Actress Sharon Stone (Pennsylvania, 64 years old) told the Red Sea Film Festival, taking place these days in Saudi Arabia, that her decision to support amfAR, an organization founded by Elizabeth Taylor dedicated to raising funds for HIV / AIDS research, jeopardized his work. “It destroyed my career. I haven’t worked for eight years. I was told if I ever spoke about condoms again the funds would be removed. They threatened me with death several times and I decided I had to move on,” the protagonist of Casino (1995) said in an interview last Friday, according to People magazine.
The actress and activist explained in the same conversation that it came as a big surprise when the charity first asked her to replace then-chairwoman Elizabeth Taylor in 1995 at its famous annual fundraiser at the London Cannes Film Festival. Stone discussed the proposal with her publicist at the time, Cindy Berger, who had already warned her of the dangers of accepting it. “She said to me, ‘If you do it, you’re going to destroy your career.’ Back then you weren’t allowed to talk about AIDS. So I told him, ‘I know, but I’m going to do it, you’re going to kill me.’ She replied, “And if you don’t, I’ll kill you too,” the artist explained.
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“I had no idea of the resistance, cruelty, hatred and oppression we would face,” Stone added. Despite the threats she faced, the actress decided to stay the course and vowed to support the research campaign until drugs are found that could fight the virus. “I stayed 25 years until we started advertising AIDS treatments on TV like aspirin,” explained the interpreter, who assured us in the same interview that despite the risks, she did not regret the decision.
The artist also wanted to take the moment to proudly declare herself proud of many achievements of the organization she heads, pointing out that before antiretroviral drugs were developed to fight HIV, 40 million people died after contracting the virus had. “Now 37 million are living with HIV and can do so in a healthy way,” she added, clearly moved.
After an eight-year absence, Sharon Stone returned to present the amfAR Gala, held at the Cannes Film Festival in May. His last appearance at the same event was in 2014, at the 21st edition, when the organization managed to raise $35 million in one night.
In addition to her fight against HIV, since the beginning of November the artist has been faced with a particular struggle against a fibroid, which was diagnosed after an incorrect result after an initial consultation. Stone made it public via his Instagram profile, where he also announced that he would be out for between four and six weeks to fully recover. “Another misdiagnosis and another wrong procedure. And with a double epidural. After the pain worsened, I decided to get a second opinion: I have a large fibroid that needs to be removed,” the interpreter wrote in a story published on her account, where she has 3.4 million followers.