The Daily Beast Podcast - Sharon Stone Worries Trump’s COVID Vaccine Won’t Be ‘Safe’

Episode Date: October 31, 2020

Sharon Stone doesn’t trust Trump one bit. In this members-only episode of The New Abnormal podcast, the actress sits down with host Molly Jong-Fast to chat about abortion, the #MeToo movement, voting, and the pandemic. Growing up, Stone attributes her involvement in politics to her father. "He was really believed that people of all races, colors, creeds, gender identities should have the same rights and privileges. And it was a very, very strong attitude in our family," Stone said. The two also spoke about her thoughts on the election, and all the things she’s doing to help get out the vote. “I had the great pleasure of moderating a zoom fundraiser. I worked with a good friend of mine and we organized a grassroots voting campaign called Vote Proud to get people out to vote who are in the LGBTQ community. Anything and everything that I possibly can do to get people out to vote," she said. Stone then touches on Trump's response to the pandemic. We’ll just say this: Don’t expect her to be first in line to get a vaccine if he’s still the president. and says there’s no way a vaccine is safe right now and touches on her work with infectious disease expert Dr. Fauci. "We do not have a clear path to a safe vaccine yet at all," she says, adding in her thoughts on Dr. Anthony Fauci and what she really thinks of the president: “He does not respect himself and others." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi, and welcome to another The New Abnormal Exclusive episodes, and we thank you so much for being here. Sharon Stone is a Golden Globe Award-winning actress known for her roles in Casino, Basic Instinct, The Mighty, and the Muse, as well as her humanitarian work, where she won the Peace Summit Award for her work with HIV-AIDS-Sufferers. Hi, I'm so thrilled to have you. It's really fun. So one of the reasons why I really wanted to have you on the show

was besides the fact that we're both friends with wonderful ed is because i was think of you as like very smart and thoughtful well that's kind of you thank you i was curious to know we talked a little bit about your early work with like congressional races and stuff do you want to talk a little bit about what made you a political person i grew up in a very small town in pennsylvania and the newspaper when i was a kid was called the tribune republican My dad was such a diehard Democrat. It was really interesting in this little very small town, very Republican small town in Pennsylvania. And my dad was a very active Democrat.

And in that, I mean that he really believed in very specific things. He was a feminist, which was, of course, completely unheard of where I grew up. Because when he was little, he came from a very wealthy family, one of the first oil drilling families in Oil City, Pennsylvania. When there was a major explosion at the oil site, which killed his dad's brother, who was his dad's partner. And his dad had walked away to get a sweater because he had pneumonia. And then his dad died four months later. and his grandmother, his mother, my grandmother, did not get any of the business because she was a woman. The business all went to the 18-year-old son of my great uncle, who of course lost it all in record time, as any 18-year-old kid would.

And my dad and his brother, who were four and three at the time, had to be given away to live in people's barns and do their chores. And my aunt and my grandmother, my grandmother had to go and work as a nurse in an asylum. And my aunt went and lived with her in that asylum. And my dad became a really hardcore feminist because he felt that that was so unjust and so strange because the original financial investment in the oil wells had been my grandmothers. and the money did not come back to her or to her family. So my dad just felt that I should grow up with the same rights. And my sister and I and my brothers should all grow up with the same rights and privileges.

And he was really believed that people of all races, colors, creeds, gender identities, should have the same rights and privileges. And it was a very, very strong attitude in our family growing up. We were Irish. We were from Irish immigrants, obviously, in Pennsylvania. And Irish people weren't really treated great. He just really, you know, always made sure that if there were kids in school who were not being treated fairly for any of these reasons, that we were the family that brought

those kids home. If it was a gay kid or a kid that was living in a foster home or a kid of color, that we were absolutely supposed to bring that kid home and welcome them in our home. Because he just felt that the whole way the system was set up wasn't set up fairly inappropriately. When we were talking before, you were talking about abortion and how your time in Ireland informed your feelings about abortion. Can you talk a little bit about that? It wasn't that my time in Ireland informed my feelings about abortion, but my reaction to the way that 10,000 women flew to my genetic homeland of Ireland to fight for their abortion rights was very impressive to me because this is a country that's still quite divided, just whether you're Catholic or Protestant. There's actual border disputes over whether you're Catholic or Protestant.

And I found that in a country that's still arguing these issues, which are issues that we haven't really seen since Kennedy was running for president, for 10,000 women to fly home and make sure that their abortion rights, that their reproductive systems were protected, I thought was a pretty powerful statement. You're one of the first women to play like a very powerful woman roles in a certain, but that are also kind of sexual. I'm curious to know, do you think, where do you think, so I always think of you as very feminist for any number of reasons, but I'm curious to know how you've seen that change and how you have, you know, if you feel that things have gotten better for women and where we're at a little bit. I never really saw myself as a feminist, I think because I was raised to be a humanist to believe that everyone should have the same rights.

