Sharon Stone has joined Alec Baldwin in using a public event at the Torino Film Festival in Italy to express dismay that Americans voted to allow Donald Trump to return to the White House.
Like Baldwin, Stone was being honored at the annual festival in Northern Italy, and like Baldwin, Stone was a vocal supporter of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris. Furthermore, Stone also criticized those voting for the polarizing 45th president in her comments, without actually uttering his name.
During a panel discussion, Stone was asked a question about the International Day for Elimination of Violence against Women and answered by airing her concerns about what she sees as America’s potential slide into fascism.
“We have to stop and think about who we choose for government,” the 66-year-old native of Pennsylvania said. “And if, in fact, we are actually choosing our government or if the government is choosing itself.”
“You know, Italy has seen fascism,” Stone said to the assembled reporters after receiving a lifetime achievement award. “Italy has seen these things, you guys. And you understand what happens. You have seen this before.”
“My country is in the midst of adolescence,” Stone continued. “Adolescence is very arrogant. Adolescence thinks it knows everything. Adolescence is naive and ignorant and arrogant. And we are in our ignorant, arrogant adolescence.”
Stone added that Americans had never witnessed these events in the country before.
“So, Americans who don’t travel, who 80% don’t have a passport, who are uneducated, are in their extraordinary naïveté,” Stone said. “What I would say is that the only way that we can help with these issues is to help each other.”
The Daily Beast pointed out that Stone was incorrect about the percentage of Americans who don’t have passports — it’s actually 40%.
In any case, Stone’s comments echoed those that have long been made about Trump. During his first presidential run in 2016, Trump was accused of invoking the leadership style of the world’s most infamous fascists, namely Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, the Italian dictator who popularized fascism.
The Hitler comparisons have since followed Trump, with even his 2024 running mate, JD Vance once calling him “reprehensible” and privately comparing him to the Nazi party leader. That is, before Vance became one of Trump’s ardent defenders and was chosen to be his next vice president. The fascist accusations grew in the weeks before the Nov. 5 election, with Retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff, telling The New York Times that Trump “certainly falls into the general definition of fascist.”
Stone’s view of American ignorance also echoed those of Baldwin, who also is 66, rose to Hollywood stardom at around the same time and who was at the festival to pick up a lifetime achievement award. During a press conference this week, Baldwin similarly expressed concerns about Americans’ lack understanding of politics and the state of the world in the wake of Trump’s election to a second presidential term.
Baldwin, a lifelong Democrat who famously parodied Trump on “Saturday Night Live,” was asked about his concerns for America after Trump retakes office. Again, not uttering Trump’s name, Baldwin said, “There’s a hole, a vacuum … a gap in information for Americans. Americans are very uninformed about reality, what’s really going on — climate change, Ukraine, you name it.”
“The biggest topics in the world, Americans have an appetite for a little bit of information,” Baldwin continued. It’s possible that Baldwin’s comments about the information “gap” refers to the idea, promulgated before and after the election, that Trump draws support from “low-information voters” — people who pay little attention to the news and who sometimes don’t have college educations, as the New Yorker magazine explained.
Not surprisingly, the comments by Stone and Baldwin have stirred up right-wing outrage, with the more polite attacks on X centering on the idea that they are actors “paid to read scripts” and play the part of fictional characters in movies and TV.
“‘Actors’ are the most self obsessed, pampered and shielded people in America, another person said on X in response to Baldwin’s comments. Riley Gaines, who converted her defiance to competing against a transgender swimmer into a status as a right-wing influencer, was among those piling on Stone, the Daily Beast reported.
“These out-of-touch Hollywood elitists calling American voters uneducated is peak hypocrisy,” Gaines said. “They lecture from their ivory towers while being completely disconnected from the everyday realities most Americans face.”
In a more vicious and sexist way, Stone was attacked for playing a highly sexualized character in her most famous film, “Basic Instinct.” Meanwhile, others went after Baldwin for accidentally shooting and killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of his Western film “Rust” in 2021.
“Pffft. Alec Baldwin?” one person said. “Shot and killed a woman on a movie set and then tried convince people the gun went off magically since he didn’t pull the trigger. He is the personification of stupid.”
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But many also defended Stone and Baldwin. “Couldn’t agree more,” one person said. Other comments included: “Well, they’re right” and “Thank u Sharon and Alec for bravely speaking out truth abt our current situation in America, the once land of the free. You are both spot on.”
In her comments, Stone returned to the issue of violence against women, speaking out on the importance of good men helping to protect women from those who abuse them.
“Now, we can’t just say women should help women because that’s the only way we have survived so far,” Stone said. “We must say that good men must help good men and those good men must be very aware that a lot of their friends are not good men.”
“And we can’t continue to pretend that your friends are good men when they’re not good men,” she continued. “And you must be very clear-minded and understand that your friends who are not not good men are dangerous violent men. And you have to keep them away from your daughters, your wives and your girlfriends, because this is the time when we can no longer look away, when bad men are bad.”
It’s possible that Stone’s comments were a veiled swipe against Trump and some of his Cabinet picks, who have faced allegations of sexual misconduct, the Daily Beast reported. On his own, Trump has been accused by dozens of women of sexual misconduct, dating back to the 1970s, and he was found legally liable in a court of law for sexual abuse in 2023, The 19th reported.
Among Trump’s Cabinet picks, former Florida congressman Matt Gaetz withdrew his bid for attorney general in the face of Senate opposition. Gaetz, Pete Hegseth and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — Trump’s initial picks to head the Justice, Defense, and Health and Human Services departments, respectively — have each been accused of sexual misconduct, according to the Washington Post.
In addition, Linda McMahon, Trump’s pick for education secretary and former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO, was accused in an October lawsuit of failing to prevent the sexual abuse of teenage WWE workers, the Post said.
