The one actor Sharon Stone wants to play her in a biopic: “I adore her”
The success of a good biopic almost always comes down to one singular thing: casting. Thankfully, Sharon Stone knows exactly who she’d want to play her on screen, should the time ever come.
Whenever a new biopic is in the works, casting is the most-anticipated announcement. It makes sense, as people are generally more interested in (and sceptical of) all the ways the chosen one resembles (or doesn’t resemble) the real person, and what’s worse is how they’re often waiting with their judgements and pitchforks before they’ve even seen them play the part.
When Marisa Abela was announced as the one who would be bringing to life the iconic Amy Winehouse in Sam Taylor-Johnson’s Back to Black, a lot of people suddenly had a lot of opinions. Obviously, most people’s hunch about all the reasons the project wasn’t right would prove to be somewhat on the mark, but Abela’s casting was a fixation of sorts, the nucleus from which most people’s reservations took full bloom.
It’s the same across the board. Baz Luhrmann’s choice to cast Austin Butler as the King himself is considered by many to he the one decision that made Elvis worthwhile. It’s the same with A Complete Unknown, and there are also many of the reasons why the upcoming Beatles biopics have caught attention – the names attached. Granted, that last example comes with its share of mixed responses, but you can’t ignore the fact that many haven’t entirely turned their noses up at those involved, which is just about as much as you can hope for when it comes to such projects.
It’s also one of the reasons why so many stories haven’t been told yet through the medium of film – or at least, told with much success or longevity. Often, there are way too many threads to certain stories to do them justice, though it doesn’t stop people from trying. The upcoming Michael Jackson film, for instance, seems to have all the right chefs involved to give it a good level of historical accuracy, but the ambiguities around the pop star’s story have many wondering whether it’ll actually be just another sensationalised Hollywood recount with many pieces glossed over.
This is one of the most difficult things as a director or screenwriter who has tasked themselves with making a film around a real person or event – which parts do you dramatise for the purpose of entertainment, and which parts do you simply ignore or play down for narrative purposes? A story like Sharon Stone’s would need a lot of nuance, care and attention when it comes to her rise as a leading lady and reputation as a sex symbol, alongside the cultural contexts of some of her most well-known roles and how her health and resilience were impacted on the sidelines.
Thankfully, however, Stone has no reservations when it comes to the one person she feels would do justice to her story and life’s work, and that’s, of course, none other than Hollywood’s current choice for strong, complex female characters, Margot Robbie. On The Lady Gang Podcast, Stone said that she “adored her” and that she “is so talented”.
She went on, saying, “After I saw her playing Tonya Harding I was like, you’re it.” She also said that Robbie is “the greatest” and that she is “hotter now than I’ve ever been”. Of course, much of what drew Stone to Robbie went beyond just her obvious physical beauty, especially as it was I, Tonya that made her realise she’d be the right fit for if Stone’s story was ever to be brought to life on screen.
One of the many themes of that particular film is resilience and keeping up appearances in the spotlight, of which Stone has a lot of experience. Should Robbie ever be considered to play Stone in a biopic of her life, it’s easy to imagine her stepping into those shoes well, spotlighting all those lesser-known facets of performing a specific part without letting the cracks show.
