Sharon Stone has spoken about the most notorious moment in the hugely successful 1992 thriller Basic Instinct, and revealed that she had no idea the scene would end up the way it did.
The scene occurs during a scene in which Stone’s character, bestselling author and serial killer Catherine Tramell, is interviewed by police. At one key moment, Tramell uncrosses her legs, revealing to the cops–and the audience–that she is not wearing underwear. In her new memoir The Beauty of Living Twice, which has had sections printed by Vanity Fair, Stone states that she had no idea how graphic this moment would be.
“After we shot Basic Instinct, I got called in to see it,” she said. “Not on my own with the director, as one would anticipate, but with a room full of agents and lawyers, most of whom had nothing to do with the project. That was how I saw my vagina-shot for the first time, long after I’d been told, ‘We can’t see anything–I just need you to remove your panties, as the white is reflecting the light, so we know you have panties on.'”
Stone goes on to reveal that she angrily confronted director Paul Verhoeven over the way the scene had been shot, and called her lawyer to see what her options were for having the scene changed or removed. But ultimately, she decided not to fight Verhoeven’s decision to include it.
“I thought some more,” she said. “I knew what film I was doing. For heaven’s sake, I fought for that part, and all that time, only this director had stood up for me. I had to find some way to become objective. So I thought and thought and I chose to allow this scene in the film. Why? Because it was correct for the film and for the character; and because, after all, I did it.”
Basic Instinct also starred Michael Douglas and hit theaters in March 1992. It was a huge box office success, grossing more than $352 million worldwide, but also attracted a lot of controversy over its sexual violence and depiction of bisexual and lesbian people. It was followed by a belated sequel in 2006, which starred Stone once more but was a box office flop.
