Actor Sharon Stone looked forward to being cast in a project about the late Lana Turner. But when Michael Douglas’ wife Catherine Zeta-Jones nabbed the project instead, Stone couldn’t help express her disappointment in the outcome.
Sharon Stone was considered to play late actor Lana Turner in a biopic
Stone may have been in the running once to play late actor Lana Turner. According to TCM, Turner was an actor on the rise in the late 30s, having made her small silver screen debut in the feature They Won’t Forget.
From there, Turner’s career experienced even higher heights in the 40s. The 40s saw her starring in notable features like Honky Tonk and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, further growing her celebrity.
Deep in the 40s and 50s, Turner was already an established star and an A-lister in her own right. But her personal life would take a disastrous turn when she began dating a Los Angeles gangster by the name of Johnny Stompanato. Stompanato was a secret admirer of Turner’s, secretly sending her lavish gifts and adoring messages over the phone under the alias John Steele.
When Turner discovered who Stompanato really was, she tried to leave him. But Stompanato wouldn’t let her, using violence and intimidation to keep Turner under her control.
After months of this tumultuous relationship, the couple reached their breaking point. Stompanato threatened to kill Turner, Turner’s grandmother, and Turner’s daughter Cheryl Crane. Hearing this, Turner’s daughter, who was only 14-years-old at the time, would end up stabbing Stompanato with a knife and killing him. Because of the circumstances, neither Turner or Crane were charged for murder.
Sharon Stone lost her role as Lana Turner to Michael Douglas’ wife Catherine Zeta-Jones
Stone asserted that she was handpicked to play Lana Turner by Turner herself.
“I met Lana in her final years and liked her a great deal. She said if there was to be a film made of her life, I was her choice,” Stone once said according to FemaleFirst.
Read Related Also: Former NBC anchor Jenna Wolfe undergoes mastectomy, hysterectomy
In the mid 2000s, a Turner film was looking to be a reality. Entertainment Weekly reported back in 2001 that Wayne’s World director Wayne Wang was set to helm the potential feature. Wayne had already planned to cast Stone as Turner by this point. Wang was also considering Antonio Banderas in the role of Johnny Stompanato.
”I told him, ‘You have to get rid of your Spanish accent. Johnny was a mobster from the Midwest,’” Wang said.
But circumstances changed when filmmaker Adrian Lyne was hired to direct the hypothetical film instead. Lyne decided to cast Michael Douglas’ wife Catherine Zeta-Jones in the feature. It was reported that Stone wasn’t too pleased with being shafted from one of her dream projects.
“You can know your job, but it seems you have to be flavor-of-the-week,” Stone allegedly said regarding the casting news.
How Catherine Zeta-Jones felt about Sharon Stone being mad at her for being cast in the role
In a 2005 interview with IGN, Zeta-Jones confirmed that she was cast in a potential Lana Turner biopic. Instead of Antonio Banderas, Matrix star Keanu Reeves would end up being her love interest.
“I will be doing it. Keanu Reeves is still on to it. I put myself on film just so I could get it in my head that the studio wouldn’t turn around half way through the movie and say, ‘She doesn’t look like her,’” Zeta-Jones said.
When it came to Stone, however, Zeta-Jones asserted that she knew very little about the actor’s true feelings towards the matter. But Zeta-Jones shared that she’d also wanted to be in a movie that ended up going to Stone instead some time ago. So Zeta-Jones knew the feeling of being shafted.
“Supposedly, Sharon wanted to play Lana Turner [in the Johnny Stompanato movie]. And I know Sharon really well. And I dunno. But guess what? I wanted to be in Basic Instinct 2,” Zeta-Jones said.
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’,
‘
fbq(‘init’, ‘1931209583834020’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);
