14 DAY TRIAL // These days, many great film actors are looking for gigs in television not only because the pay can be better if the project is a success but because the roles are also meatier and offer more creative freedom. To Sharon Stone, though, landing a spot on “Law & Order: SVU” was her biggest nightmare turned reality.
The Oscar-nominated actress is featured in the latest issue of Harper’s Bazaar to promote a new TNT series she’ll executive produce and star in, “Agent X.” She talks of her guest role on “Law & Order” in 2010 in terms that will probably offend longtime fans of the series: it was like scrapping the bottom of the acting barrel.
“That was humiliating”
In 2010, Stone had a limited guest job on “Law & Order: SVU” playing a district attorney. She got the part when she was still not fully recovered from her 2001 stroke, which left her with slurred speech, limited physical mobility and other health issues.
Most of them had gone away by the time she got the part, but she was still having trouble remembering her lines. This added to the humiliation of working on a show that she considers, to this day, the bottom of the acting barrel.
The Harper’s piece casually mentions that the “Law & Order” gig came 15 years after Stone was nominated for an Oscar for her role in “Casino.” The implication is that going from that to this TV role is a step down, and this seems to be the actress’ view as well.
“Having worked with the finest people in the industry, I was like, ‘Wow, I’m really at the back of the line here. I’m wearing L’eggs panty hose, and in makeup they start out by putting this white primer on my face.’ I’m like, ‘This is so bad. What did I do to deserve this?’,” she says.
Overcoming the career obstacle took determination and hard work
Stone doesn’t say anything bad about her co-stars and the “SVU” team, but the mere fact that she says she used to work with the best of the best in the industry, only to find herself in the gutter is enough to convey the impression that she wasn’t happy with anything about her brief stint.
Working her way out of the “gutter” took determination and a lot of hard work, she says. Again, she doesn’t say she was in the gutter directly, but here’s how she describes that moment in her career:
“I thought, ‘You know what? I got thrown off the bullet train, and now I’m going to have to crawl up a hill of broken glass, get back on the train that’s going a million miles an hour, and work my way from the cattle car up. That’s just the way it is, so I’d better get humble and shut the [hell] up and do the job. Because if I can’t do this job, I’m certainly not going to be able to do anything else’.”
Don’t bite the hand that writes your checks
Even if she did feel this way and “SVU” was the worst of all television shows, there is such a thing, even in Hollywood, as respect for your colleagues. Actors who bad-mouth their own movies or previous projects are often frowned upon, because it shows them as unprofessional and ungrateful for the chances they’re being given, no matter how they turn up.
Secondly, even if “SVU” had lost some of its shine by the time Stone was cast, it was still a very popular show. You can’t keep a series on the air for such a long time if it doesn’t have public support, so Stone should have shown some respect to the fans who ultimately paid her salary.
She says in the same interview she’s very blunt about everything and unapologetic about it, but celebrity pundits believe some filter would have done wonders here, with these comments on “Law & Order: SVU,” for the 2 reasons stated above.