Sharon Stone was a diva on set of her new film “The Golden Boy,” according to director Pupi Avati and his producer-brother Antonio Avati. The 56-year-old actress was cast in a low-budget film, but the filmmakers soon found out how difficult she could be.

In the film, Stone plays an actress from the ‘90s who became a book publisher. The script was written with her specifically in mind, but the Avatis weren’t sure that she would agree to star in the low-budget flick. To their delight, she agreed, but not before demanding a lot of things.

“Then a correspondence started,” Pupi was quoted by the Hollywood Reporter as saying at the film’s conference in Rome. “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.”

Nevertheless, the negotiations pushed through, and the filmmakers had rented and booked luxury services for the actress. When they were meeting her for the first time, Stone was on the wrong rail track and no one had recognised her.

“Then, step-by-step, she started to feel more and more like Sharon Stone,” Antonio said of how Stone’s quiet demeanour changed when she was suddenly surrounded by paparazzi. “There her ego definitely inflated. It is the classic pattern with these American actresses who are slightly declining.”

Pupi also recalled how Stone exhibited her most diva-like behaviour during a kissing scene shoot.

“It was the last scene in the day and we had to do the last shot where Sharon kisses Scamarcio,” the director said, referring to actor Riccardo Scamario, the star of the film. “Suddenly she realised that together with all the photographers there was also a TV cameraman was filming.

“She immediately disappeared. We looked for her everywhere, but nothing! Then my brother 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 cameraman 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.”

Actress Cristiana Capotondi added another story of Stone’s diva-ish attitude at the conference, saying, “The funniest thing was when she was going shopping for her character with the production’s credit card. She had a production runner following her, at a distance, to tell Antonio which shops she was going into. When the runner called to say that she was going into Bulgari, Antonio almost fainted.”

Pupi might have just disparaged Stone’s behaviour, but he still wouldn’t turn down an opportunity to work with her again.

Stone’s rep Cindi Berger told The Hollywood Reporter that the claims are untrue, saying, “Ms Stone is the consummate professional.”