WTF with Marc Maron Podcast - Episode 895 - Sharon Stone

Episode Date: March 4, 2018

Sharon Stone made a decision after she achieved fame with Basic Instinct. She wanted to build a way forward in Hollywood without being typecast. Sharon tells Marc how she navigated that part of her career, leading to projects like her recent multimedia mystery series Mosaic and collaborations with artists she always admired. Sharon also talks about the family incident that forced her to mature at a young age and gives her opinion on Hollywood's reckoning with sexual harassment and abuse. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and weekly bonus material! https://plus.acast.com/s/wtf-with-marc-maron-podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Along with your favorite restaurant food, groceries, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly, host of Under the Influence. Recently, we created an episode on cannabis marketing.

With cannabis legalization, it's a brand new challenging marketing category. And I want to let you know we've produced a special bonus podcast episode where I talk to an actual cannabis producer. I wanted to know how a producer becomes licensed, how a cannabis company competes with big corporations, how a cannabis company markets its products in such a highly regulated category, and what the term dignified consumption actually means. I think you'll find the answers interesting and surprising. Hear it now on Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly. This bonus episode is brought to you by the Ontario Cannabis Store and ACAS Creative. What the fuck, buddies? What the fucksters? What's happening? I'm Mark Maron. This is my podcast, WTF.

Welcome to it. It's still called WTF. I am still called Mark Maron. It's interesting, this many years into this racket, that we haven't changed much. I'm looking around the garage in its last days, and I have complete faith that the new space will be equally cluttered but there's going to probably be a kitchen in there which will be nice be nice maybe guests can uh can sort of uh spend a week there maybe i can offer a sort of interview slash uh bed and breakfast situation where i have a guest and then I say, so enjoy your stay here.

And I'd say, that'd be funny. Wouldn't it? Would it not be funny to have a guest for a week and have a week of conversations with somebody who actually stays in the garage? Huh. I wonder who would volunteer for that business. Sharon Stone is on the show today. Did I mention that?

Sharon Stone. And I was nervous. I was nervous in the I'm a little intimidated kind of way. I'm always a little nervous, but I was like, is she going to destroy me somehow? I don't know why I thought that. And it wasn't a weird paranoia. It was just sort of, am I going to be able to keep it together? She's very intense.

I've only seen her in movies. And I saw her once backstage at Conan for like two minutes. And I think she walked right through me. Just walked right, not past me, through me. That was the feeling I got. Again, I am a nervous, slightly panicked, occasionally terrified person

whose sense of self can be obliterated in seconds either by my own brain or what I think someone else is thinking. But I can reconstitute pretty quickly too. I have a pretty good reconstitution rate. I did five sets last night i did five sets within one structure last night at the comedy store i went out

sarah's in new york right now um she's doing a work on site for the uh the big Armory art show in New York. It's a big art show with a lot of exhibitions. It's one of the big ones. And Sarah the painter, Sarah Kane, the painter, is doing a work on site as we speak. She's up to her neck in paint. She has people helping her, painters working with her to create a massive piece on site at Pier 94 at the entry. So if you go to the Armory show in New York,

which is March 8th through the 11th, that's what you'll see when you walk in at Pier 94. Sarah Kane's work on site. There'll be a lot walk in at Pier 94, Sarah Cain's work on site. There's going to be a lot of paint on the wall, canvases involved, other things. It's where she really nails these things. She just gets in it. Improvisational. That's where we have something in common, her and I.

We like to work improvisationally, see what happens. It's exciting. So that's what I was saying, though. She's doing that, so I'm free to stay out late and work all night at the comedy. Five shows last night. And I went to see Buffalo Tom for about half of their set. Janowitz was here, and he invited me down. So I went down there, said hi to the fellas at Terragram Ballroom

and then I watched about half of the set and it was good. It was good. It was good to see him. It's good to see the, us old guys out doing the work. Did I mention that I played some,

I played out in public? I didn't promote it because I didn't want to, folks. So yeah, last week, I'm coming around. I'm coming around. I'm coming around. Last week, Jimmy Vivino from the Conan O'Brien Show texted me

and said, do I want to come in and sit in at Al's Bar and Grill, I think it's called, in Burbank and do a couple of tunes with him and the fellas. Not the Conan band, but just a combo. It's Jimmy, a drummer, a bass player, and a guy on the keys.

And I was like, he said, I think you're ready. I think Jimmy Vivino, the guy who's been teaching me licks and letting me play his guitars in the dressing room for decades, he said, I think you're ready. And I'm like, all right, man, all right, what are we playing? And he told me, Walk in My Shadow, which is a free song. And I've got fucking thousands of records at this point,

and I've got three or four free records, but not the one with Walk in My Shadow, a song I'd never heard. That's a great blues number. So I learned that. And then he wanted to do from a Buick 6, which is a Bob Dylan tune from Highway 61 Revisited. So I learned those, got my chops in order, and I went down there with Sarah.

And it was just a lot of dudes my age and older who were guitar players, some people from the business. Dickie Betts' kid was there. I forget his first name. He's a guitar player. And I was nervous, man, because I choke, I fucking choke, when I got to play guitar in public, there's a 50-50 chance that I'm going to choke, and I didn't want to, but I got up there, and I laid it out, man, I followed through, did a beautiful solo, I've got to admit, I stayed on it, I stayed in it, I didn't exceed my abilities, or tried to, and I felt pretty happy. I actually had

a good time. Quote me. I actually, did you hear me? I had a good time playing guitar with Jimmy Vivino, and I did good. You can go to my Instagram feed if you want. I think it's at Mark Maron, and I posted the first part of the solo. I could post all of it, I think, if I Mark Maron. And I posted like the first part of the solo. I could post all of it, I think, if I could figure it out. But you can hear how I entered it. I'm proud of it. I'm going to do more of it. And that gold top, I got a Gibson Westpaw gold top reissue, 56.

That's the fucking guitar with those P90s, my friends. That is my spirit animal animal that is my soul brother that fucking deluxe so five sets last night one in the original room and then they uh whitney cummings uh had to cancel so i did her spot in the main room then i did one in the belly room then i did another one in the uh original room and then i did a last one in the belly room and those like third and fourth sets they got loopy so i i oh the oscars are happening and um i'm not watching them because i'm going to be working tonight so i uh we'll talk about it thursday but those third and fourth sets i you know i really should tape them i don't know why i don't and it doesn't matter if i do really but i got out there because you know once if you're i'm trying to riff through

some new stuff so you just start opening up the brain keeps opening up and then you get out into this weird zone where you don't give a fuck and you just have a a pretty good stream of consciousness going and it's surprising not always funny but the audience will definitely be like what the fuck just happened which is fine fine response but it was exciting so uh i'm gonna let you listen to me uh talking to sharon stone i i uh yeah i was uh i watched mosaic which is uh currently on hbo and she she did a fair a very astounding job with that with that performance i thought she always does and i've always been very impressed with her emotional uh accessibility as a as an actress and and and and just the intensity of it but that one experience i had seeing her person made me

a little scared but uh but we we did good we did very well it was a very well. It was a pleasure to talk to her. It was exciting to engage with her. She is one of the great actresses. And it was just exciting to have her here in one of the last days of The Garage. So this is me talking to Sharon Stone. Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly, host of Under the Influence. Recently, we created an episode on cannabis marketing. With cannabis legalization, it's a brand new challenging marketing category. And I want to let you know we've produced a special bonus podcast episode where I talk to an actual cannabis producer.