And it wasn't about women's rights, although I was, of course, a young woman coming into my adolescence and my pubescent period when all of these extraordinary women were coming into focus as feminist spokeswoman. Just last night, I was on a Zoom call with a lot of women who are working towards the election, and Anita Hill was on the call. I have to say that when she spoke, it brought tears to my eyes.

She spoke about coming from her classroom at the university and the thoughts and feelings of her class. And it just took me back to being in my living room as a, oh, 13, 14-year-old kid and having the gigantic TV with the big speakers on the side and having my dad tell me to settle down, just settle down, and me running through the living room saying, I'm not settling down. You don't know what it's like out there. And she's right. And I'm going to be doing this, dad. And you just don't know what it's like. And him saying, just sit down, sit down and settle down and me saying, I'm not going to be sitting down and I won't be sitting down again, Dad.

And us having this, you know, big kind of discussion in the house that she was going through her hearings. And then seeing her now as a gray-haired woman talking about her students, I was literally teary-eyed. It's so profoundly meaningful to be able to sit with and listen to the women that actually forged my very future. And what political stuff are you doing now? I'm doing a variety of things that I've been asked to do. I had the great pleasure of moderating a Zoom fundraiser with Adam Schiff, who is obviously an extraordinary politician, extraordinary humanitarian, frankly, just kind of a good man, I think. And I've been, you know, just, you know, on various Zoom meetings, trying to see what we can do to get people to. to get out and vote.

I worked with a good friend of mine and we organized a small grassroots voting campaign called Vote Proud to get people out to vote who are in the LGBTQ community and any other underserved community that feels they're not being heard. Anything and everything that I possibly can to get people out to vote.

Do you feel like there are things that you're passionate about that we're not seeing like movies, that you feel like filmmakers that are being overlooked, projects that you're interested in? I just saw Utopia. I don't know if you've seen Utopia. I did.

But I thought that was quite compelling. And considering that it was written in 2013 in its original format, and that this show that we've seen now was shot last year, not shot during COVID, I think it's astounding to see. And then again, I think sometimes just watching shows that could give us hope right now.

And keep us feeling curious. I mean, I watched this show called Ted Lasso, and I then brought my kids in, and we watched it all together, because it just reminds us to stay curious, to stay compassionate, and to stay empathetic towards one another, which I think during this really difficult time, and especially during these last 11 days until the election, when we're feeling so anxious that we want to bite each other's heads off, I think seeing something that reminds us of. our own humanity is something good to see. One of my favorite movies that you were in, I mean, my favorite is casino, but I loved

Total Recall. Right. I mean, I love that movie, and it's so early in your career. That is like such a groundbreaking movie. I'm curious to know if you, when it was happening, I mean, it just is so unusual. Well, when they first called me about it, that it was an action movie with Arnold, I was kind of like, You know, I feel like I've done all the action films I really need to do and thanks. And then they said, well, Paul Verhoeven's directing.

And I said, Paul Verhoven, the Soldier of Orange and Spetter's director. And they're like, yeah. And I said, I'll be right there. And when I went in and I started discussing his body of work, I think everybody in the room was kind of startled that I was aware of all. of the work of this brilliant Dutch director. And as a result of that, I ended up not only doing total recall, but basic instinct with him and have a lifelong relationship with him.

But of course, he's not your average director. You know, he has a PhD in physics and a PhD in theology. And he's an extraordinarily intelligent and gifted human being whose thoughts, and ideas do not take a regular shape. So when he makes films, he just, you know, he made a film a couple years ago with Isabella Hubert about a woman who ends up having a relationship with her rapist. That is a very strange concept to even negotiate. And the film is spectacular.

And I think that he has a kind of a mind that people are really. afraid of and I sort of thrive on talking to those kind of people. I mean, it must be hard to be so smart and to have people not expect that from you. I mean, now they know that, but was that very tough? You know, when I was five, my parents took me to the local courthouse to get me tested because they didn't know what was going on with their extremely strange child. And then I was put in the second grade when I was five. And then halfway through the second grade, they decided that I was just too weird to cope with. So they packed me up in my little chair connected to my desk and put me in my little desk chair and slid me down the hallway to first grade, which of course was not very successful because I'd already done the majority of second grade.

So to say that no one knew what to do with me is kind of an understatement. And then for the third, fourth, and fifth grade, I went to what was a Mensa experimental school in the cafeteria of my school. And then when I was 15, I went to an experimental program with four boys to college for half a day. and then we had an office in our school where we tutored other children. And then I eventually student taught ninth grade English, but one of the boys got taken out of our group because he was eating light bulbs. He was demonstrating his ability to eat light bulbs because he was just a little too far out on the spectrum. So yes, it's always been a bit strange.

