Paul Verhoeven Finally Responds To That Jaw-Dropping Sharon Stone Accusation
In 1992, Sharon Stone wrote her name in Hollywood history when director Paul Verhoeven's steamy mystery movie "Basic Instinct" made her a househould name. Her role as the glamourous, calculating and dangerous Catherine Tramell showered her with accolades, but as a flip side to her success story, Stone was never the same after "Basic Instinct" (via Vanity Fair). She has shared stories about freaking out when she thought she killed a colleague on the set for real. She has revealed that she sleepwalked and suffered from nightmares as she attempted to capture Tramell's essence. Most importantly, though, she has stated that she didn't know that her most famous scene in the movie — the one in which she tactically exposes her nether regions during an interrogation scene — would actually make it in the final cut in such an explicit form. In fact, she has said that the director outright cheated her into doing it.
"After we shot 'Basic Instinct', I got called in to see it," Stone has said. "Not on my own with the director, as one would anticipate, given the situation that has given us all pause, so to speak, but 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.'"
That's pretty strong stuff, and Stone said that she even explored the possibility of blocking the release of the movie if the scene remained, though this obviously didn't happen in the end. Now, Paul Verhoeven has finally responded to Stone's jaw-dropping accusation about misleading the actress.
Paul Verhoeven disagrees with Stone's version of the story
In a recent interview with Variety, Paul Verhoeven said that he's still on perfectly friendly terms with Sharon Stone, but also disagreed with her version of the events at the "Basic Instinct" shoot.
"My memory is radically different from Sharon's memory," Verhoeven said. "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. But her version is impossible. She knew exactly what we were doing."
Verhoeven also shed some light about the inspiration behind Tramell's character, which, apparently, was an old acquaintance of the director. "I told her it was based on a story of a woman that I knew when I was a student, who did the crossing of her legs without panties regularly at parties," he shared. "When my friend told her we could see her vagina, she said, 'Of course, that's why I do it.' Then Sharon and I decided to do a similar sequence."
Verhoeven's response was courteous and informative enough, but as the director himself was quick to note, it doesn't really accept or acknowledge the version of events that Stone has described. Count on Looper to keep you posted about how the situation proceeds, and how Stone may eventually respond to Verhoeven's comments.