I wanted to know how a producer becomes licensed, how a cannabis company competes with big corporations, how a cannabis company markets its products in such a highly regulated category, and what the term dignified consumption actually means. I think you'll find the answers interesting and surprising. Hear it now on Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly. This bonus episode is brought to you by the Ontario Cannabis Store and ACAS Creative. Death is in our air. This year's most anticipated series,

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streaming February 27th exclusively on Disney+. 18 plus subscription required. T's and C's apply. I have a couple of pieces of memorabilia from Marlon Brando. You do? Yeah.

How'd you get hold of that? When he died, I bought them from his estate. Uh-huh. I bought the letter that he sent, the telegram that he sent to Marilyn Monroe when she was in the neurological hospital. Really? It was so beautiful. Was it like a poem-ish thing? Really? It was so beautiful.

Was it like a poem-ish thing? No, it was a telegram that he wrote to her that we should never be afraid of being afraid because it was in that place that we find the better part of ourselves. Wow. And I bought the belt that his crew made for him when he directed Jack O'Heart. that his crew made for him when he directed Jack of Hearts.

Ah. And it was a, the leather band is all hand-tooled cards. Oh, yeah? And then the belt buckle is an MB, silver MB. Nice. Yeah, with a, engraved on the back to him. And do you wear it or just keep it tucked away somewhere? I wear it. I take it when I go on films.

You do? And wear it to work. And no one knows what it is, but I wear it or just keep it tucked away somewhere? I wear it. I take it when I go on films. You do? And wear it to work. And no one knows what it is, but I wear it to work. It's sort of like a talisman? It's my talisman. That's something. Yeah. Did you ever meet him?

I didn't. But, of course, I hold him in the highest esteem. I watch and re-watch the opening scene to The Fugitive Kind, where he stands in front of the desk, looking up and talking to the judge. It's just one single long shot on him where he talks to the judge in a monologue. Yeah. And it's so unbelievable because you can't take your eyes off him yeah and it's just so good yeah he's just so

you know it was just that time when acting really changed and and he was changing it. And it's so beautiful. Effortless and electric. Yeah. Just like you could just watch him do nothing. Yeah. And it's not nothing. I know. Because he's so invested in his work. And he's so sincere and unfettered.

Uh-huh. And so honest. And his honesty is so brutal and uh you seem to find that now thank you i i feel like what else is there right you know and for some you know i, people find honesty so unpredictable. It is. Right.

And I think it makes people uncomfortable because they have to react to it somehow. They have to. I think people get thrown off when things don't just happen that are mundane and kind of predictable. When some real feelings come out, people get a little, they're like, what am I? I have a responsibility now. Some people do. Yeah. And then some people just numb over.

Right. I think I was over explaining that phenomenon. Like they're sort of, they don't know what to do. Yeah. Did you always have this? Apoplexia. Yeah.

I get that a lot just from looking at the news. Not so much from honesty with people. I can handle that. Well, I'm not sure the just from looking at the news. Not so much from honesty with people. I can handle that. Well, I'm not sure the news is really the news anymore. I mean, so many news stations have given up their news station status and taken on an entertainment status in their registry. And we don't really even know, in fact, that news stations aren't registered as news stations so that they are not required to report actual news.

And so they're just talking. Yeah. Ideological, aggravated entertainment. Exactly. Yeah. And therefore, it's very hard to turn on anything and expect to hear news. Yeah.

And it's exhausting. So apoplexia is the right reaction to it. It's overwhelming. Or not mind-numbing. Yeah. Do you check out? Do you do it? Well, I find, like, I used to love to watch CNN.

But now CNN is just the Donald Trump beat-down channel. And, you know, as much as, you know, anyone, I think that, you know, it's stupefying to watch his decisions being made. It's more stupefying to watch a bunch of people continually ad nauseum discuss how stupid this one endless decision is. And we're going to have three more people come in and talk about this. And there's another four. Yeah, to tell you why it's stupid. So this Brando, the emotional honesty. So when I watched you in Mosaic, which oddly, at the end, it was kind of provocative about art.

Of all things, I left that thing thinking about art. Good. Is that what it'm supposed to do? I think we're supposed to think about expression and that, you know, children really do tell the truth. Yeah. And we should raise them not to be like us, but we should try to be more like them. Yeah. But also the sort of power structure, the people that buy art, the people that have the art, and the people that revere the art.

And then the actual, it sort of ends on the child's art. I just thought it was, my girlfriend's a painter, so she lives in that world. Right. Where these one percenters who I don't know if they could give a shit about art are really buying all the art. And there was just something about perception and about what art means. And I think what you said is the final note of it, but it was so corrupted and weird to me, the whole power structure of it, not just the murder, but about the art world and about how power never gets taken to task. Well, I think there's truth in that. Sure, of course, the whole thing was true,

but I was surprised that I'm watching you and then we're all trying to figure out who killed you. And then at the end. Well, in the app, you see who killed me. Yeah, but I think I didn't do that part. We'll see. What do you know then? Okay. I guess I don't know.

You mean I don't know who killed you? It wasn't. It's in the app. I have to go to the app You mean I don't know who killed you? It wasn't... It's in the app. I have to go to the app? Yeah. So I'm in the dark? I watched the whole thing? You're in the shadow.

I'm in the shadow. I knew there was an app element. There was an app component. The app component is actually quite intriguing and a lot of fun to do. Because I got the app first because it was completed first. Yeah. And so when we did the publicity tour, I hadn't seen the HBO product. Yeah.

The HBO show is fabulous, I think. Yeah. I think they did a terrific job. And a whole, a completely different woman, an editor, come in and she re-edited it from a completely different perspective. Uh-huh. and she re-edited it from a completely different perspective, which was very, very interesting. Just look at the Rashomon of it, to see someone take the same material, the same footage, and edit it from yet another perspective.

Different point of view. Because the app has it from several perspectives. That's the point of view of the app, is that you can watch it from many different perspectives. From the characters. And yet again, the HBO thing is one more perspective. But there is a conclusive... There's a conclusive

reality where you can see who did do the murder. And that's one of the options on the app that you should probably wait to watch that one until you kind of play around with your ideas first. Well, that happens as you go through the different, it's like a family tree where you can come down and choose the different ways that you view it in perspective. But you do come to the understanding of who committed the murder as you walk through the app.

