Sharon Stone
Director lied her on "Basic Instinct" scene
Sharon Stone on the legendary "Basic Instinct" scene.
© imago / ZUMA Press
Sharon Stone was lied to while filming her most famous "Basic Instinct" scene. "We can't see anything," it was said in advance.
US actress Sharon Stone (63, "Broken Flowers") owes a large part of her fame to the legendary cross-legged leg in the interrogation scene of the erotic thriller "Basic Instinct" (1992). But as she will now reveal, according to "Vanity Fair" in her memoir "The Beauty of Living Twice", the much discussed moment in which she can be seen below is based on a lie. A member of the production team told her to take off her panties because their white reflect the light and everyone would know that I was wearing something. "We can't see anything," she was assured.
That her private parts can be seen in the film only became clear to her after she had appeared for a screening in "a room full of agents and lawyers, most of whom had nothing to do with the project". "That's how I saw my vagina for the first time in the picture, long after I was told: 'We can't see anything'", she describes the uncomfortable moment. After the screening, she slapped director Paul Verhoeven (82), went to her car and called her lawyer Marty Singer.
After some back and forth, she still decided to leave this scene in the film. "And why? Because it was right for the movie and the character; and because I did it," recalls Sharon Stone.
Another exhausting project
The shooting of "Basic Instinct" is said to have been very exhausting even apart from the much discussed scene. "I can say that the role was by far the toughest I've ever done in terms of looking at the darker side of myself," said Stone. "It was terrifying. I slept three times during production, twice I woke up in my car in the garage fully clothed. I had terrible nightmares," she admits, looking back.
"The Beauty of Living Twice" is out March 30th.