nations to help underrepresented voices be heard and encouraged other stars to do the same.

"It is important to me that your diversity does not get wiped out by this anti-woke bullshit idea in our country," Stone said. "This democratic experiment means a lot. It means a lot. The extreme pushing of a controlled government society — whatever you want to call it, whatever people want to label it — is also an experiment. It doesn’t mean that it is happening. It means that it is an experiment to see if you will eat it. Will you eat a controlled government? Will you eat a controlled studio system? What will you eat — or will you stand up and be counted?"

Next: Sharon Stone Reveals Significant Pay Gap Between Her and Michael Douglas on 'Basic Instinct'