And is there more, so there's actually more footage and scenes of yes yeah you shot a lot more than that what's on the hbo show yes so this requires that you do the app thing if you want the full experience i think it's pretty great yeah no it sounds great i think it's really intriguing and um i just guess i'm like i mean i could tell from the hbo thing who committed the murder but it was it's a little bit like anything. If you want to know, you can. And if you kind of want to la-la-la-la-la-la, you don't. I like the guy who played the cop.

He was kind of great. Oh, my God. It's just so... Devin Rattray. Devin Rattray. Yeah. Yeah. And he was like...

Wasn't he in like Home Alone? I mean, he's been around forever. Oh, he was in Heartland. He's like a little kid actor. Oh, yeah. He's just been in everything. We were lucky to have him. And you were so in it.

Like you were making me emotionally uncomfortable in a good way. The way that you played the vulnerability of that character. Just wide open. I was lucky because Ed Solomon wrote that piece for me. And he's the most marvelous writer ever. He wrote so many great films and so many great things. Like what? Like Men in Black.

Big movies. Big, big things. He's just a wonderful, wonderful writer and a lovely man. It's nice to have somebody know you well enough to be able to create a character for you. Well, they started writing it for me. And then I met with them. And then he continued to put it in a language for me. And I love the kind of that dark, dry, somewhat vulgar humor that they wrote the character in.

I just thought, I love those kind of jokes where you know that nobody's going to laugh right that minute, but they're going to laugh later. Yeah. I love that kind of humor. I think that's... Because they're so taken aback in the moment. That you say it.

That you said it. What the fuck just happened? Right, that you're going to say a line like, you just took a shit on my carpet and wiped your ass on my drapes. And people are just going to be like, wow. But then tomorrow at the cooler, they're going to laugh. It's like very disarming. Right. Yeah, yeah.

I love. I think that was so wonderful about her, that she had this really great way of loving that was disarming and captivating. I like that character. Unpredictable and sort of infamous. And were you able, was there room for improvising or was it pretty scripted? It was very well scripted. It was very well scripted. Yeah. Very, very well scripted. And we had to shoot a lot in a day because there was so much to do because the script was 500 pages long.

Right. And because of the app, we had a lot to do because we had to do takes from a lot of different perspectives. And sometimes we were shooting 20 or 30 pages a day so it was a lot wow that's 20 pages a day that's a lot that's crazy in in uh in film time yeah yeah and um steven soderbergh shot himself he was one of the cameraman they shoot on the red camera which is a new wonderful digital camera and it's just a marvelous director how do you work with him before I had not and I was just so pleased to work with him well how what's his approach to actors well everybody said that he wasn't gonna talk to me don't worry he doesn't talk to you if he doesn't say anything that means he likes it and i found him to be quite communicative

and extremely funny and dry and sometimes he would just say the littlest thing that would be hilarious like when i walk up to the bar to meet um uh the the character of the young man who's going to move in with me. Yeah. And as I'm walking up to the bar, Steven says to me, just whispered to me, give him an elevator. And I just love that kind of direction. Yeah.

Because it gives you... What does that mean? You know, it's the look him up and down, but it's the look him up and down in a certain way. Right, right, yeah. It reminded me so much of like the sweet smell of success. The way that Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster and Joan Blondell, and it reminded me of the way that they talked. Right, right.

And it reminded me of a certain kind of woman yeah it's more than just look him over right it's a way it's a feeling of it's more direction than you it's a lot of direction uh-huh in a real shorthand. It's about being a kind of woman. Yeah. It's about a sort of a set up the scene in a certain way. Right. It's about you're that kind of babe. Yeah. You're the babe that gives him the look over and gets the drink and talks to him like that kind of broad.

Right. And he gives it to you really tight and sharp. Uh-huh. And it tells you about the whole scene it's not just look him over up and down yeah it's that's the kind of scene this is right yeah and he talks to me in any case he talks in a way that i really could you, it's right on the beat for me. Yeah. So if he gives you something, it captures the whole sense of the experience.

So I knew what the whole scene was, you know, like, yeah, I want a drink. Pour me something strong and, you know, tough. You know, give me something strong and muscular. Pour me something strong and muscular. Pour me something strong and muscular. It's a rhythmic, it's a feeling. It's about take me back to that kind of woman. Yeah. Who knows how to pick up a man by the way that she talks.

Right, yeah. You know what I mean? You're picking him up by just giving him some clues. Throwing him around a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. And the sort of painful thing about that is that I don't know how often you see the other side of that woman, which you do in this thing.

Right. Where, you know, the vulnerability, the sadness, the loneliness. Right. You know, just under it. That scene where, just even thinking about it, where the girlfriend shows up when you've just made breakfast or whatever. Right. And you bring that stuff in there and you're just standing there like an idiot. Right.

That was horrendous. Right. And then she tells that joke. Right. Just to nothing. Right, to nothing. And no one knows what the hell she tells that joke. Right. Just to nothing. Right, to nothing and just... And no one knows what the hell she's talking about. And the vulnerability of that.

Right. It's crazy. And beautiful, I think. Yeah, definitely. Like a weird flower in the wind, like just with all the poof flowing off of her. Like all the wind is just blowing all the... Off the flower. And like, yeah.

There you are. Just a stem. Yeah. Just the bare stem. The bare stem. But do you think that your acting has become like, that's what I was getting at the beginning there, that more informed as you get older?

Because I remember seeing you. Now that the poof has been blown off my stem a million times. I think so. But like, because when I, I mean, after casino, I mean, you've worked a lot. But I remember when I saw you in Alpha Dog, I was like, this is like a different Sharon Stone. Like in terms of what you were doing emotionally, even in that fat suit. I went through a period where I went to this man who was my friend, David Schiff, and asked him to be my agent.

Yeah. And we agreed that I would just take character parts. Okay. And so, because I just, it was dull to be offered the same thing all the time. Typecast. Yeah. Yeah. And so, I did things like dog and um and i worked with

jim jeremush and oh yeah and uh these kind of broken flowers right and i did these kind of sort of obtuse and these different esoteric characters all these different kinds of things and and uh lovelace and and all these parts where i could just disappear into these characters because i needed to for me even basic instinct was much more of a character part yeah then you know of course because i pulled it off then everybody thought oh that's the type she is but it was a big stretch for me as a person it was do that character it was a big stretch for me yeah it was way outside of my comfort zone because i never thought of myself in that way but i understood the character which was a very complicated character. Which way? Thought of yourself in which way? A hypersexual.

Okay. But the character, the hypersexuality was just a symptom of the crisis of the character. Right. The character was a sociopathic serial killer. Yeah. The hypersexuality was just the... The way she protected herself.

Well, and it was also a big part of the illness. It was a way that the illness manifested itself through the hypersexuality. But the problem was that she was a sociopathic serial killer. That's a problem. Yeah. Right? And that is a big character to break down. Yeah.

