Sharon Stone nude in Harper’s Bazaar at 57

“I am 50. Then what?” This was the title of Hollywood sex symbol Sharon Stone’s topless cover on French magazine Paris Match in 2009. Now she, at the age of 57, took one step further. She posed nude for the September issue of Harper’s Bazaar, an American fashion magazine. In the black and white pictures, she wore killer heels wearing nothing else. The actress humbly said, “I’m aware that my ass looks like a bag of flapjacks.” But her astonishing nudity makes readers gasp and realize the age is just a number.

Sharon Stone established her reputation as a sex symbol with the movie "Basic Instinct" in 1992. However, her career has been going down since 2001 when she suffered a stroke. Due to effects of stroke, she had no feeling in her legs and began stuttering, and her vision became so poor. She got divorced and deprived custody of her adopted son. She starred as a supporting role in a TV series when she had not fully recovered and frequently forgot her lines. Stone was treated as an actress who was over the hill, but now she has reclaimed her leading-lady status with a new series "Agent X."

In Hollywood, Stone is regarded as an actress who is intelligent and beautiful. Debuted at 19 as a model, she decided to change her career into acting. But she had not gained much attention as an actress for a long time. “I was a bookworm. I used my intelligence to be sexy,” said Stone. Following advice that she couldn’t find a job in Hollywood because she was not sexy, Stone stripped down for a photo shoot of the "Playboy" in 1990. It was a strategic choice, which got her a main character role in "Basic Instinct." She became one of the sexy icons and became popular with her claim that "naked body is beautiful."

Posing nude for photo shoots of a fashion magazine is another strategy to let the public know that she returns to the entertainment business after overcoming challenges. Some criticize that it is a struggle of an actress who had her day. But it should be praised that she turned her position from a sex symbol to a person who overcame personal challenges. When asked "what really is sexy," Stone said, “It`s being present and having fun and liking yourself.” It seems that the stroke gave her wisdom of life.