New Delhi: Sharon Stone lost custody of her child due to a scene in Basic Instinct after her divorce in 2004. She was speaking to CBS Mornings ahead of the third season of the Euphoria series, in which she plays a studio executive. During the discussion, Stone was asked about the iconic scene in the 1992 movie where her character, Catherine Tramell, crosses and uncrosses her legs during an interrogation.
The actor said that judicial prejudice caused her to lose custody of her son, Roan, when the presiding judge put the then four-year-old in the witness box. Stone had adopted Roan with her ex-husband, Phil Bronstein.
“My child was put on the stand in custody court and asked if he knew his mother made sex movies,” said Stone.
This leg scene, despite being a short sequence, became a career-defining moment for Stone. “In many ways, I feel I wasn’t protected and taken care of, and I was punished for others’ behaviour,” she said.
The Oh My God of it
The interviewer asked Stone how she looks back at her career.
“People were desperately trying to figure it out,” Stone said of the speculation about whether she was wearing underwear. “And I think that that idea of, ‘Oh my God,’ this hope, this wonder, this hope, this intrigue, this yearning is something that all of our profound sexuality is based in.”
Over the years, the scene has become larger than the movie itself, which also starred Michael Douglas as a police officer. Basic Instinct went on to earn over $ 352 million worldwide and became the fourth highest-grossing film of that year. But Stone was being treated differently because of it.
The actor added that she “fast-forwards” through sex scenes while watching movies because she wants to maintain the ‘mystery’.
“I don’t want to have to go through all of this blatant, harsh sexuality. For me, it steals from my own imagination. And I prefer my yearning, mystery, desire. I want to keep that alive inside myself,” she said.
Stone also mentioned how she asked for the payment she was owed for Basic Instinct, and how women barely made any money in films at the time.
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From her memoir
In 2022, Stone published her memoir, The Beauty of Living Twice, in which she wrote that Dutch filmmaker Paul Verhoeven duped her into exposing herself in the scene. She had no idea such a shot would be used until she was in a screening alongside agents and lawyers.
“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 wrote in her memoir. The director has, however, denied tricking the actor into performing the scene.
Stone would go on to slap the director and even consider filing a case before letting it go, as it would impact the film’s release. During the interview, she said that people would treat her in cruel, unkind ways. “Like I was a slatternly, vulgar person.”
“I played a character 30 years ago. Grow up,” said Stone.