a take

Sharon Stone Is Pro–Kevin Spacey, Anti–Men Asking Before They Kiss Her

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the actor doubled down on her support of Spacey in the midst of an ongoing sexual misconduct trial and shared her thoughts on gender: “I think we should want men to flirt with us,” she said.
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Sharon Stone described herself as having “been canceled left and right” in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter published Tuesday. Stone also doubled down on her defense of Kevin Spacey—the subject of several allegations of sexual misconduct, which he has denied—and shared some of her thoughts on gender, the definition of rape, and Harvey Weinstein for good measure.

Spacey shared last month that he’s “many millions” in debt amid the lawsuits. In May, Stone made a statement of support for Spacey in The Telegraph following the premiere of a documentary about the allegations.

“I can’t wait to see Kevin back at work,” she said in May. “He is a genius. He is so elegant and fun, generous to a fault and knows more about our craft than most of us ever will.” She also said that his accusers had “secret agendas.”

Spacey was found not guilty at one trial in the UK in 2023, and in 2022 was found not liable in a civil suit brought by actor Anthony Rapp. Another UK suit is in progress.

Stone stood by her support of Spacey in the new interview and blamed homophobia for Spacey being ostracized, insisting that “that’s why he’s not allowed to come back. Because he offended men.”

“People are mad at me for [supporting Spacey],” she said. “I said that after being in therapy for seven years, not being allowed to work, losing his home, losing everything, he should be allowed to come back. He’s reached out to everybody he’s offended and said he’s sorry. Kevin grabbed people by their genitals. Many people. But nobody [has publicly said] he’s raped them or forced them into a sexual encounter. But there’s so much hatred for him because in his case it was man-on-man. That’s why he’s not allowed to come back. Because he offended men. But can I tell you how many men have grabbed my genitals in my lifetime? A lot more than Kevin Spacey has grabbed men’s genitals. And none of them has ever apologized to me.”

Stone also offered more general takes about gender essentialism, including saying that “I think men are men and women are women. And I think that’s something we should want. I think we should want men to flirt with us. Now, these days, there are some women who don’t like certain things that I still like. For instance, I don’t want a man to ask me if he can kiss me, I really don’t. I want him to just grab me and kiss me.”

Not any man, she clarified, but some men.

“If I don’t want it, I want to say, ‘No, thank you,’ and for it to stop. But if he’s the right man and he throws me against the wall and kisses me—yes, please, to that. I really miss passion. I really miss sexual expression. I find this whole thing very stifling. Also, we really need to delineate between what’s a misdemeanor and what’s a felony. That needs to happen. There’s a difference between a slap on the ass and rape. They aren’t the same thing.”

Stone also said that she relinquished her role as AmFAR’s celebrity ambassador in 2015 in part because it required her to interact with Harvey Weinstein, who recently saw a rape conviction against him overturned in the New York court.

“He did not sexually abuse me, but he was physically abusive,” she said. “Like, he would throw me across the room, he would grab me. When I’d do the AmFAR auction, he would come on the stage and put his hand around my neck, then grab the microphone and try to change the bids. Dealing with him took a tremendous amount of patience from me.”