Sharon Stone on Jon Jon Briones as ‘the Brando of our time’

Sharon Stone as Lenore Osgood in “Ratched” – NETFLIX PHOTOS

I don’t always find myself dumbfounded in the presence of celebrities. But I admit I was momentarily speechless the first time I saw Sharon Stone on Zoom for this exclusive one-on-one interview on “Ratched,” which launches its first season on Netflix in 190 countries this Friday.

“Good morning, darling,” greeted the 62-year-old actress, who still looked every inch like her equally iconic character, Catherine Tramell, 28 years after the release of “Basic Instinct.” In place of Catherine’s cold and calculated demeanor, a warm and welcoming smile appeared that seemed to reassure me of the absence of any danger ahead. Sharon plays an heiress seeking revenge in “Ratched.”

The eight-episode series is Ryan Murphy’s wildly imaginative nurse Mildred Ratched origin story, portrayed to Oscar-caliber perfection by Louise Fletcher in Milos Forman’s classic 1975 film “One Flew Over the Nest cuckoo “and courageously portrayed by Sarah Paulson. as a younger woman who rises above abuse and misogyny on the Netflix show.

Sarah Paulson as Nurse Mildred Ratched

Like a true movie star, Sharon rarely appears on television shows (such as “Mosaic,” in which critics singled her out for her “masterful twist” and “effortless charisma”). When asked what led her to accept the role in Ryan Murphy’s vehicle, she explained: “First of all, I think the good parts are on television these days. I don’t think people are making movies that are real “movies.”

“What Hollywood is doing are these action productions, which are great, but they are not character driven. So people don’t really go to the movies for “movies.” These days we watch movies at home. [in the form of] limited series, so we can really watch them in excess. We watch a six or nine hour movie. “For the actors, that is very exciting because then we have much more time with our characters. And there are many more elements involved. I think that is good, because it is not easy to find roles that have depth and power ”.

Set in 1947 in a northern California town called Lucia in Monterey County, the “Ratched” star stands up for women and explores the nature of power in a society that grants them none, especially at the time when history develops immediately afterwards. Second World War.

But the show isn’t just about women’s rights, mental illness or the ravages of war, explained executive producer Alexis Martin Woodall: “It’s about finding your voice, figuring out how to be heard and doing the right thing. It’s also about marginalized groups and how we can best help these communities from the start. What happens to our young people when they come from broken homes without stable influences, or when they have to define their moral code for themselves? “

“Ratched” brings to the screen a story that explores how the nursing home nurse became the unforgettable villain who thrilled viewers of the film version after she was hired at an increasingly tight psychiatric facility called Lucia State Hospital. .

This nursing home is testing “cutting edge” but disturbing experimental procedures, by Dr. Richard Hanover (Jon Jon Briones) and his irrepressible Head Nurse Betsy Bucket (Judy Davis), to treat a range of mental illnesses including schizophrenia and psychosis, as well as unconventional behaviors that were considered “aberrant” in the field of psychiatry in the “late 1940s”, such as homosexuality and lesbianism.

Sophie Okonedo (left) and Jon Jon Briones

It is in the midst of this organized chaos that Mildred uses the power of manipulation to her advantage as she crosses paths with the famous murderer and star prisoner Edmund Tolleson (Finn Wittrock); Governor George Wilburn (Vincent D’Onofrio), a mental health advocate, and his press secretary, Gwendolyn Briggs (Cynthia Nixon); hospital orderly Huck Finnegan (Charlie Carver); Dolly (Alice Englert), a staff nurse with a taste for the macabre; and Charlotte Wells (Sophie Okonedo), an emotionally fragile patient with multiple personality disorder.

It’s not long before Mildred is also able to interact with Louise (Amanda Plummer), a fading and fidgety former Sealight Inn motel manager, Child Protective Service caseworker Annie (Rosanna Arquette), and hunting private detective. rewards Charles Wainwright (Corey Stoll), who is hot on the heels of Dr. Hanover, whom he describes as a “dirty Pinoy doctor” from the beaches of Ormoc Bay in the Philippines. Just listing the spectacular power of this stellar dramatis personae makes my nose bleed, movie lover, and looking for trivia!

Then there’s Stone herself, portrayed as the vindictive mother Lenore Osgood seeking redress against the overly enthusiastic, yet exaggerated mental health professional responsible for the desperate plight of her deeply troubled psychotic son, Henry (Brandon Flynn).

Stone (left) and Brandon Flynn

Before finding stardom, Sharon herself had to challenge the idea that there is not much beneath the surface of the pretty face of an aspiring actress. Therefore, the former beauty and model queen had to break through the glass ceilings, winning an Emmy (“The Practice”) and a Golden Globe (for Martin Scorsese’s “Casino”), as well as an Oscar nomination at the way, to demonstrate to the public that inside those killer blue and blond eyes is a brain with an IQ of 154!

Yes, this charming and delicious actress is a clever cookie, literally, which makes her a perfect fit for the role of Lenore, one of the many characters who make “Ratched” nothing short of compelling to follow.

Sharon’s magnetic presence alone adds elegance and a measure of danger to the series’ narrative procedures, the same elements that make her most popular roles on the big screen hard to forget. What did you find attractive and challenging about this persistent mother character?

“Wow. She’s classy and dangerous okay, but she’s not good at being either,” the actress noted. “She’s pretending to be classy and fighting to be dangerous, and that’s what I like about her! I like that she tries harder to be classy and dangerous, and you see that she does, even if she’s not very good at any of it. “

Is it more satisfying to create or shape a character in a span of, say, eight episodes, compared to building a character in a movie?

“It is less different when you go to work for Ryan than in other settings, because his projects look very cinematic,” he replied. “The sets are fabulous and the costumes are incredible. In ‘Ratched’, the costume department is amazing! Here, the hair and makeup team provides the actors with perfect human hair wigs.

“Ryan’s productions work like a gigantic movie that moves in time with how movies were made in the old days (snaps fingers repeatedly), when studios produced them in 30 or 40 days.

“He’s constantly moving (shooting even more) because the sets are being done all the time, and he has 10 other productions going on and you see people moving around. It’s a machine, you know, and it’s beautiful. “

Remembering that I mentioned what country I was from and that I wrote for the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Sharon made sure not to end our talk without talking about a co-actor she was very happy to work with on the set of “Ratched”: Jon Jon Briones.

“Before we go, I just want to say that working with Jon Jon was really cool,” he said, looking like he knew what my next question would be. “And I wanted to say that Ryan calls him ‘the Brando of our time.’ Working with him is amazing! He is really a good humble man. [And what he does in the show] he is extraordinary, he is very succinct and very present in his work. “

That’s high praise from an actress who is not known to beat around the bush. Sharon further added: “We feel really lucky to have him in this business. Jon Jon is a star! “

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