I’m cheating a little here, because Catherine Tramell is not only Stone’s defining role, but one of the most culturally important characters in film history. But Tramell was a brutal proof of concept that led Stone to Martin Scorsese’s Casino.
The world could be Ginger McKenna’s oyster. She’s a former sex worker who jumped into the Las Vegas pageant world, but she has a penchant for cheating with chips. Tangier casino manager Ace Rothstein (Robert De Niro) doesn’t care; he is fascinated by the knockout artist’s shameless actions, and although she is exactly the element he is trying to keep out of his big money establishment, he falls in love with her. They are getting married. And if Ginger had fully understood herself, she would have known that that was when she won. However, Ginger is stuck in an abusive relationship with a seedy man named Lester Diamond (James Woods). He gave her access to the outskirts of a dynamic world, which she penetrated thanks to her natural cunning. Ginger should throw Lester away, but he knows all her weaknesses. He trained her. He knows how to subjugate her and how to make her betray her own husband for a quick and easy victory.
Ginger is a tragically deformed figure. She’s just as smart as Catherine Tramell, but she’s been sent to jackpot hell. She can’t play the long game. She must win it all with every roll of the dice. This is what Vegas does to people. She married a powerful man and started a family, but there’s always a better, bigger score just around the corner. She’s a cameraman, but like most losers in Vegas, she’s still a dreamer. Watching Stone fall apart in the second half of Scorsese’s epic of acting devastates your soul. To be the victim of a scumbag like Lester Woods seems like a violation. Stone should have won – and she did, albeit not for long.
I look through Stone’s filmography and see a woman punished for being too good in an 80s/90s blockbuster. I watch Casino and I’m angry that we so rarely saw her at her best. House wins, but Stone says he’s still shooting. Who’s going to put it on the line?