Sharon Stone has explained how her infamous “Basic Instinct” scene got made and how she initially responded by slapping someone on the set when she saw it. However, one man intimately involved with making the movie doesn’t agree with the award-winning actress on how it all went down.
One of the most controversial scenes in movie history was portrayed in the 1992 erotic thriller Basic Instinct when actress Sharon Stone uncrosses her legs and flashes her bare crotch while being interrogated by police.
Stone shocked fans by claiming in her memoir that she was tricked into not wearing underwear for the scandalous scene. In an excerpt from the book obtained by Vanity Fair, Stone alleged that members of the film’s production team convinced her to remove her underwear for the scene by claiming that her private parts would not be visible in the final cut.
Stone wrote that she was called to see the final cut of the film “with a room full of agents and lawyers, most of whom had nothing to do with the project.” She said, “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.'” She continued, “Yes, there have been many points of view on this topic, but since I’m the one with the vagina, in question, let me say: The other points of view are bulls–. … It was me and my parts up there.”
After watching the movie, in which she starred opposite Michael Douglas, Stone claimed that she slapped director “Paul [Verhoeven] across the face, left, went to my car, and called my lawyer, Marty Singer,” who allegedly told her that the movie could not be made, according to the Screen Actors Guild.
“It wasn’t legal to shoot up my dress in this fashion,” Stone said she was told. “I let Paul know of the options Marty had laid out for me,” she explained. “Of course, he vehemently denied that I had any choices at all. I was just an actress, just a woman; what choices could I have?” she alleged.
“But I did have choices,” she continued. “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.” Stone explained that she felt that she needed “to become objective” about being tricked into taking off her underwear.
The veteran actress explained that she had worked very hard to get the role and that Verhoeven had supported her when co-star Michael Douglas didn’t want to do a screen test with her, claiming she wasn’t a big enough star. “I knew what film I was doing,” she said. “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.”
However, Paul Verhoeven has denied Stone’s claim about the incident. The Dutch director finds her take inconceivable. “She knew exactly what we were doing,” he told Variety in an interview. “I told her it was based on a story of a woman that I knew when I was a student who did the crossing of her legs without panties regularly at parties. When my friend told her we could see her vagina, she said, ‘Of course, that’s why I do it.’ Then, Sharon and I decided to do a similar sequence.”
“My memory is radically different from Sharon’s memory,” Verhoeven told Variety. “Her version is impossible.” The Robocop director was careful to emphasize that, while he and Stone may disagree on the notorious scene, he respects her performance in the film and they remain on good terms. “We still have a pleasant relationship and exchange text messages,” he said, noting that the panty discrepancy does not color how he perceives her acting ability. “[It] does not stand in the way and has nothing to do with the wonderful way that she portrayed Catherine Tramell,” he said of Stone and her character in Basic Instinct.
Sharon Stone ended up being nominated for a Golden Globe for her work in the 1992 film, and the movie made her a household name. “Do you have any idea how many people have watched Basic Instinct in the last 20-something years?” she said. “Think about it. It’s about more than just a peek up my skirt, people.”
