Hollywood star Sharon Stone says Hollywood was rife with misogyny when she entered the showbiz over two decades ago.
The 62-year-old actor said she was criticised for her appearance at a time when the #MeToo movement wasn't even in sight.
"When I started as a model and actress, the term 'f***able' was equated with workable and camera. At the beginning, you found that I was too masculine, athletic and muscular, so pretty unsexy. To be perceived differently, I had myself photographed half-naked for 'Playboy'," Stone told the German edition of Vogue magazine.
"It was a pretty misogynistic era 20 years ago. Mel Gibson, who is three years older than me, thought I was too old to star opposite him," she added.
Stone shot to fame after her turn as serial killer Catherine Tramell in 1992's "Basic Instinct", so much so that she landed on the "Sexiest Woman Alive" lists, something she doesn't take much pride in.
"It's crazy what you find so sexy. But men are probably into sexual offenders and predators who take what they feel like. At least that was the case in the 1990s."
The actor, whose leg-crossing scene in the erotic thriller has been called iconic by many, also shared her distaste for the sequence still being a topic of discussion.
Referencing her re-enactment of the scene at an event last year, Stone said, "When will the same questions ever stop? The short film scene was shot in another century and has dominated my life ever since. I'm just fed up with it and wanted to address the dilemma with humour."
