voice-over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. fame is a currency, and that currency, well spent, can do a great deal of good in the world. music: love is strange by mickey & sylvia sharon stone shot to international fame after her role in basic instinct, which propelled her to superstardom in the 19905. her work has also earned her a golden globe nomination and oscar nominations. she's since added many strings to her how, including humanitarian, author and painter. i caught up with her at a festival in italy

where we talked movies, life and politics. so, sharon stone, thank you so much forjoining us on the bbc�*s 100 women. first of all, how are you? just tickled. i'm so excited. i so can't believe i got chosen for this list. thank you. one thing i do want to explore with you are women in hollywood. behind the scenes, you've got quite a plethora of titles to your portfolio, if you like. is that something that is growing in hollywood? you know, this comes in waves and spurts and it goes away in waves and spurts. movies were written, directed and produced, edited and distributed by men.

right? so, they were written to be the fantasy of men and women were playing the fantasy of men, and they were edited to be the fantasy of men. and the critics decided if you met the fantasy, and that was it, right? so, you know, a lot of the characters i played, i thought, well, they're either high or drunk or crazy, because how else could you justify this behaviour? i think we're getting to a place where women are just playing how a woman would actually behave in this circumstance. and so what i think is happening, is then the editor and the critic and the audience, you know, everyone is now like, "0k, what are we going to do with that?" because i think part

of this sophistication and understanding and cultural growth... women just don't wake up in the morning and already have their make—up on and have slept in rollers and, you know, are running around the house with a feather duster. you know, we don't have time any more, and economically, the world is not supporting that. and the world is just very different now. and so reality has seeped into the media. shock! you know? so i don't know if it's reallyjust placing women in a producorial position. i feel that's going to have to happen because, guess what, that's what is happening from the audience point of view. i saw on your instagram on election day, november 5th, you wearing the t—shirt, "yes, madam president." i was so hopeful. where were you when you heard the election result and how did

you feel in that instant? you know, it's a little bit like a game show. 0k? i only take it all so seriously. i only invest so much, and then i get back to what i do. i'm not a politician. is it horrifying as a citizen of the country i love? yeah. is it scary? yeah. but do i want my country to grow and be its best? learn and develop? i do. is this what my country asked to do? yes. am i going to respect the office of the president? yes. because that is what a democracy does. some might not use the words that you've just used to describe the political landscape that america is about to go into. our country is very young, and where we are now, in italy, having this

conversation, or in england or in france, these are countries of many, many centuries. each of these countries has had time to go through different phases of their growth and understanding and cultural experience. america is kind of in its adolescence, right? america is a new country, and we haven't experienced the things that you've experienced. maybe over 80% of americans don't have passports. and we are not number one in education. we're maybe 49th or something in education, so... and for those of us who have travelled extensively, whosejobs, like mine, take us all over the world to first, second and third world countries, to countries that are at peace and to countries that are at war,

we have different experiences of the world than 80% of our fellow countrymen. so... ..i see the world a little bit differently than a lot of my country. that doesn't mean i'm not a patriot, right? i am — i love my country, and i want my country to do well. but my country hasn't experienced a lot of the things that i have seen and hasn't conferred with a lot of people in these countries i've travelled with who have had, um, fascist experience, communist experiences, war on their own country land that is world wars, hasn't had these incredible, um, cultural revolutions. america hasn't had that, right?

and our country, for the first time, has banned books. right? other countries in europe already learned the heartbreaking lesson of this. so, we, 80% of my country doesn't know what that means... ..but that doesn't mean they shouldn't know. i remember when i was younger, watching you in basic instinct. i can't believe my parents allowed me to, but it happened. how often do you get asked about that scene and how do you feel about being asked still about that scene? i don't think anybody�*s talked to me about it in a really, really long time. 0k. it's like asking, um, daryl hannah how she felt about wearing a mermaid's tail. is there any particular role that you went for that you didn't get but you would

have loved to have played? i'm sure, at the time... ..but sitting here now, no. because... ..i am so sure that when there's a no, it's because there's a yes somewhere else. when you look back on your body of work, what's the most proud thing that you've done? it could be any body of work. i'm not narrowing it down to the acting or the painting or the writing. so, i did this auction, project la. someone said they wanted to buy a kiss from me. and so i got the bidding going, and i got both a man and a woman bidding to buy a kiss, and i got them bidding against each other, and... ..we bought a fleet of vans.