And then I started going, I went to university part of the day. And then I eventually just went to university full time by the time I was about, oh, I don't know, 17 maybe. So yes, to say that people didn't know what to do with me and haven't, as sort of been like a lifelong thing. Somebody had asked you about me too. Do you remember this interview when you had said, Yeah. Yeah. It's sort of stuck in my head.

I'm that same sort of generation that you are where it wasn't, you know, now women that are younger than we wouldn't have put up with this stuff. But I'm just curious how you feel about that stuff and if you feel like it's... I mean, where do we start? The men that have, you know, walked up behind me and just lifted me on my toes by putting their hand between my legs and so hard and so directly that they literally lifted me. off my feet and I turned around without a thought and punched them so hard in the face that they fell on their ass and slid across the floor. I mean, we could talk about those events. We could talk about, you know, any number of crazy things. But like you said, we're from another generation. And the generation before us was worse than our generation and the generation before that. And you think of women,

even today that are in relationships they call a marriage, which is just a perpetual private rape situation and don't know how to get out. So there are all kinds of these situations that we have not yet addressed in the Me Too world because people want to think that Me Too is a button on a desk in a powerful man's office. And me too starts in the home. It starts in with pedophilia. It starts when mothers and grandmother saying, is that person bothering you? And oh, don't let them bother you. And, you know, people don't say the truth about what's really happening to young boys and girls. and there's a culture around all of this that has to change. I'm curious to know, so my favorite movie,

and I feel like the movie that's stuck with me the most is Casino. Can you just tell me a little bit about, like, looking back on that movie. I mean, that movie is such like a profound cultural moment. I'm curious to know what your feelings about it are now. Well, I'm very proud to be a part of this. Scorsese playbook and to have worked with such giant talents. I'm very, very happy to have this relationship with Marty and to have, you know, worked with him again on the Bob Dylan project. And I hope to work with Marty again in my lifetime. I don't think anybody saw going in,

except me, perhaps. You know, this idea that I had with a character, I mean, I was tired for five weeks. I was there for five months. It was a really great character. And I just felt I worked hard to get the part. And then I worked hard to demonstrate what I felt was the impact that this woman had in the overall scheme of things.

So I was glad I got to play it. I sure wish that I had. had gotten other good parts afterwards, but just weren't any. I mean, I don't know that there are many parts as good as that part. No, it's hard to come up with a part where you really have any dynamic range or a story to tell. Yeah, I think that's right. This was amazing.

Thank you. I'd just like to add, if there's anybody out there who hasn't voted, if there's anybody out there whose family has been affected by the corrupt, the coronavirus. Please know that I've spent my entire life, my entire adult life, working in infectious disease in the HIV-AIDS world. Oh, that's right. Yeah, you did a lot of work with that. I have, and I won the Nobel Peace Summit Award for it and many other awards. And I've spent my entire adult life working with the very same doctors. Right, Fauci, too, right? Yes, in fact, Dr. Fauci and I are this week going to be receiving the treatment action group, the tag group Lifetime Achievement Awards

together for our work with HIV AIDS. And Dr. Fauci, this year, has just put an end to sleeping sickness on a global level. In 2019, with the help of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, have ended polio on a global scale. And Dr. Fauci is not just working on COVID. Dr. Fauci is working on ending infectious disease on a global level and is an extraordinary infectious disease doctor. And I've worked with he and many, many other infectious disease doctors on a global level for my entire adult life. And what I would like to say is that Donald Trump does not, has not, and will not get a grip on this because he does not respect himself and others. And I have worked with Obama and Biden, as well as many other presidents back through both of the Clinton periods.

And I can tell you which who what people work on infectious disease and what people withdraw the money from health care in this country. Hear about your families. And if you trust me because while 40 million people died of HIV AIDS because there were, was not only no vaccine, but no treatment. Now we have treatment for HIV-AIDS, but we still do not have a vaccine. So all of these tales that Trump is telling about a vaccine, we have to have testing on a vaccine before it's safe to give everyone. And if he has a general that's going to come around door to door and submit you to a vaccine, the vaccines that are on trial now are causing neurological damage. We do not have a clear path to a safe vaccine yet at all. And we have to have sufficient

testing so that we know what will be the side effects of the vaccine on ourselves and on children because drugs test differently on adults than on children. That's why there have been treatment drugs for a lot longer for adults with HIV AIDS. And there have been nothing for children for decades. Yeah, that's a really good point. So to pretend that there's going to be something in the next month or the next few weeks is an outrageous, outrageous presumption. And you must vote for someone who will tell you the truth because to make you a subject of an unapproved vaccine could kill you or worse. Yeah. Thank you so much. This was amazing. On that note, we'll wrap up this episode of the new abnormal from The Daily Beast.

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