Italian director Pupi Avati knew he wanted Sharon Stone to star in his film, “Golden Boy.” What he didn’t know, he told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview on Friday, is how difficult it would be to work with her.
Avati told The Hollywood Reporter that he was thrilled that Stone agreed to act in the low-budget project, until Stone’s reps reportedly reached out with a lengthy list of demands.
“It was a negotiation that bordered on ridiculousness, concerning embarrassing details, as if Italy was a third world country. By the way, we do have electricity in Italy,” he said.
The director claimed Stone’s antics didn’t end there, either. According to Avati, when Stone saw a television crew and photographers filming a scene, she allegedly left the set unannounced.
“Then my brother [Antonio Avati] received a phone call from Los Angeles from her manager. She wouldn’t come back on the set until the photographers and especially that damned TV cameramen had gone away. Obviously we did so and she, like nothing happened, shot the scene. The thing that I found most absurd is that she had to call to the States and to close herself in a car, instead of coming to ask us directly,” Avati said.
This isn’t the first time someone has alluded to Stone being difficult to work with. In a scathing 2010 piece for Deadline.com, Nikki Finke, the site’s former editor-in-chief, slammed the actress for her on-set behavior.
When asked for comment about Avati’s claims, Stone’s rep told The Hollywood Reporter, “None of this is true. Ms. Stone is the consummate professional.”
