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Sharon Stone is opening up about politics and COVID-19 to “Extra’s’ Billy Bush. The actress and her friend Dr. Anthony Fauci are among the honorees at Treatment Action Group’s virtual Research in Action Awards Thursday night.
Stone showed her emotions on social media on election night as the country waited to hear if Joe Biden and Kamala Harris had won, or if President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence would continue on with a second term.
Sharon posted that she was watching the returns and crying, telling Billy, “There was so much lunacy in the air.” Laughing, she added, “That it was really a kind of madness, you know? It was really an extreme kind of madness that was happening.”
As for President Trump fighting the count and impeding the transition, Sharon said, “Even when we extremely dislike the president, we still have to hold regard for the office. This has been a very difficult tightrope to walk these last four years as we see the rights of many of our fellow Americans be extraordinarily compromised. That, for me, has been very, very painful.”
Would that ever inspire her to run for office? “I’ve been asked to do many things in the breadth of my career. So far, I have not been asked to be in a public position that I felt the bureaucracy wouldn’t tie my hands and make me do less than I’ve been able to do… But should I be asked to be in a public position that would allow me to do more, I would do that.”
Breaking news, Stone revealed, “I am on the Biden transition team and… would President Biden or Vice President Harris ask me to do something in infectious disease, I would accept a position and I would like to take my lifetime of global experience in infectious disease and really work more specifically now that I have this lifetime of understanding.”
She went on, “I think now what I really want is to be able to be, as I get into my third act, I really want to be able to be more productive and being of service.”
Her experience stems from her work with AIDS research, and on Thursday, she will receive a lifetime achievement award for leadership in AIDS advocacy. Dr. Fauci will receive a lifetime achievement award for public health leadership. “It’s so humbling and I’ve worked with Dr. Fauci for a very long time and we’ve worked on things other than COVID… He’s an incredible human being. His level of compassion and empathy and understanding, and I have to say unending patience, is beyond my comprehension,” she said.
Sharon’s own family has battled COVID-19, after her sister and brother-in-law contracted the disease. Sharon said her sister, who has lupus, is still struggling. “She has what’s called long-haul COVID, so she’s having a very difficult recovery… I don’t know that it hasn’t impacted her in a way that she might not ever totally bounce back from.”