Sharon Stone tells her kids to auction her old costumes, saying she 'never got equal pay'

Hollywood legend Sharon Stone recently addressed the topic of equal pay in an Instagram story, writing that she “never got equal pay.” Stone, who is known for movie classics such as Basic Instinct, shared a video about her film Casino and captioned it with the revelation.

The video, shared by a Robert de Niro fan account (the star acted alongside her in Casino), claimed the costume budget for the movie was $1 million. Stone captioned the video, “Just in case i die one day & my kids notice i never got equal pay & want to auction them.”

Pay equity between male and female stars has long been a fraught discussion, especially in the wake of the Time’s Up movement which aims to create safer, more equal workplaces. Stone herself has previously discussed her own experience with the gender pay gap, revealing that she encountered difficulties following Basic Instinct. 

Speaking at an event in 2015, The Guardian reported she said, “After Basic Instinct, no one wanted to pay me.”

“I remember sitting in my kitchen with my manager and just crying and saying: ‘I’m not going to work until I get paid’. I still got paid so much less than any men,” she said.

Alongside Stone, celebrities including Jennifer Lawrence, Ellen Pompeo, Octavia Spencer, Emma Stone and more have previously spoken out about the gender pay gap and their own experiences of it. Notably, award-winning actress Michelle Williams revealed during a speech at Capitol Hill that she was paid just $1,000 dollars for reshoots on All the Money in the World compared to her co-star Mark Wahlberg’s fee of $1.5 million.

Stone has gone on to have an illustrious career following the 1992 classic film, which has seen her star in both film and TV shows such as Ratched, Agent X, The Flight Attendant and The Quick and the Dead. Beyond acting, she’s also moved onto other interests such as painting and releasing a memoir called The Beauty of Living Twice which was released last year.