Sharon Stone was tricked into her Basic Instinct ‘vagina shot’ and slapped director Paul Verhoeven
Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct. (YouTube)
Sharon Stone has said she was tricked into not wearing underwear while filming her 1992 classic Basic Instinct.
Stone was nominated for a Golden Globe for her role as serial killer Catherine Tramell in the hugely successful film. In her new memoir The Beauty of Living Twice, she opened up about the moment she found out she had been lied to about the extent of nudity captured in the film.
Stone said a member of the production team on Basic Instinct told her to remove her underwear during a famous scene in which she crosses and uncrosses her legs, showing her vagina to a room full of men.
The actress said she agreed to remove her underwear for the scene as she was told her vagina would not be visible in the shot.
Stone said she only found out that her vagina was clearly visible when she was summoned to watch the film “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 wrote in an excerpt published by Vanity Fair.
“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**t… It was me and my parts up there.”
Sharon Stone ultimately allowed the Basic Instinct scene to be used
Sharon Stone slapped director Paul Verhoeven across the face after the viewing before calling her lawyer Marty Singer in her car.
Singer argued that the scene had been illegally made, according to Screen Actors Guild rules.
“I let Paul know of the options Marty had laid out for me. Of course, he vehemently denied that I had any choices at all. I was just an actress, just a woman; what choice could I have?”
Sharon Stone continued: “But I did have choices. 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.”
The actress described her Basic Instinct role as “by far the most stretching” that she has ever done “in terms of considering the dark side of myself”.
“It was terrifying. I had walked in my sleep three times during production, twice waking fully dressed in my car in my garage. I had hideous nightmares.”
