Sharon Stone has been speaking out a lot concerning her experiences in Hollywood. The good, the bad, and all the things she has survived to become the icon she is today. Yesterday, Stone went viral when a resurfaced profile in Zoomer Magazine regarding her new memoir was published on Twitter addressing the industry’s favoritism towards Meryl Streep.
Now, to be clear, Stone does not say anything negative about Streep. Instead, the frustration is that Hollywood itself placed Meryl Streep on a pedestal and did not give other women similar opportunities. Streep got to be “the good one,” Stone explains.
“I think Meryl is an amazingly wonderful woman and actress,” Stone began. “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.” She went on:
“Viola Davis is every bit the actress Meryl Streep is. Emma Thompson. Judy Davis. Olivia Colman. Kate Winslet, for f**k’s sake. But you say Meryl and everybody falls on the floor.”
Stone, clearly on a roll, continued: “I’m a much better villain than Meryl. And I’m sure she’d say so. Meryl was not gonna be good in ‘Basic Instinct’ or in ‘Casino.’”
Stone breaks down that this is a result of how they have all been instructed and categorized in the industry. Everyone—but especially women, and women of a certain age—get labeled as being good at something, and then “we all have to sit in our assigned seats.”
“That phrasing has been taught,” Stone concluded. “We’ve been taught that everybody doesn’t get a seat at the table. Once one is chosen, nobody else can get in there.”
Not a lie was told.
Meryl is the queen and we love her, but when we sit and wonder why actresses like Glenn Close don’t have an Oscar, it is because between the ageism that both provides roles to younger women and prefers to reward those younger women, there are just so few opportunities.
Meryl Streep’s name, much like Katherine Hepburn’s before her, is connected to a sense of elegance and consistent skill that makes her a safe pick for high-profile roles and awards. I think it is fully possible to love Meryl Streep and also question why it is always one actress or the other in the spotlight, and not a great many of these older actresses getting to work together on a project and sharing acclaim.
(via HuffPo, image: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images for GQ Germany)
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