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It's a good time for women looking to get their life story back.

Biographies that were initially written by gossip magazines, paparazzi and talk show presenters have now become the reflective narratives of self-confident women.

Current example: the actress Sharon Stone.

But the autobiography "The Beauty of Living Twice" not only tells of the scandal surrounding the Hollywood thriller "Basic Instinct" from 1992, in which her vagina can be seen briefly when she is during seductively crosses his legs during an interrogation.

But above all about why she was able to play the role of the serial killer Catherine so convincingly.

Sharon Stone was born in rural Pennsylvania in 1958 and grew up in abject poverty.

With a mother who tried to forget her cruel home by concentrating on cleaning and cooking.

And with a grandfather molesting Sharon and her younger sister while his wife watched.

Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct, 1992

Source: Constantin

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She would later use the pent-up anger in "Basic Instinct" as a murderer who stabs her victims in a rage.

That's why the role gave her nightmares, says Stone, and not because of the infamous scene: "It was terrible to open up this dark side of myself and make it visible to the world in the film."

Sharon Stone worked as a model in New York before her film career began in 1980 with a brief appearance in Woody Allen's "Stardust Memories".

She became a star with "Basic Instinct".

The question of whether she knew about the intimate admission or had been taken by surprise turned into a spectacle.

Yes, the book is about Hollywood and abusive producers.

The real topic, however, is the new Sharon Stone, who faced her childhood memories.

The hatred she felt for her mother and grandmother for decades.

The title of the “second life” refers to a next trauma: a brain hemorrhage in 2001. After this near-death experience, the then early 40-year-old decided to “breathe differently and speak differently”.

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“The Beauty of Living Twice” is above all episodic memory work and reads like an Irish family story from the times of the great famine (Stone's ancestors come from Ireland).

The lines on the scandal seem like the concession of an experienced Hollywood diva who knows what the audience expects from her.

No time for bullshit

Director Paul Verhoeven asked her back then, writes Sharon Stone, to take off her white panties because of the reflection of the light.

After the first view of the film, she slapped him in the projection room and called her lawyer outside in the car.

But then, she writes, she thought about the relevance of the scene for the film character.

And decided to leave it.

There are many opinions, all of them "bullshit".

"It's my vagina that matters."

It is this factual flippancy that sets the book apart from other autobiographies inspired by the feminist movement in Hollywood.

Which is also because this Sharon Stone has actually always existed: the figure of Catherine as a woman who ruthlessly uses her sexuality as a means of power.

"Basic Instinct" received the respect of feminists as early as the 1990s - but the main actress earned her macho feminism the reputation of being "difficult" and a "cash poison".

As if to stir up the fire, she vehemently spoke out against the “cancel culture” in a radio interview a few days ago.

Sharon Stone is now 63. And she just has no patience for “bullshit”.