Meryl Streep is the most acclaimed actress alive today. That is a fact: she has the most Oscars of any living actor and her name is used as shorthand for a certain kind of evident, undeniable talent. But that doesn't mean that everyone adores her. Donald Trump, of course, called her 'overrated'. And now Sharon Stone has entered the ring to explain why she is tired of Meryl's state as Hollywood's gold medallist. The comments have gone viral, with some suggesting that Sharon - star of Casino and Basic Instinct - has destroyed her career. But if you read them through, in context, you see that she is making a perfectly pertinent point about women in the industry, and in the world.
During a recent interview, a reporter began to ask Sharon a question: 'so, when you finally got to work with Meryl Streep, you realised...' The project in question was Netflix film The Laundromat. Sharon stepped in before the question was finished.
'I like the way you phrase that, that I finally got to work with Meryl Streep,' she said. 'You didn't say, "Meryl finally got to work with Sharon Stone." Or "we finally got to work together". The way you structured the question is very much the answer to the question. The business was set up that we should all envy and admire Meryl because only Meryl got to be the good one. And everyone should compete against Meryl. I think Meryl is an amazingly wonderful woman and actress. But in my opinion, quite frankly, there are other actresses equally as talented as Meryl Streep. The whole Meryl Streep iconography is part of what Hollywood does to women.'
The comments have been pounced upon and framed as if Sharon is saying that she hates Meryl. Honestly, there does seem to be a touch of venom somewhere there. But overall, Sharon is speaking to the fact that there only seems to be room in Hollywood for one actress to have such status. 'Viola Davis is every bit the actress Meryl Streep is,' she said. 'Emma Thompson. Judy Davis. Olivia Colman. Kate Winslet, for f**k's sake. But you say Meryl, and everybody falls on the floor. I'm a much better villain than Meryl, and I'm sure she'd say so. Meryl was not gonna be good in Basic Instinct or in Casino. I would be better. And I know it. And she knows it. But we're all set up to think that only Meryl is so amazing that when you say her name it must have been amazing for me to work with her.'
Does Sharon's stance read as arrogant? Slightly, yes. But in Hollywood, confidence is key. If you have no sense of self worth, then no one else is going to give it to you. It is necessary to big yourself up and to think of yourself as deserving of a certain status. If you don't think you're the best, that you can deliver something no one else in the industry can, then what are you doing in show business at all? We also shouldn't be surprised when some women in film, who have been pitted against each other for decades, actually indulge the sense of rivalry that has been forced upon them, largely by men.
Sharon's point is given further weight when you look at who the best actor in Hollywood is. If you asked people in the street that question, then you would receive countless answers. I imagine you'd hear Robert De Niro a lot. Al Pacino. Daniel Day Lewis. Sean Penn. Joaquin Phoenix. Denzel Washington. But if you asked one hundred people to name the best actress in the world? I would guess ninety would say 'Meryl Streep.'
Was Sharon's method of expressing the unfairness and inequality facing women today actually built on tearing another woman down? Yes. And she also blamed Meryl for not being vocal enough about harassment in order to enjoy an uncontroversial career, which lays culpability at the feet of a woman rather than a male harasser. But the core of Sharon's point is more than valid. We should be giving more room to more women, holding them up higher, together. Perhaps, if we listened to the meaning in between Sharon's controversial words, we'd have a more interesting, more wide-ranging and more diverse army of women making films. Is Meryl a talent? Of course. Sharon says so herself. But there's room on the podium.
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