Sharon Stone, 61, Talks Body-Shaming and Embracing Older Age: ‘I’m So Grateful to My Body’

Growing old in Hollywood might sound intimidating for some, but Sharon Stone is embracing her age. In fact, the Golden Globe-winning actress recently opened up about learning to accept her body and revealed the time she was shamed over her weight in her 20s.

“I’m so grateful to my body. When I was younger, everybody was telling me what was wrong with my body — too this, too that,” the 61-year-old beauty candidly shared with Allure for the magazine’s November cover story. “When I got on Basic Instinct, they hired a makeup artist that put on pounds of makeup every day, and every day I went to my trailer and took the makeup off.”

Sharon explained that as she got older, she learned to focus on appreciating her body. “I started to understand that I was going to go for being more like a European woman who got more beautiful with age and who could understand that women are more beautiful than girls because they know something,” she revealed.

Even though the Total Recall actress had one heck of a career following her debut in Woody Allen‘s 1980 film Stardust Memories, Sharon dished that her favorite decade was actually her “beautiful” 40s. At the time, the blonde beauty took some time off to focus on self-care after suffering a stroke in 2001.

“I couldn’t work because women, once they got to be 40, were not given jobs in Hollywood. I was a mom with three beautiful little boys,” she said of sons Roan, 19, Laird, 14, and Quinn, 13. “I was recovering from a massive brain injury, and I was in custody court constantly over my oldest child.”

Although Sharon was going through some struggles, she told the outlet that the learning process was worth it. “There was something wonderful in that period of all those challenges. And even though no one wanted to date me — no one would want a woman that had little children — it was a period of reconciliation and change, and understanding myself,” she continued. “It was my period of the biggest change, but the period where I thought I was the most beautiful.”

Now that’s she older, Sharon has made a point celebrate life more. “I think when I was young, it was my ambition. It was so intense,” she said of things she wanted to work on. “Taking off the tough veneer and telling the truth has been my latest mission.”

Sharon is such an amazing inspiration for all women out there!