1992's Basic Instinct was a career-defining film for Sharon Stone. Much of that had to do with the interrogation scene, in which Stone's character, Catherine Trammel, repeatedly crosses and uncrosses her legs, all while wearing a short skirt and no underwear.
While the scene was memorable and recognizable for film-goers in the decades to come, it came at a personal cost for Stone.
Stone revealed in her 2021 memoir, The Beauty of Living Twice, that she did not know that her vagina was being filmed until she saw the movie at a screening full of industry professionals.
"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 the memoir.
Stone went to the projection booth and slapped director Paul Verhoeven over the scene. She then called her lawyer, Marty Singer, who said "they could not release this film as it was. That I could get an injunction," as per the memoir.
At first, it seemed that the explicit nature of the scene would give the film an X rating, and Stone had a good enough argument to get the scene removed from the final cut.
Stone began thinking from the director's point of view, and about the nature of the film as a whole. "I knew what film I was doing," she wrote. "For heaven’s sake, I fought for that part, and all that time, only this director had stood up for me."
She decided to allow the scene to be included in the final cut "because it was correct for the film and for the character; and because, after all, I did it."
Stone appeared on a recent episode of Table for Two with Bruce Bozzi, and discussed how that scene, and her career as a whole, was used against her during her divorce from Phil Bronstein.
Courts felt that Stone's sex symbol status made her a less-fit parent.
"When the judge asked my child – my tiny little boy, 'Do you know your mother makes sex movies?' Like, this kind of abuse by the system – that I was considered what kind of parent I was, because I made that movie," she said.
She continued by saying, "People are walking around with no clothes on at all on regular TV now and you saw maybe like a sixteenth of a second of possible nudity of me – and I lost custody of my child."
She admitted that she ended up in the Mayo Clinic with irregular heartbeats, adding that "It broke my heart."
She continued to maintain a close relationship with Roan, who is now 22 years old.
In addition to Roan, Stone is the mother of Laird and Quinn, who are 17 and 16, respectively. All three of her sons currently live with her, and she posts many moments with her family on Instagram.
In an article published by British Vogue for Mother's Day, Stone talked about her fears, as well as the fulfillment becoming an adoptive mother has brought her.
"When you adopt, you realize any child could be your child, any person could be your relative," she said. "After that you never see the world in the same way again."
In addition to the nude scene in Basic Instinct, Stone has opened up about other moments where she'd been subjected to inappropriate behavior.
In her memoir, Stone revealed that a producer had once asked her to have sex with a costar in order to improve their chemistry on screen.
She felt that the crew decided on an actor who could not do his job properly, adding, Now you think if I f*** him, he will become a fine actor? Nobody's that good in bed."
These include a story in which a director, who Stone referred to as a "#MeToo candidate," once refused to shoot with her because she wouldn't "sit in his lap and take direction."
h/t Buzzfeed News
