Sharon Stone says Hollywood turned its back on her

Sharon Stone has claimed that she was abandoned by Hollywood after suffering a stroke.

In 2001, the Basic Instinct star was rushed to hospital after suffering a brain haemorrhage that lasted for nine days.

The medical incident forced her to take a two-year break from acting. During an appearance at The Hollywood Reporter’s Raising Our Voices event on Wednesday (31 May), Stone said that her career never recovered, even after she had.

“I recovered for seven years, and I haven’t had jobs since,” said the 65-year-old.

“When it first happened, I didn’t want to tell anybody because you know if something goes wrong with you, you’re out. Something went wrong with me – I’ve been out for 20 years.”

She continued: “I haven’t had jobs. I was a very big movie star at one point in my life.”

While Stone has appeared in films including Catwoman, Lovelace and The Laundromat in the years since her stroke, she hasn’t returned to the heights of her hits in the Eighties and Nineties, when she appeared in blockbuster films such as Total Recall, The Quick and the Dead, and Casino.

The American actor has spoken previously about the impact the stroke had on her career, saying in a 2015 interview that she “lost everything she had” after suffering the bleed in her brain.

“I lost my place in the business,” she said. “I was like the hottest movie star, you know? It was like Miss Princess Diana and I were so famous – and she died and I had a stroke. And we were forgotten.

“You find yourself at the back of the line in your business, as I did. You have to figure yourself out all over again.”

Last week, Stone earned praise from fans after sharing a selfie in a green leopard-print bikini, with fans branding the Eighties sex symbol an “inspiration”.