Sharon Stone Is Latest Actress to Open Up About Hollywood Wage Gap Issue

This year has seen more actresses speaking out against the pay disparity between women and men in Hollywood. There was Patricia Arquette’s flawed, yet insightful speech at the Oscars and Jennifer Lawrence’s thoughtful essay on the subject, with many other women sharing their experiences in between. Now, Sharon Stone is opening up about the issue.

“After Basic Instinct, no one wanted to pay me,” Stone told People. “I remember sitting in my kitchen with my manager and just crying and saying I’m not going to work until I get paid.” Stone says she was still paid much less than male actors even after landing her breakthrough role.

Stone also discussed her experience working as a waitress keep herself afloat. “I waited tables and scrubbed floors and everything else on the way up, and you must make the same, and it’s not cool that you don’t. She pointed out how the change “has to start with regular pay, not just for movie stars, but regular pay for the regular woman in the regular job.”

Stone is currently starring in the new TNT series, Agent X, of which she is also an executive producer.