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To most people, the name Sharon Stone is synonymous with that scene from Basic Instinct.  The film was groundbreaking at the time for its intertwining of sex and murder. The infamous scene where Catherine Tramell crosses her legs during an interrogation is perhaps the ‘most paused scene’ in cinema history, but the fraction of a second where we almost see something caused Sharon Stone to lose custody of her son, Roan.

“The judge asked my child, my tiny little boy, ‘Do you know your mother makes sex movies,'”

What an asshole judge. Reading this through the lens of 2023, with more nudity on an average TikTok video today than in the entirety of Basic Instinct, we can all agree that the lady didn’t deserve the shade thrown her way. Despite losing custody of her son to her ex-husband Phil Bronstein, the legendary actress had to endure being objectified and ridiculed by the media and her peers.

“It was horrible. I was so humiliated.”

Stone recalls being laughed at by her peers when she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her portrayal of the psycho psychiatrist. As nominations were read at the ceremony, she had to endure the humiliation of hearing people in the audience snicker at her inclusion.

“Does anybody have any idea how hard it was to play that part?’ How gut-wrenching and frightening and how much work it was to play this part.”

The legendary actress had to audition for the role for nine months, eventually beating out 13 other actresses. And although the movie was a groundbreaking film at the time, she paid a heavy personal price for it. People protested the ‘gratuitous nudity and sexifying of murder, and in the process, Stone became ‘that woman’.

Speaking about that scene in Basic Instinct, Stone reveals that she was tricked into going commando. The film’s director, Paul Verhoeven told her that her underwear was reflecting light poorly and that she would have to go sans panties. It wasn’t until the final showing that Stone realised how graphic the scene was, as well as how much full-frontal nudity was shown. Verhoeven has a different memory of the incident even though the two still remain, friends to this day.

“That does not stand in the way and has nothing to do with the wonderful way that she portrayed Catherine Tramell … She is absolutely phenomenal. We still have a pleasant relationship and exchange text messages,”

The impact of Sharon Stone’s portrayal of a sexually liberated, albeit nuts, woman in the 1992 film might have been groundbreaking for filmmakers and audiences alike, and it may be easy to look back now and wonder what the big deal was. But for Stone, the role created a false impression of who she was in real life – something she paid dearly for. Today there are millions of people who become Paris Hilton-wealthy and even Kardashian-famous for flashing their vajayjays on screen.

It feels unfair that so few recognise the price she had to pay for it.

[source:fox]