And to figure out. what is your process with that well i mean we're like when did you did you train when you were younger oh god yeah i had a spectacular acting teacher named roy london oh i've heard of roy london people talk about him all the time in new york uh here here here he came from new york but he everybody he was robert downey and forrest whitaker and gina davis and brad pitt and he, everybody, he was Robert Downey and Forrest Whitaker and Geena Davis and Brad Pitt. And he was everybody's acting teacher. He just was amazing. When did you start with him?

Oh, I was with him. From the beginning? 15 years. Oh, yeah? He was just the most wonderful. He was like a Gary Shandling. Oh, yeah, right. And he worked with Gary on his show.

And, you know, we were all just devotees of his. What was his process? Like, what do you have of it now that you sort of apply? Everything. Yeah. You know, what you're saying is not necessarily what you're meaning, as everyone knows. You know, I love you could mean I'm going to stab you in the eye. Yeah. You know, what you're saying is not necessarily what you're meaning, as everyone knows. Yeah. You know, I love you could mean I'm going to stab you in the fucking eye.

Yeah. You know. Yeah. Or you're everything to me. Right. Or I got to go. Yeah. You know, you never know what you're saying really means.

Yeah. And you have to know what you're doing and why you're doing it. Yeah. And what the point is. Yeah. So I interrupted you. So you signed on with that agent who got you those other roles in After Basic Instinct. That was really important, I think, to my development.

Yeah. Because I had to, for my own edification, I had to understand myself and my work and to be able to vanish so much inside my work that people didn't even know that it was me. Right. Like in Lovelace, for example. Yeah. So that when I came back to my work, I didn't feel taken advantage of if I played a character

again that perhaps had sexuality or hypersexuality to it. Yeah. So you fought, you pushed back against the typecasting. Yes. And I would imagine that it's, did you realize at that time that like, this is what Hollywood does? That, you know, once you surface as a powerhouse,

a sexual powerhouse character logically, that you're going- Or anything. Yeah. You know, if you're Iron Man, then you're going to be Iron Man forever. Forever. And you felt that. Yeah, because I think it's called show business, not show what do you feel like doing today.

So it's about the business of it. But to be really good, even playing a hypersexual character, you have to be able to reinvest at a deeper and better level. So you have to become more. Yeah. So it's about that process of how to become more. When did you just, where'd you grow up? In Pennsylvania. In like rural Pennsylvania? Yeah, in Amish country. Really?

Mm-hmm. But not with farmers? Oh, yes. You have a family of farmers? No. Or just farmers down the street my father was a dye sinker in a tool and dye shop what does that do what is that job he um a metal block yeah would would come in and they would put the blueprint on top of the

the steel block yeah and then my dad would cut the dye cast the precision cast into the piece of steel and then they would make car parts machine parts gun parts tank parts whatever out of this die out of this cast so it was like with with what were his tools was it welding was it giant machine yeah that would laser that would cut out of the thing steel yeah over time i mean my dad's forearms were the size of most people's legs you know my dad was ripped yeah my dad looked like schwarzenegger oh yeah and so but as time went on then they started to laser cut it yeah and then um these all of these companies came to my dad and asked him to come and teach their people how to move forward.

And ultimately, these businesses went out of business. Yeah. But he had a full life of it? Retired from it? He had a full life of it. He didn't get put out of business by the machine? No. That's good.

At the very end, he had his own small shop. Yeah. No, my dad got put out of business by cancer. Oh, that's bad. How old was he? In his 70s. He, in his late 70s. I'm sorry.

Yeah. And did you, and what'd your mom do? My mother was a homemaker and an Avon lady. Avon. Uh-huh. And then she went back to school and graduated high school with my graduating class. Really? And then went back to business school and became my dad's bookkeeper.

So you graduated with your mother? Yeah. That must have been interesting and exciting somehow. Both she and my dad went back to school at night. He to become a journeyman die sinker and she to get her high school diploma. Neither of them had graduated high school. They got together when they were teenagers. My mom had her first child when she was 17.

Who was that? My brother Michael. And my parents were together for 60 years. It's beautiful. In their way. Yeah. In their way. Yeah. In that country. Very country.

Deeply committed. We're children. What was lacking when you say in their way that you would have? Was it a community? Did they talk? My parents were madly in love. They had a beautiful relationship. I don't think that my mother ever got to fulfill herself

and be who she would and could have been. My mother, brilliant woman, who came from extraordinary poverty. She was given away when she was nine years old to be a housekeeper in a dental home and office. In Pennsylvania? In Pennsylvania as the third generation of Irish maids. Because that was a better life for her from the extraordinary poverty in which she grew up.

Where she and her four sisters had rickets and scurvy from the poverty in her home. Four sisters had rickets and scurvy from the poverty in her home. Her father poured molten metal in a steel mill that looked pretty much like hell. When I went in there as a little kid, they wore these kind of asbestos suits and huge metal hats and helmets and asbestos gloves that went up to their shoulders. And you would go in there and it literally looked like you were walking into hell. They were pouring big buckets of hot metal. Was it a steel mill? Yeah.

And you used to go over there? Yeah. To see your grandfather? Yeah. Wow. And it was horrific. Yeah. Just horrific. Yeah. Just horrific.

Yeah. And the poverty was the kind of poverty where the bathtub was in the kitchen and the ice box where they brought ice in was in the kitchen. Wild. But you knew your grandparents. I knew them. Yeah. Were they nice to you? No.

No. No, they were not. It wasn't, you know, that's not where nice really happens. Yeah. My grandmother tried to be nice, you know, and on Easter, she made fantastic homemade Easter eggs out of chocolate and, and things where she decorated them and they were very, very beautiful. Yeah. And that was the special thing that she did each year. But it was a level of poverty and extraordinary and extreme poverty. That there was no room for... For niceness.

Yeah, too brutal. No. And on the other side, on my dad's side, they had been extraordinarily wealthy. They were the first oil drillers in Oil City, Pennsylvania. And my grandmother was a phenomenally wealthy woman with chaparelli suits and silk hose. And then one day when my father was very small and he had a brother and a sister And his father was in business with his brother. The two men were at an oil site and they pulled with mules the rigs, like in giant, kind of, up to the oil site. And they were dropping the nitroglycerin into the well and it blew too soon.

And my grandfather had gone back to the house. He was sick, and he went back to get a sweater. And while he was gone, the well site blew and killed everyone at the well. His brother, the mules, the people who were up there. It was just a horrific accident. people who were up there it was this horrific accident and um a few months later my grandfather died of pneumonia and i'm sure grief yeah and because in those days nothing went to women yeah the women had no power the business went to the 18 year old son of my great uncle and apparently the legend has it that he drank and gambled it all away

within a couple of years. And so my grandmother became destitute from being extremely wealthy. And my dad, who was four, and his little brother, who was three, were given away and grew up in people's barns doing their chores. Really? And my grandmother took her daughter and moved into the sanatorium down the street and became a nurse in the sanatorium and laundress. For the mentally ill people? Yeah. It's so odd to hear just people giving away their kids to workplaces.

