Sharon Stone reflects on ‘Basic Instinct’ leg-crossing scene

Sharon Stone has mixed feelings about her most iconic role.

The Casino actress looked back on playing the murderous novelist Catherine Tramell in 1992’s Basic Instinct during an interview with Business Insider — and discussed how her bottomless nudity during the film’s infamous interrogation scene has come to define her legacy.

“It made me an icon, but it didn’t bring me respect,” Stone said of the scene. “But would I do it again? We don’t get to make these choices in life. I don’t participate in the fantasy world in this way.”

In her 2021 memoir, The Beauty of Living Twice, Stone previously said that she was deceived into appearing bottomless on the day that the scene was shot, claiming she was 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.” 

The actress also previously said that she hadn’t seen the “vagina-shot” until she went to a screening of the movie alongside director Paul Verhoeven, and said that because she was unaware that she’d be nude on screen, she “went to the projection booth, slapped Paul across the face, left, went to my car, and called my lawyer.” Verhoeven responded that Stone “knew exactly what we were doing” and was not misled during production.

In her conversation with Business Insider, Stone was less accusatory than she was in her book. “I very much believe that none of us knew at the time what we were getting in regard to that shot, and when Paul got it, he didn’t want to lose it, and he was scared to show me,” she told the outlet. “And I get that.”

Stone also said that she recognized the value of the now-iconic shot despite her initial distress. “Once I had time to calm down, I didn’t make him take it out of the movie when I had the legal right to,” she said. “So I did have the chance to do it differently, and I didn’t because once I had the chance to step back, I understood, as the director, not the girl in the film, that that made the movie better.”

The actress also clarified that she remains on great terms with Verhoeven.

“What I did with what happened [in the interrogation scene] is exactly the way I wanted to do it,” she said. “Verhoeven and I have a wonderful relationship. I would work with him again in a second. We both understand. Even though we have different public ways of discussing it, we understand very well what happened regarding the crotch scene.”

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Last month, Entertainment Weekly confirmed that Basic Instinct is receiving a reboot from its original screenwriter, Joe Eszterhas. The Wrap, which first reported the news, said that Stone may return for the new film, and that the project will have an “anti-woke” framing.