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Sharon Stone is looking back on the way in which her work as an advocate for HIV/AIDS research impacted her career.
The 64-year-old actress recalled how the backlash began after she took over for previous amfAR chairwoman Elizabeth Taylor in 1995.
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While speaking at Saudia Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival, Stone remembered her publicist at the time telling her, “If you do this, it will destroy your career.”
According to People, Stone admitted she “had no idea of the resistance, cruelty, hate and oppression that we would face.”
“So, I put on a hazmat suit and I had them show me it [the virus] under the microscope,” she said. “I thought I really need to see this thing that is making everyone go nuts.”
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Stone continued, “I stayed for 25 years until we had AIDS remedies being advertised on TV like we have aspirin It did destroy my career. I didn’t work for eight years. I was told if I said condom again, funding would be removed. I was threatened repeatedly, my life was threatened, and I decided I had to stick with it.”
The Golden Globe winner concluded, “Now 37 million are living with HIV AIDS, living functioning and healthy.”