There was nothing to do in those days. You know, that was the Depression era. Right. And it was Pennsylvania, which I forget how, I don't forget, but I don't know if people know how rural that is. It's coal mining. Yeah. Erie Lackawanna Railroad.

Yep. Towel and zipper factories. Wow. That's. And you had how many siblings? I have four. Four of us. Three siblings. Everyone still around? Yeah. You get along? Yeah. That's nice. Yeah. And where do you fall in the middle? Well, I have a brother seven years older and a brother seven years younger and a sister three years younger. Oh, that's wild. And

then you needed to get out? Yeah. After high school? Like, when did you, like, I got to get the fuck out? Well, I went to high school and college simultaneously from the time I was 15. And then very shortly after that, I moved to my college campus. Which college? Edinburgh State University, which was close to home.

I had scholarships to go further away, but I was so young, my parents didn't want me to, which I'm sorry about. They were worried about you. Yeah, because I was so little. You were 15, 16, ready to go to college?

Well, you probably did the right thing, no? Who knows? When did you leave? Well, that was it. I left and just didn't come back. At what age? Well, it's sort of hard to think. I guess 17, maybe?

And you went to New York? Well, when I really left and went to New York, I was probably 19. Yeah. Yeah. And what happened there? I modeled for Eileen Ford, and then I moved to Milan. Oh, for the big scene? Same year. Wow.

And lived there, and then I moved to Paris the next year and lived there. That's exciting, right? Or were you just sitting in apartments with women throwing up? You know, this was the 80s. Yeah. It was a very wild time. Yeah. You've got to remember, this was the Studio 54 time.

Right. And you were like 19? Yeah. It was very, very wild. Did you have a good time sharon i had a very intriguing time yeah you know it was a very um fortunately i had a really great best friend who had gone to school in Italy. She was an exchange student, and she'd gone to art school in Florence, and she was my roommate in New York. So she gave me a lot of tips.

To stay safe? Yeah, she told me to tell all the Italians that I was a virgin. Yeah. And she taught me some Italian. Yeah. She told me to tell all the Italians that I was a virgin. Yeah. And she taught me some Italian. Yeah. And so that was my MO. And so Italian men revere a virgin. And so that really helped me out. Yeah.

Quite a bit. It saved you some. A lot of aggression. Right. Okay. There you go. Yeah. And it worked. It helped me out quite a lot of aggression. Right. Okay, there you go. Yeah. And it worked.

It helped me out quite a bit. That's amazing. And you committed to it and it worked. I did commit to that. That you were able to play the Italian men like that. I played the Virgin. That's great. In Italy card.

But like, how about New York? The Madonna card. Yeah. How did you not... I mean, you seem... Now, and I imagine you always were pretty grounded, but like, it just seems that that business ate a lot of people up, used a lot of people up.

I mean, it seems like there are women like who transcended it, but a lot of women did not. Well, my older brother had been in a lot of trouble. And, you know, I had to keep my jail trouble yeah my brother went to prison my brother went to attica wow um and so i have matured pretty quickly over that situation uh-huh um and because of that i uh i was pretty feet on the ground. Yeah. And I think when that sort of thing happens,

that's not a small thing. Yeah. And that's not an overnight thing. Is he out? Yes. Yeah. He got 14 to life, and then he got transferred to a white-collar camp, and then he got sent back to Attica, but then he eventually got out after a couple of years, and he got 10 years of parole.

And then after he got out of parole, he came out and moved in with me for a while. In New York? I was in L.A. by then. Wow. And, you know, that was tough, because having him with me was a lot of responsibility. And I only think he's beginning to understand any of that now. Really? How young I really was.

How difficult it was to be so young and have the responsibility of him. I think that he kind of thought that I was always a powerful big movie star. I don't think he really understood that I was like a young kid when it was all starting. Well, you had that personality where people were like, she'll be okay. She's got her shit together. Ever since I was little. Right. I was the kid that didn't need any attention because I would be okay.

Right, exactly. And that's a hard kid to be in the family. Especially when it starts to break down. Yeah, and you're little. Yeah, and everyone's looking at you like you're the parent or the one who knows things. Yeah, instead you're the one whose birthday they forget or the one they forget to pay attention to. You're the one that no one ever looks at. And you've got nowhere to go to.

Who are you going to go to? No one. you're the one that no one ever looks at. And you've got nowhere to go to. Who are you going to go to? No one. And it just seems like I've been the one in my life who had no one to ever go to. Wow.

And I feel a little bit like that has affected my life intensely. I'm the one with three adopted kids and no partner because no one ever seems to think that I need someone to lean on or to put my head on their shoulder or for them to listen to me. And when I say that I do, it's a little bit like, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la. Can't be true.

Right. And so. So you brought a lot of that to that mosaic part. Yeah. And I feel a little bit like I'm over that. Yeah. A bit. Yeah.

If I'm going to be alone, I'd rather be alone. Right. Yeah. I think after a certain point, when you know yourself well enough, it's just exhausting. It is exhausting. It is exhausting. To be with people sometimes. Yeah, when you've been doing this since you were little.

Yeah. Yeah. So after you model for a while, what gets you into movies? Well, even when I was in modeling, you have a lot of good toys on the desk here. Good. Even when I was modeling, right from the start, I did a lot of commercials. Yeah. At first, I had a bit of a Pennsylvania accent.

What does that sound like? You know, did you eat yet? Come on down here. Really? Yeah. You know, we shot that deer. Did you shoot that deer? Yeah, I hit that deer with my car, and then I put it on a hood,

and then went out and got something to eat. Did you eat? Did you have some pop with your dinner? Did you have pop, or what did you have? It's a little bit like that. You talk like that, and then all the sentences got something to eat. Did you eat? Did you have some pop with your dinner? Did you have pop or did you have, what did you have? It's a little bit like that. You talk like that. You talk like that and then all the sentences kind of run together. It's not quite southern.

You know, yeah. But it's a little bit southern. A little bit, yeah. And so then even when I got my accent to be mid-Atlantic, sometimes people will say, what's with the southern? She has a little bit of a southern accent when I slow down. It's because when you're from pennsylvania you're right up west virginia you know you've got you're like a little mason dixon yeah and so even when i get my mid-atlantic is going yeah you know i can get a

little bit where it sounds a little southern if I'm not careful. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, because there is a little bit of that kind of like that country twang that just keeps going all the time when you talk like that. You got to do a part where you do that. Where I talk like that? Yeah. Did you eat jet?

Uh-huh, yeah. Did you hit a deer? I didn't eat, and I didn't hit a deer. Did you hit a deer? You want a sandwich? Yeah, I do want a sandwich. A sandwich? Yeah, so, you know, I started listening, and I told Walter Cronkite this a long time ago.