0h! and i've really learned a lot about that. i would say more than anything, if you would ask me about basic instinct, that's what i learned from that movie, because i got made into an idea of something and i sold it... ..for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars to raise money for aids research. i'm really proud that i took this idea... ..that was made up in this movie, that i was really sexy, and used it to fight a disease where people were getting punished for their sexuality because i was getting punished for mine. so, it wasn't just the fact that i did a scene where i crossed my legs, which we were not previously supposed to do, but that i showed my bare armpits. so there were all kinds of

boundaries that were expanded for women in film, but most of it was the expansion that i took ownership, the character — not really me — but the character that i played took ownership of her sexuality, and that really was so unusual. and so i think i'm most proud that we used that successfully, philanthropically. because you were labelled a term that we don't use any more — sex symbol. sex symbol. the last! femme fatale. the last of the sex symbols. they laugh would you say that was a moniker or a curse? i wouldn't say it was either. what would you say it was? just the way it was. sharon stone established herself as one of the biggest stars in hollywood in the �*90s, in blockbusters from casino to basic instinct, but in the decades since becoming

an icon of cinema, she's reinvented herself as a humanitarian and, more recently, as a painter. i put paint on and then pull it back off to get certain effects. it's more of an emotional going on, like that release from structure. however, she recently disclosed that in the early 20005, she was given a 1% chance of survival following a brain haemorrhage — a diagnosis that changed the course of her career and her life. so the theme of the 2024100 women is resilience. how do you cope with resilience? what do you do to be resilient? i think we can choose to get all wound up in these distractions. we can choose to moan or we can choose joy. i think you have to just keep choosing joy. you have had some really huge things happen in your life. yes, i have. the brain haemorrhage that you survived.

yes. the things that you fight for, you fight hard for them. yes. as well as getting into the flow and keeping the good energy around you, what other resilient tactics do you put into place? i stay present. i think if you look back, even for a split second, you can really f yourself up. you have to work so hard to stay present. you fell down. get up. someone pushed you down. now they want to help you up. let them. you push someone down. oops! get them back up. let's get back in the game. it's really hard work. that's why you have to do breathwork, because you have to breathe when you'd rather punch someone in the face. that'll save you.

i mean, you have to learn breathing techniques. you have to learn to stand in warrior pose, for me, because i needed discipline. i'm a fast pony. i had to learn to hold my own reins. with your brain haemorrhage, i read that you didn't like the sharon before, but you love this sharon. well, i won't say that i didn't like the sharon before. i mean, that sharon before moved out of a... ..no stoplight farm town in northwestern pennsylvania and became a global superstar... ..and started that work, that charity work. and... ..might not have exploded

if she wasn't met with so much resistance. you know, might not have exploded if there was any help to be had being her. might not have exploded if there was a female agent to be had, or, you know, anybody to have helped me or guided me. i mean, thank god i had people like shirley maclaine and faye dunaway and dyan cannon and people who had been there before me to talk to me. you know, people want to say all kinds of things about these women that went before me, who walked a much harder road than i did, and they have no idea. no idea. but those women were very good to me, very good to me,

and really told me what to expect and how to take care of myself. what to do, what not to do, so that i could be safe... ..in difficult situations. um, i can't tell you how much i appreciate it. so after your brain haemorrhage, your book entitled the beauty of living twice feels almost like you felt that this was a second shot at life. it's a completely different life. my brain got shoved into the front of my face. i mean, my whole dna shifted. my body type shifted. the food i was allergic to shifted, the food i liked shifted, the people that i was familiar with shifted. oh, no, i'm a very different person. a very, very different person. oh, gosh.

if you could write a letter to yourself, you pick the age, giving you a piece of advice on resilience, before or after the brain haemorrhage, what would you say? 0h. i would just say, "you're going to make it. "you don't know it, but you're going to make it." that's what i would say. i would wanted to have known it so many times. yeah. i would wanted to have known it when i was on the floor and couldn't get an ambulance and couldn't get any help. i would have wanted to have known it when they wouldn't

believe me at the hospital. when i kept losing in custody court and i had to remortgage my house and i didn't have any money. but i really learned what is a very important thing to know, especially at this time in the world. that people can take everything from you. everything. your global identity. yourjob. everything you worked for. everything you have. yourfamily. your health. the possibility that you would have a future. but they cannot take your soul. that's why you're a beacon of resilience cos you hung on to that. oh, man, iwas teeth down in the dirt, man.

what is sharon stone yet to achieve? i have a plan. that you're going to share or not share? i'm not going to share it until it happens. i can't break the manifestation. but you have a plan. i have a plan. and is it a multi—levelled plan? yeah. well, naturally. they laugh but you have a plan. i have a plan. and you are not done yet? no. you've gone into a new chapter of your life — painting. i love being in the studio. i just love it. um... and because it's the house next—door to my house, it's the greatest, because my kids can run in and out and my friends are coming in and out. it's such a warm environment and it's just the greatest. i wonder what, um... i took a list of the names...

i wondered what, uh, "some heroes" or "two lips," "tuesday evening," i wonder what was going through your mind when you were doing those? you know, it's, um... i name them afterwards when i see them, because... ..i don't see them when i'm painting them. i'm really painting, um, you know where they call, like, automatic writing? i'm, like, automatic painting. i'm just painting. i'm in this kind of thing, and i don't really know kind of what i've painted until i'm almost finished painting. i'm just in it so deeply. and it isn't until, you know, i have these paint tables, and then on the other side i have some chairs. and then i'll go sit in the chairs and look at it, and i can tell if i want

to do anything else. and it's only when i'm sitting in the chairs looking at them that i have some idea of what's going on. and what's your inspiration? you know, my aunt had a masters in painting, and i spent a lot of time with her when i was a kid. she was a muralist and she painted on the walls of the house. so, it was so normal, because, you know, i was five and she was painting on the walls. so, that does give the inclination to be quite free. so ijust started painting in quite large format because it seemed normative to me. so, you know, my paintings are very large. and then, when you started exhibiting, how did you feel? well, i hadn't really planned to do that, but, um, i made a painting forthis dearfriend of mine,

