Sharon Stone Says SLIVER Producer Robert Evans Told Her to Have Sex With Co-Star Billy Baldwin to Build Chemistry and "Save the Movie"

Academy Award-nominated actress Sharon Stone (Basic Instinct, Casino) has opened up a few times about hardships she has faced as a woman in Hollywood, and this story she told on the latest episode of “The Louis Theroux Podcast” is a doozy. She explained that producer Robert Evans advised her to have sex with co-star Billy Baldwin in order to save their film, Sliver.

The 1993 thriller from director Phillip Noyce starred Stone as a book editor who moves into an exclusive New York City apartment building and discovers its residents harbor dark secrets. Evans allegedly wanted Stone and Baldwin to have better “chemistry on screen” because it would “save the movie.” She remembered:

“He is running around his office in sunglasses explaining to me that he slept with Ava Gardner and I should sleep with Billy Baldwin, because if I slept with Billy Baldwin, Billy Baldwin’s performance would get better. And we needed Billy to get better in the movie because that was the problem. If I could sleep with Billy then we’d have chemistry on screen, and if I would just have sex with him then that would save the movie. The real problem in the movie was me, because I was so uptight, and so not like a real actress who could just f –k him and get things back on track. The real problem was I was such a tight ass.”

What a scumbag. Stone was coming off the blockbuster success of Basic Instinct at the time and remembered:

“I didn’t have to f –k Michael Douglas. Michael could come to work and know how to hit those marks, and do that line, and rehearse and show up. Now all of a sudden I’m in the ‘I have to f –k people’ business.”

Evans died in 2019 at 89 years old. Sliver was a decent box office success with $116 million at the worldwide box office. Evans made a name for himself during the New Hollywood era as the head of Paramount Pictures from 1967 to 1974. He was a producer on such iconic films as Rosemary’s Baby (1968), Love Story (1970) and The Godfather (1972).

Stone first wrote about the Sliver incident in her 2021 memoir, The Beauty of Living Twice, although she did not name Evans at the time. An excerpt reads:

“Now you think if I f –k him, he will become a fine actor? Nobody’s that good in bed. I felt they could have just hired a costar with talent, someone who could deliver a scene and remember his lines. I also felt they could f –k him themselves and leave me out of it. It was my job to act and I said so. This was not a popular response. I was considered difficult.”

Stone also said in the interview that she’s often had to deal with abusive men in power, including “pig” Harvey Weinstein. “He was certainly comfortable with throwing me across the room when he was angry with me because I wouldn’t do what he wanted me to do,” Stone said, adding she was happy that Weinstein is now in jail as a convicted rapist.

Billy Baldwin responded to all of this in an unsavory manner: “Not sure why Sharon Stone keep talking about me all these years later? Does she still have a crush on me or is she still hurt after all these years because I shunned her advances? Did she say to her gal pal Janice Dickinson the day after I screen tested and ran into them on our MGM Grand flight back to New York… "I'm gonna make him fall so hard for me, it's gonna make his head spin." ??? I have so much dirt on her it would make her head spin but I've kept quiet. The story of the meeting I had with Bob Evans imploring him allow me to choreograph the final sex scene in the photo below so I wouldn't have to kiss Sharon is absolute legend. Wonder if I should write a book and tell the many, many disturbing, kinky and unprofessional tales about Sharon? That might be fun.”

Men in Hollywood had their time to treat women like objects, and that time has come to an end. Not to say there aren’t still jerks out there, but because of women like Sharon Stone, who are calling out the men who’ve behaved badly, it gives the next generation the chance to feel empowered to do so as well.

via: Variety