I watched Walter Cronkite on the news and I would, you know, make dinner and say what he said and keep repeating it back. But the problem was all my sentences had stops in the middle because he was reading a teleprompter. Yeah. And I toasted him at a party and said that once. And he was like, well, Sharon, there's something I'd like to say to you. Fuck off. That's great.

So you had to get rid of the accent. You're doing commercials. I did hundreds of commercials. Were you a big model? At that time, I wasn't really the right size because the girls were like nine feet tall and weighed 100 pounds yeah but i was um successful i was what was called special bookings because i had a good face yeah and i did a lot of commercials and a lot of beauty. Yeah. And there were about 15 of us, which were called special bookings, which was a big deal in that day. And I made a lot of money and I did well in a certain way.

And you were there in New York for Studio 54 and all that shit. Yep. And you went to those parties. Yep. And you just saw the insanity, just cocaine insanity. Yep. People having sex in the club all club in the club in the balcony yeah yeah and you were able to have some distance from that yeah because you know my brother had

already been arrested what did he get arrested for um cocaine uh possession of uh well that's what he would did time for yeah uh--huh. Oh, that's very specific. Uh-huh. It's not murder. It's sort of like, this shit's bad. Yeah. You saw him go down. It was on television. FBI kicked down the door and they televised it.

Wow. So he was like a regional dealer type of deal? Like day before Christmas. Okay. So that's where the lesson sunk in that that shit's bad well i just was like you know i was never into cocaine it was not my thing you're lucky yeah i didn't i'm not that wasn't my you know you don't have an addictive personality you know no i had there were some alcoholics in my family and um you know holidays where you pick a couple alcoholics up off the floor as a regular, that's what, you know, Christmas and Thanksgiving, that's a part of it.

You know, it's just not my thing. Well, that's great because you have that personality, right? So you're the one that's in control all the time. I was always that kid. Right. But, you know, like kids who have to deal with that go one of two ways. Either you go the control way or you go the out of control my parent my my dad was never drank you know that's good but family extended family like your uncles and whatnot yeah and i just it wasn't

no yeah well no you you want to keep your wits about you it's just so unattractive to me yeah i really people who drink and then talk and tell you how much they care about you it's just so unattractive to me yeah i really people who drink and then talk and tell you how much they care about you is really to me one of the like the worst yeah i just so i didn't realize so you broke into movies with woody allen kind of yes i had no i would and i remember it you know but like until i read it yesterday, I'm like, oh my God. That was my first job. You were the pretty lady on the train. Yeah.

Going to the same place at the dump. Yeah. Yeah. And how did you get that job? This extras casting guy named Ricardo Bertone, who I met in New York, called me and said that Juliet Taylor was casting extras. And so I roller skated over. You roller skated over. It was that period.

Okay. Real roller skates, not even roller blades. No. Right. The big clunky bang, bang, bang. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I came over and roller skated into the extras line. And when I got to the front, Juliet Taylor handed my picture to Woody, who happened to be sitting there.

Yeah. Astonishingly enough. And then. Three on the train. Yeah. Yeah. And that's when it started. Yeah.

And then I had so much fun. And then Gordon Willis, who is an amazing cinematographer, who shot, of course, all the Godfather movies and everything that ever mattered in that period, was there. And I don't know, they got a kick out of me. And then Michael Pizer, the first AD, came and said, you know, they really like you and they want to know if you'd like to work for a couple weeks. We can't pay you what you're paying to model, but would you like to keep working? And I said I would and yeah i did yeah for that movie yeah and that started it all yes and then you moved out here well then i michael peiser called

me on a couple other gigs i worked for um in a french movie with james conn and then i worked in some other movie how was he you know? We're friends to this day. Yeah? Yeah. That's good to hear. Yeah. Solid? Solid and hilarious, and he's been a very stand-up friend to me all my life.

That's great to hear. Yeah. Jimmy and, you know, Joe Pesci and... Jimmy. Jimmy Conn. Yeah. Joe Pesci. Jimmy Woods.

Yeah. These guys thatci. Yeah. Jimmy Woods. Yeah. These guys that I worked with through Marty, all of them have just been such stand-up friends to me. Yeah. I mean, they really make sure that I'm okay. And they have for a long time. Yep. That's great.

Yeah. So Pesci, you talked to Pesci? Pesci. Pesci. Chris Walken. Yeah. Who I've had the joy of working with a couple times. These are the greatest guys.

Oh, that's nice to hear. Wonderful men. And you're in touch with them. Yeah, and they're wonderful. Yeah. Wonderful friends to me. I guess that's hard to find. I mean, they just stand up for me.

They're really, really great. In what kind of situations is that required? You know, someone says, is inappropriate in front of me or around me. They just tell them to shut it the fuck down. I don't know why,

I still don't really understand the amount of shit that smart, you know, talented, outspoken women get. Because it's, on this show, like just for instance you know like

it's happened when we used to have a comment board right where we'd i'd have somebody like you know chelsea handler on or i talked to jen lawrence the other day we took the comment board down but only those guests just get this barrage of garbage people just fuck her fucked it it's when you see that and you realize that the misogyny and the threat is so deep it's deeply disturbing you know the threat there i think these people are expressing how threatened they feel right they feel threatened it's something in themselves that they can't confront there's something in themselves that they can't confront. There's something in themselves that they can't look at, that they can't face, that hearing us or being around us or looking at us presses a button that makes them feel so

threatened that I would just suggest just sitting with it a little bit. Just sitting with that feeling that makes you feel so threatened. Sit with that and see what's going on yeah we're not in the age of sitting with things no we're in the age of just spitting back at the person like you did something to me yeah you know i don't think anybody any of us are trying to make you feel bad but if if it's hurting you yeah just the mere presence yeah is hurting you what isn't you is hurt so much? You know, there's a salve for that.

There's someone to talk to. There's things online you can look at. There's people that will talk to you and help you and make you feel less bad. You don't need to yell at women or your screen. Yeah, I mean, there's really love and compassion and empathy that you can actually have yeah i don't know if i don't know if everyone's designed to take it i i know that's i mean you know it's like i even myself i mean i know in myself i don't know if you because i i have a similar situation where i was always the kid that was thought to have a shit together but like when people come at me uh with love i don't always trust it yeah i well and

nor should you i know i know but you have to be discerning and it's hard to be discerning about love love is messy yeah and people all these like sweet songs and stupid movies and everything don't tell us how messy love is yeah yeah it can get really volatile. And disorganized. It's so hard for me to... Chaotic and weird and... Where's good? Does good come in? Is that on the list?

Is good on... I mean, yes, beyond good. Good, ecstatic, astounding, blissful till your head hurts. But at the same time... There's a price. Nothing's free, baby. So, okay. So we talked a bit about basic instinct,

but what was the experience? And I love that you're friends with all these guys still. That's so nice. I don't hear that very often. I'm friends with Verhoeven. Yeah. Which takes some doing. Yeah, that's what I hear.

