Kangana’s ‘Thalaivi’ postponed
publisher who died in 2019) and Tim. Sonny read my stuff and said that he thought I was his next Irish storyteller.
You reveal a lot of intensely personal information in the book about your family and your childhood, including details of how you and your sister, Kelly, were sexually abused by a grandfather. Did you discuss any of this with your surviving relatives before publishing the book?im
My sister and I made this decision together. We spoke to my mother and at first she was very stoic and wrote me a letter about how disconcerting all this information was. The whole pious, horrified, I-don’t-really-want-totalk-about-it-directly kind of thing. Then my sister got loaded when my mom was staying with her and really went for it with my mom. And my mom had a major breakthrough. When I finished the book, I read it to my mother over a three-day period. And I had the flu at the time. I was in bed and she got in bed with me as I finished the book, and then I recorded an hour and a half of her talking. And then I rewrote a lot of the book. That’s when I dedicated the book to her.
Are you apprehensive about people learning these things about you when the book is published?
If you don’t, people will make it all up for you. There’s been pretty much an adult lifetime of people making up my life for me. I’ve had quite a bit of tummy trouble waiting for this book to come. Now I’m going to go out in the most menacing, disruptive, psychologically aggressive period that our world has been in since the 60s and be vulnerable and open. I understand that I’ll be met with a certain amount of that. But I don’t want to gird my loins. I don’t want to be defensive. I want to prepare to be open and present. Because that’s the purpose of my journey.
There are some violent scenes in the book — a neck injury you received in a horseback riding accident as a teenager; the demise of an uncle who slipped and froze to death — which you find wryly humorous ways to write about. Where does that come from?
I have a little bit of the dark comedy personality. I really do think that we’re meant to meet life with a certain amount of grace, and humor helps that happen. I mean, I have had a unique opportunity in my career to play the bad guy. When I was in school, my acting teacher made me study with this guy who taught you to explore your shadow self. And I was pretty surprised when I got a real good look at myself — I was like, that’s it? You’re not so bad. I’m not afraid of my shadow self. Once you get to know the depth and breadth of your dark side — (Her phone begins to play the ring tone Happy by Pharrell Williams. She dismisses the call and, after some laughter, resumes her answer.)
People keep coming to me for those parts because they think I’m good at it, and I think they think I like doing it. I actually don’t like doing it, and I don’t really want to do it, purposelessly, anymore. If I’m going to play something dark now, I need a reason other than just, it’s funny. I find the monkey-on-theshoulder thing (an eccentricity favored by her character Lenore Osgood on the Netflix series Ratched) super funny. I told Ryan (Murphy, who developed the series), we could, when the performance is over, remove the monkey digitally, and the performance would still be so interesting.
Do you plan to move away from acting to focus more on your writing?
Well, I’ve actually let my agents and management and all those people go. I only really want to be hired now by directors whose choice is me. I don’t really want to be pitched anymore. I don’t want to be given to people because I can finance their film. I don’t want to be shopped out.
How will people approach you with these offers now?
Most people know a way to get a hold of me. They can send things to my publicist, who forwards them to me. Of course, I’m on Instagram. I’ve let go of people telling me all the reasons why I cannot work. I think 40 years of too tall, too short, too fat, too thin, too blonde, too brown, too young, too old. Too this, too that. I’m not really interested in the why-you-can’t-returnmy-call of it all anymore. So, if a director wants me, specifically, they’ll be able to find me.
I only really want to be hired now by directors whose choice is me. I don’t really want to be pitched anymore. ... I don’t want to be shopped out.”
—Sharon Stone, actress