Sharon Stone
Sharon Stone during Friars Club Tribute To Barbara Walters – May 7, 1994 at Waldorf Astoria in New York City, New York, United States. (Photo by Jim Smeal/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)

The beloved Meryl Streep is apparently not so beloved to everyone. During an interview to promote her recent memoir, The Beauty of Living Twice, Sharon Stone spoke with Zoomer. While the chat was actually last month, Stone’s rather scathing remarks on Streep have only just garnered widespread attention. The conversation went something like this:

The reporter cited a line from Stone’s memoir that addresses women competing in Hollywood: “It was put to us that there could be room for only one.” The journalist continues to ask, “So when you finally got to work with Meryl Streep, you realised…,” before being cut off.

“I like the way you phrase that, that I finally got to work with Meryl Streep,” the Basic Instinct star interjected. “You didn’t say, ‘Meryl finally got to work with Sharon Stone.’ Or we finally got to work together.”

Stone continued, “The way you structured the question is very much the answer to the question. The business was set up that we should all envy and admire Meryl because only Meryl got to be the good one. And everyone should compete against Meryl. I think Meryl is an amazingly wonderful woman and actress. But in my opinion, quite frankly, there are other actresses equally as talented as Meryl Streep. The whole Meryl Streep iconography is part of what Hollywood does to women.”

Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep attends the UK Premiere of “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again” at the Eventim Apollo on July 16, 2018 in London, England.

“Viola Davis is every bit the actress Meryl Streep is,” Stone said. “Emma Thompson. Judy Davis. Olivia Colman. Kate Winslet, for f**k’s sake. But you say Meryl, and everybody falls on the floor.”

While Stone makes a very valid point regarding the talent of the aforementioned women, it’s hard to forget Streep has earned a record-setting 21 Oscar nominations. Nonetheless, 63-year-old Stone continued.

“I’m a much better villain than Meryl, and I’m sure she’d say so,” Stone noted.

“Meryl was not gonna be good in Basic Instinct or in Casino. I would be better. And I know it. And she knows it. But we’re all set up to think that only Meryl is so amazing that when you say her name it must have been amazing for me to work with her.”

Stone was honoured with an Oscar nomination for her role in the 1995 film, Casino. 

Streep nor her team have responded to Stone’s comments.