He's a character, huh? He's complicated, you know? I mean, he's got a doctorate in doing. Yeah, that's what I hear. He's a character, huh? He's complicated. I mean, he's got a doctorate in physics. He's got a doctorate in theology, though he has no faith. He's a complicated, fascinating, brilliant, difficult person. What's he been doing? He did this beautiful movie with Isabella Huppert about rape,

which is extraordinary. I think it's called Her. That won a lot of awards this last year. He did a movie, I think it was called Mrs. Stone, but in German, that was very interesting, particularly to me. Wow.

Well, because the character had a lot of things about it that were just particular to me. When I watched it in the theater i really was uh felt exposed i felt surprised i was surprised at the theater oh yeah did he write the movie uh parts of it clearly and so i just was like did you feel betrayed i was uh no because no one but me would know which parts. Right. Oh, good. Did you call him and say, what the fuck?

No. Okay. I didn't because I now, we're way beyond what the fuck. Okay. What the fuck happened when I saw Basic Instinct? Right. Now, I have a much deeper understanding of the artist and the person. And he's really a profoundly dedicated artist and someone who I understand.

That's great. And you have a creative relationship with him as well. Yes. Like there's a simpatico there. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Do you have that with Scorsese as well?

I think I do. I think I do. I really... Man, you're running up that driveway in Casino. Well, because he asked me, you know, do you want to do the the car do you want the stunt person i'm like to crash the car i'm like i'm living to smash this car i really i was so happy to do that and when the bumpers hooked together i couldn't have been more thrilled um because that

was really kind of what it was about oh god the smash up that hooked together yeah right and what did you say to him you keep an eye on him you're like yeah i just we got to be in the house for one second it was just it was a wonderful experience working with marty in any capacity is for me just an absolute pleasure and i feel that way about Albert Brooks. Oh, you did The Muse, right? He's great. I'm nuts about Albert. I hope to work with him in any capacity moving forward.

So funny. And you can do comedy. You can do anything, which is great. Thank you. Albert is... I mean, I can do anything with the right people. I mean, I have to have people I can talk to. Right. You know what I mean?

And you trust? Yeah. I'd like to work with Judd A I mean, I have to have people I can talk to. Right. You know what I mean? And you trust? Yeah. I'd like to work with Judd Aptow because I get him. Yeah. He's brilliant and frigging funny. What'd you do with him? Well, I have not, but I did, I did, he was Gary's very good friend. Yes, yes.

And I, I feel like I would have a, I feel like I'd get him. Yeah. Who, Judd? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Sweet. Sweet, smart.

Yeah. Focused. Yeah. And likes emotion. Yeah. He likes it. And he likes the happy part. Yes.

Yes. Yeah. Yay. He's struggling for the happy part. Yes. Fighting for the happy. Yeah, which I really. Yeah. Yeah. Happiness is the happy. Yeah, which I really... Yeah.

Happiness is a discipline. No shit. And not a lot of people have the guts to discipline themselves to happy. Yeah, because it's a lot more easy and predictable to be shitty. Yes. You know what's going to happen. It's the easy way out. Here it's happening again.

Yeah. Like I said. Like I said it would. I told you this yesterday. Yes yes now we're in it yeah and it's a little it's a little tedious how did you get that how like it's very hard to play uh up for a couple days on cocaine i mean like you know i'm just thinking about that still for some reason you know you running into that house you know having you know been partying and just like not sleeping and because there's a thing that happens to your body yes where you just you kind of you're you don't work right right and you you did that yes what i

do to do that is that i don't eat okay so you got weak yes what i do is i when i'm doing that on film what i do is i is i stop eating yeah and i drink diluted protein drinks and it makes my because i have a very very fast metabolism yeah like bizarre yeah fast metabolism and it makes my metabolism really crank up. And I get really buzzy. Really cranked up. And really like, if I don't have food. I'm not a person who if I don't have food I get I just get wound up. Like I need to eat to settle down. Yeah, you don't get all I need to eat to settle down. Yeah, right, right.

Yeah, you don't get all like I'm about to pass out. No. You go the other way. Yeah. And when you work with De Niro, it sounds like you're closer with Pesci ultimately as a friend. Well, I really love Bob. Yeah.

And I so respect Bob. And I admire Bob at a level that's almost a little bit unhealthy, probably. But Bob is very, his focus level is amazing. And there's no goofing around. You know, you're just in it. So I can't say that I hang out with Bob in the same way. Yeah. But the work is the greatest thing that ever happened.

To be with him working? Yes. Yeah. It's fantastic. Yeah. Because whatever you give, he's right there. Yeah. there yeah and I loved that that constant constant in it yeah like you're in it it's like you dive into the deep end of the pool and you stay there yeah

and I I just love that I love the immersiveness of it. I love the profound deep dive. Yeah, yeah. So with Shanling, he's another sweetheart that we lost. You were good friends with him? I was very good friends with Gary and he was my boyfriend at one point a long, long time ago.

Oh, that's right. That happened. Yeah. It was like we were all the different things you could be. Yeah. He was like my boyfriend at one point a long, long time ago. Oh, that's right. That happened. Yeah. It was like we were all the different things you could be. Yeah. He was like my boyfriend. He was like my brother. He was like my family. Yeah.

You know, we were very, very, very close. We wrote stuff together. Yeah. We worked together. Yeah. We were in class together. We dated. Roy was like our parent. That class must have just been amazing oh do you have fun with the franco and that disaster artist

i did that was i thought that was a good part i did and i'm appalled by this thing about him that's happening where the girlfriend i don't know how you know the girlfriend can say that she's offended that he asked for a blow job while they're dating yeah and now all of a sudden he's a bad guy well i got to tell you i've worked with him i know him he's the loveliest kindest sweetest elegant nicest man most kind friend lovely professional i'm absolutely appalled by this yeah and what about you know the sort of broader idea of it i mean having been you know a sex symbol in this business for decades what were you up against well i've seen it all right there isn't any of it that i haven't seen or experienced i I have found, of course, much of this behavior absolutely hideous and appalling, and there was nowhere to go with it. Now that it's happening and that it can be curtailed, I think that's brilliant.

My approach at this point I have confronted a couple of the people. Oh yeah? Personally? How'd that go? I just said, you know, I'm not naming names and ruining lives. But if I was, I would name your name and ruin your life. Wow.

And the response I've gotten has been interesting. You want to talk about it? I'm like, I'm not your mom, I'm not your nurse or your therapist been interesting. You want to talk about it? I'm like, I'm not your mom. I'm not your nurse or your therapist. But if you want to think about it and you want to take responsibility for it, I think that you should. And then you can reach out to me and we'll discuss it. Huh. So that's been the response.