and i took it to her birthday party. it was wrapped, and she had me unwrap it. all of a sudden, these people started asking me for commissions. they said, "and how much would it cost?" so ijust started throwing out big numbers, like, "0k," like... ..and they started saying "ok." and then i started panicking and i said to my friend, "i have to go home. i should go home. "let's get out of here." and about ten days later, i got offered a show. so ijust kind of picked what i thought were the best of what i'd painted and had a show. and then i started thinking, "you better start figuring out how to have a show." and now i've had shows, you know, shows in other countries. i have a museum show coming up. and you have sold work... yeah, i've sold a bunch of work. ..for staggering amounts of money. yeah, for, yeah...

for shockingly great...money, yeah. yeah. just from doing something that you absolutely love. and i really think that that should be advice to everyone. follow your bliss. are we allowed to talk about bumble? oh, that's hilarious, yes. because... this explains so much. what happened ? i went on bumble, and they kicked me off because they said it wasn't me. and then they used the publicity that they kicked me off, which i thought was... so now i'm on a different site! they laugh but honestly, i don't know. _ i think that these j.crew catalogues for dating... ..don�*t give you the thing that dating is all about,

which is chemistry. mm—hm. and isn't that what it's all about? 100%. yeah. you have to sniff that out for yourself like a truffle pig. yeah. except i don't want to do that! that sounds exhausting. how are you finding it? well, you can't smell through the pages! what do you say to yourself when you're on the verge of giving up? well, i think i either need food, sleep, a bath, to go outside, or to call my friends. those are the things that you're literally cycling through your head. yeah. wonderful! going back to all the things that you've fought for, what is the fight that you think is worth fighting for? decency. mm—hm. because i think if you're

a decent person, you're going to take care of people the way you'd like to be ta ken care of. and then, sharon stone, what is your superpower? i'm very consistent. i'm a consistent person. i think that when people meet me, because i'm so... i'm kind of an intense person, and i'm a little bit seemingly eccentric because i'm kind of fast tick, um, people think that i'm not going to be consistent. people think that they should pick the more steady eddie person. you know, i think that people are surprised by my consistency, by the fact that i raised three kids that i adopted. i think people are just, "oh, yeah, right. oh, no, she's nota drunk. "she's not a crazy person. she's not... "she doesn't have relationships

like a revolving door." you know, i think all that always surprises people about me. your superpower is that you're consistent. i think that's my superpower. i mean, it's not that i don't lose my temper, um, or freak out or do things like everybody else, but i think, overall, pretty ordinary. pretty much an ordinary kid. but a fantastic woman. thank you. so thank you so much, sharon stone, forjoining us on 100 women. thank you so much too. thank you. music: love is strange by mickey & sylvia. # love. # love is strange...#

hello there. winter continues to hold a firm grasp across the country. so it will be a freezing friday in store. yes, a frosty start with some freezing fog as well first thing in the morning, gradually lifting to sunny spells. but as we head towards the weekend, something a little less cold on the horizon but still under the influence of high pressure. still the wind direction coming from the north. the only exception into the far southwest. here we've got cloud and showery outbreaks of rain, sleet and snow for a time down to the southwest, some freezing fog lingering in the southeast, and some icy stretches. they will lift to sunny spells into the afternoon. could still see a few coastal showers across the far north and east, but on the whole, not a bad afternoon. a little more cloud pushing through. wales, the midlands and southern england are showery rain continues to the southwest here. we'll see highs of seven degrees, but after that

bitterly cold start, temperatures in manyjust a couple of degrees above freezing and that is going to lead to another cold frosty start into the weekend. once again, our weather front starts to drag more cloud in from the west though, here preventing those temperatures from falling too far but in sheltered central and eastern areas once again, a widespread hard frost on saturday morning. so saturday will gradually see more cloud pushing in on this weak weather front. not that much in the way of rain on it. a few spits and spots of showery rain from time to time. central and eastern areas starting off crisp with some sunshine but clouding over from the west. a little less cold here, where we've got that blanket of cloud, but don't expect a dramatic change quite just yet. we're looking at highs of around 7 or 8 degrees, with the best of the sunshine again between 2 and 1! celsius. now, as we move out of saturday into sunday and the week ahead,

it looks likely that the wind direction will change as southwesterly flow will drive in weather fronts to the far north and west, but mild air right across the country. so we will start to see a change by the middle part of the week for all of us. takes its time in arriving across central and southern england, but by the middle of the week we're back to double figures. but there will be a little bit of rain to go with it. take care.

whole neighbourhoods are burnt to the ground. devastation in los angeles with wildfires still raging completely uncontained. at least 7 people have died and nearly 200,000 people are fleeing their homes. the president—elect donald trump is set to be sentenced tomorrow, after the supreme court denies his bid to delay his hearing. and former us presidentjimmy carter will be buried in his hometown of plains, georgia, after a state funeral in washington. hello, i'm steve lai.