From sex symbol to broke actress: Kim Basinger has a turbulent life. A look back at the Hollywood star’s 70th birthday.
She played the sex goddess even though she never felt like it. She took off her clothes even though she wanted to run away. She mimed a vamp while copulating and then burst into tears.
Actually, while filming the film “9 ½ Weeks” (1986), which would make her world famous, Kim Basinger (70) was only doing her job as an actress, namely playing a New York gallery owner who falls for a Wall Street stockbroker . But this story took such a toll on her that she only spoke of the torment on set and admitted in an interview with Studio Magazine: “There wasn’t a day when I didn’t feel like I was suffocating on my emotions.”
This is the true background of a woman who is still remembered today, decades later, as Hollywood’s sex symbol. Kim Basinger will be 70 years old on December 8th. She has largely withdrawn from Hollywood and its relentless hustle and bustle because her health can no longer bear it.
Kim Basinger suffers from an anxiety disorder
She has had a complicated life path, and it is a bitter irony, not to say tragic, of this story that of all people, the young southerner from Georgia, who desperately wants to become an actress, suffers from a syndrome that is completely incompatible with acting : Kim Basinger, daughter of a jazz pianist and a synchronized swimmer and descendant of German, Swedish and Scots-Irish ancestors, suffers from agoraphobia, an anxiety disorder that makes public appearances infinitely difficult.
As a young girl, she modeled very successfully after high school, but she is so shy that she can hardly speak when strangers are in the room. In addition, she can hardly look in the mirror because she believes she doesn’t meet the standards.
This fear develops into an illness that is not treated because Kim Basinger does not want to face her disorders, but rather achieve the extreme opposite and become an actress with all her might. Before training at the William Esper Studio for the Performing Arts in New York, she appeared on magazine covers and in hundreds of commercials. She even performs as a singer in various clubs in Greenwich Village.
Your career is taking off
Then she moves to LA. She gives up modeling, gets smaller roles in well-known TV series like “McMillan & Wife” or “Charlie’s Angels”, and even gets a leading role in the TV film “Katie: Portrait of a Centerfold”. Finally, she posed naked for “Playboy” and became a Bond girl in the last film with Sean Connery (1930-2020) as James Bond in “Never Say Never Again” in 1983. That’s what makes her famous – as a sex symbol.
However, the audience has no idea that this seductive young woman suffers from the anxiety attacks of her agoraphobia and is temporarily unable to leave her apartment because she has panic attacks outside.
After the hype surrounding the Bond film and the “Playboy” photos, she got leading roles in several films, including playing alongside Robert Redford (87) in “The Indomitable”. Then came the “9 ½ Weeks” project in 1986. It is the film adaptation of a bestseller in which the author writes vividly about her sadomasochistic relationship under the pseudonym Elizabeth McNeill.
Stars like Isabella Rossellini (71) and Kathleen Turner (69) are trying to play the role of Elizabeth, but director Adrian Lyne (82) chooses Kim Basinger because “she’s like a child, she’s innocent.” This innocence must be broken, which is essentially the plot of the film.
It essentially shows “Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke having sex,” writes “Spiegel”. “Sex in front of the refrigerator, on rainy New York basement stairs and in a yuppie apartment as scary as a haunted house. Sex in high heels and suspenders. Sex with a blindfold. With a whip and handcuffs.”
A striptease that will go down in film history
Kim Basinger, who fled the studio crying during the casting, perfectly embodies the seductive Elizabeth. To the sounds of Joe Cocker’s hit “You Leave Your Hat On” she performs a striptease that will go down in film history – the key scene from “9 ½ Weeks”.
The film flops in the US, but becomes a hit in Europe, grossing $100 million. And Basinger is considered the ultimate seduction because she barricades herself privately in her apartment with her fears.
As an actress she is now playing in the top league. This is followed by “Batman” (1989) with Jack Nicholson (86) and Michael Keaton (72), their biggest commercial success with a profit of 400 million dollars. That is the peak, after which the descent begins, at least the economic one.
The critics don’t mean well with Kim Basinger
Actually, her acting talent, which she demonstrates in overcoming her fears in front of the camera, should be outstanding. But the criticism doesn’t appreciate it. She was nominated for the “Golden Raspberry” six times as worst actress, and in 2018 she received the Negative Award as worst supporting actress for her role in “Fifty Shades of Grey,” which was her last film to date.
Kim Basinger’s greatest personal triumph shows how much the dictates of absolute unpredictability reign in Hollywood: In 1998, she, who was always the hottest candidate for the “Golden Raspberry” and was mercilessly dragged through the cocoa, was awarded the Oscar for best supporting actress in “LA Confidential ” awarded.
Who knows what artistic path her career would have taken if she hadn’t turned down the lead role in “Basic Instinct” in 1992. She simply doesn’t want to (and can’t) be a sex symbol anymore. So Sharon Stone (65) gets the role – and becomes a global star.
A year later, Kim Basinger had to file for bankruptcy. She overextended herself on a property investment and faced an expensive legal battle with a production company after withdrawing from the film “Boxing Helena.”
Her private life is also causing a stir
Her private life is similarly turbulent. The first marriage to the make-up artist Ron Snyder (84) ended in divorce in 1990; he receives $9,000 a month in support for eight years. After alleged affairs with the producer Jon Peters (78), the singer Prince (1958-2016) and the fashion designer Alexio Gandara and, according to rumors, Richard Gere (74), she married Alec Baldwin (65) in 1993. Daughter Ireland was born in 1995 and they divorced in 2002.
The separation turns into a drama in which the world takes part and enjoys the legal battle over custody of the daughter for years. In the meantime, those involved should get along again.
Kim Basinger has largely overcome her illness. She is a grandmother, lives far from the hustle and bustle of southern California near her daughter and lives happily with hairdresser Mitch Stone. She is committed to animal protection and writes a lot, especially children’s books. She says she has made peace with her life and career. This means that a great, misunderstood woman in Hollywood has finally found peace.