There's not. It hasn't. And so far, I haven't heard any response. I don't know if I will. But you feel it off of you? I feel that I'm being responsible in a time when there's possibility for me to be responsible. There was no possibility. You could tell people before, and no one gave a shit.

Right. possibility you could tell people before and no one gave a shit right so um i don't feel like these trials without due process are entirely appropriate i feel that it's appropriate that people have to take responsibility for the actions but I do feel that some due process is in order there's a range of activities and you can't charge someone with a felony over a misdemeanor and there's some points where you know there has to be a balance here where this has to be heard in a rational format. So this isn't just black and white. And it can't be that every man who doesn't know what the fuck he's doing in life is a criminal.

Because a lot of people are just stupid. I can say, because I've been single a lot of my life, some men just are really incredibly stupid. You go out with them they bring you home for a good night kiss and grab your hand and put it on their penis yeah and you know a 50 year old man yeah and you're like you know i don't think they're trying to sexually harass me i think they're just incredibly stupid and awkward yeah like really that's your move yeah yeah like real graceful like Like, you know. Sexy.

Just please don't ever call me again. You're just too stupid to date. You know, I don't know that I should ruin your whole life over that. Right. But I think you're just incredibly stupid. And crass. And crass. And just, is that really what you think is a move?

Yeah. Yeah. You think that's the next thing after a kiss? Yeah. It's just so look i tell you one thing you know everyone's going to be pretty well educated and pretty well boundaried i think that that's the that's the key yeah that i don't think anyone ever told anybody no and and also people got away with shit but you know it was honest my mother father no one gave me sex education

no i never got it. And you got to be told no and you got to be shocked. But if your parents, your mother's not telling you how to deal with your own period, no one's explaining to you how to use a pad or a Tampax, how is anyone telling that kid how to go on a date? Yeah. Nobody's telling anybody anything. No, everyone's watching porn.

Yes. how to go on a date. Nobody's telling anybody anything. No, everyone's watching porn. Yes, and then pretending that we're a prudent and prurient society. It's absolutely absurd. It's a lack of education as much as it's that everybody is an animal and should lose their job. A lot of this is because no one knows what to do. Children, teenagers are giving birth in bathroom stalls because no one is telling anybody anything yeah the best thing that's coming out of this is education yeah absolutely um do you okay so what movie you're working on now well uh i'm going to do a film with bet middler a comedy

oh really called the um allergist wife that's just an absolutely hilarious script oh that's great um i'm looking at a variety i'm getting sent television series all the time i'm looking for the right one um just reading constantly what about scorsese something happening i i did something with scorsese we're just waiting for him to get finished editing it it's actually been a couple of years. It's just, I don't know. A full movie? Yes.

It's not the same kind of movie. It's a whole different thing. Oh. And so we're waiting. I don't know what he's doing. Because he has so many projects going simultaneously that you can do something and then you never know when it's coming out. That's weird about movies, huh? Yes.

And health is good? I'm feeling fabulous. I'm doing great. Thanks for asking. My kids are gorgeous and wonderful and smart and funny and nice. And you seem great. You were great in that show. You're always great.

Thank you. It's a real honor to talk to you. Nice to meet you. And I have one question for you. Why? How excited? You're the guy that interviewed Obama. Yeah, he was sitting right where you are.

Yeah, and how was that? It was beautiful. He's such a good man he's great it was so like you know he was so disarming and you know grounded and human it was it was a real trip smart very smart and you know and i kept it off politics for the i tried to to sort of because i talk about the people as a person yeah yeah and you know and because you know he's so smart if he would have gotten into politics, you're going to get 20 minutes on something that's going to be very thorough. Right.

But you know, it's great. I was very proud of that day. It was really something. It was special. In my brief opportunities to talk to him and his wife, it has been my experience to feel what a good, good man. You do. Earnest and intellectual and right-minded.

And decent. Yep. Now, how do you, like, well, speaking of that, some of your friends are kind of very political. Yes, some of them are. Do you just keep out of that? No. Like, a couple of the dudes that you talk to are very publicly political yeah i i feel

uh i'm very interested i find it to be an intriguing conversation and i and i like discussing uh politics and of course i've had the wonderful for working with amfar for so many years i've had the wonderful opportunity to meet politicians on a global level and discuss political things we've changed laws we've worked a lot uh uh on a lot of a variety of different things and discussed a lot of different things uh no i think it's a lively active how do you talk to james woods about politics well i mean i i do not discuss this particular political situation. And I think at this point, we have seen that not a lot of new laws, new rulings, and new things have actually been passed. We listen to a lot of zingy ideas and tweets and Twitters,

but you notice that not a lot of law is being made. Well, they're undoing a lot of things, but they may not be doing it. Well, they try to undo a lot of things. There's a lot of talk about undoing, and there's a lot of talk about doing, but there isn't a lot done. Yeah, just a lot of... Shuffling paper. And a lot of people getting angrier and more divided.

Yes, and a lot of shutting down and building up. But in reality, there's a lot of stalling. Scary stalling. Scary stalling. And scary stalling, scary stalling. And so I think if we really step back and look at the big picture, there's not a lot happening. Well, something's happening culturally that I hope we can sort of rewangle at another time. I like what's happening with these kids in Florida.

Sure. And I think these kids in Florida are getting more done than anyone else. Yeah. And I champion them. Yeah, for sure. Finally, that is something that is happening is that there is a reaction. There is. And they are our future.

And I am damn proud of them. And they're waking up. Yeah. And that, above all else, is what I think is really happening is that our future is awakening. Thank God. Nice talking to you. And you. So that was intense, right?

Good. Engaged. I learned things. It was a real honor to be locked into conversation with Sharon Stone for an hour there. I hope you enjoyed that. I'll play a little guitar. You like this. A lot of people are enjoying this weird kind of tricky, the pedal stuff, the phase.

I'm using a Grand Orbiter. No, what is it? Yeah, Grand Orbiter, Earthquaker, and the Dispatch Master from Earthquaker. It's kind of a trick, but it is enchanting, so I'll do a little of it. Thank you. Boomer lives! Recently, we created an episode on cannabis marketing. With cannabis legalization, it's a brand new challenging marketing category. And I want to let you know we've produced a special bonus podcast episode where I talk to an actual cannabis producer. I wanted to know how a producer becomes licensed, how a cannabis company competes with big corporations, how a cannabis company markets its products in such a highly regulated category, and what the term dignified consumption actually means. I think

you'll find the answers interesting and surprising. Hear it now on Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly. This bonus episode is brought to you by the Ontario Cannabis Store and ACAS Creative. It's a night for the whole family. Be a part of Kids Night when the Toronto Rock take on the Colorado Mammoth at a special 5 p.m. start time on Saturday, March 9th at First Ontario Centre in

Hamilton. The first 5,000 fans in attendance will get a Dan Dawson bobblehead courtesy of Backley construction. Punch your ticket to kids night on Saturday, March 9th at 5 PM in rock city at Toronto rock.com.