Sharon Stone's comments on Meryl Streep have the internet divided

Meryl Streep was likely just minding her business but Sharon Stone had other ideas when she decided to question Meryl Streep's icon status in Hollywood during a new interview.

Many of us are probably thinking, 'Oh no she didn't!' but she totally did while talking to website Zoomer for a story last month about her new memoir The Beauty of Living Twice.

The resurfaced interview went viral this week and when Stone was asked what it had been like to "finally" work with Streep in the film The Laundromat, the actress had some thoughts.

"I like the way you phrase that, that I finally got to work with Meryl Streep," Stone replied. "You didn't say, 'Meryl finally got to work with Sharon Stone.' Or we finally got to work together."

She continued: "Because that's the way her life went, she got built up to be, 'Everyone wants to work with Meryl.' I wonder if she likes that?"

Stone went on to say that she can play a "much better villain" than Streep ever could and said that she's sure Meryl would agree. But let's get this straight, it's not to say Stone doesn't admire Streep.

"The business was set up that we should all envy and admire Meryl because only Meryl got to be the good one. And everyone should compete against Meryl. I think Meryl is an amazingly wonderful woman and actress. But in my opinion, quite frankly, there are other actresses equally as talented as Meryl Streep. The whole Meryl Streep iconography is part of what Hollywood does to women," Stone said.

The 63-year-old actress named a list of actors who she considers "equally as talented" as the Academy Award-winning actress.

"Viola Davis is every bit the actress Meryl Streep is," Stone said. "Emma Thompson. Judy Davis. Olivia Colman. Kate Winslet, for f**k's sake. But you say Meryl and everybody falls on the floor," the Basic Instinct actress added.

"That phrasing has been taught," Stone concluded. "We've been taught that everybody doesn't get a seat at the table. Once one is chosen, nobody else can get in there."

During her interview with Zoomer, Stone also touched on her feelings towards the #MeToo movement.

“It can’t just have been this blip in Hollywood, where one guy [producer Harvey Weinstein] went to jail,” she said. “Harassment is everywhere. Until there are real laws, #MeToo was just the opening sentence. I’m sure Meryl has a story. But I’m also sure if Meryl told you her story, she wouldn’t be being Meryl, and she wouldn’t be getting those jobs. Meryl can’t be the envelope pusher. Because then she wouldn’t get the jobs. Meryl’s a smoother. That’s what she does.”

After a fan posted the excerpt from the interview on Twitter, Stone drew some praise for her comments while others disagreed with her.

After Stone made headlines for her comments on Streep, she took to Twitter to clarify that she wasn't trying to insult the actress.

"To be clear; Meryl Streep is one of the greatest actors of all times. Just not to the exclusion of others," she wrote.

In a follow-up tweet, Stone said what she actually spoke about was "SINGLE PARENT ADOPTION RIGHTS IN ITALY" and that the Streep story "is just a political distraction from reality."

Viola Davis has also spoken out about being compared to Streep but being offered less money than the actress.

She reflected on her interview with journalist Tina Brown for the Women in the World Salon event in February 2018 where she spoke about being underpaid and overlooked throughout her career.

At the time Davis said, “People say, ‘You’re a black Meryl Streep … We love you. There is no one like you. OK, then if there’s no one like me, you think I’m that you pay me what I’m worth.”

The 55-year-old actress said that as a woman of colour "you think, 'I'm just like everybody else.' Because that's what you believe."

She said that it's only until you reach a certain level of expectation when you realize "you are not like everyone else" when it comes to pay equality.