Sharon Stone is the 90’s was a reincarnation of golden age Hollywood.
With her icy confidence, flawless features, and magnetic screen presence, she embodied the kind of star power rarely seen today.
Nowhere did her aura shine brighter than in one of the greatest thrillers ever made, Basic Instinct — the film that cemented her as a cinematic icon.
I rewatched the classic Basic Instinct the other day, and it hit me: they really don’t make movies like this anymore. Maybe that sounds a little dramatic, but there’s no denying the film is packed with moments that have become permanently etched in pop-culture history.
Part of what made it stand out was its fearless approach — the fact that no body doubles were used in the sex scenes added an extra layer of authenticity, giving the movie that glossy, slick edge while still feeling knowingly playful.
And of course, there’s the moment when Sharon Stone casually crosses and uncrosses her legs — a scene that instantly sent audiences into a frenzy and helped cement the film’s legendary status.
What many viewers don’t realize, though, is that the infamous leg-uncrossing moment wasn’t even in Joe Eszterhas’ original script. Instead, it came about during filming, when director Paul Verhoeven made a surprisingly intimate request to Stone…
Sparked major controversy
Basic Instinct premiered in 1992 and quickly became one of the decade’s most talked-about erotic thrillers. The story follows troubled San Francisco detective Nick Curran, played by Michael Douglas, as he investigates a brutal murder that leads him to seductive crime novelist Catherine Tramell, portrayed by Sharon Stone. As the investigation deepens, Nick becomes dangerously entangled in Catherine’s manipulative world, blurring the line between suspect and obsession.
The film drew mixed reactions from critics and sparked major controversy over its graphic sexual content, violence, and portrayal of same-sex relationships.
Despite the backlash and public protests, it proved to be a huge box-office hit — earning about $353 million worldwide against a $49 million budget and finishing as the fourth highest-grossing movie of 1992.
12 years in the shadows
After twelve years in the industry and around thirty credits — mostly B-movies and TV guest spots — Sharon Stone became an overnight star thanks to Basic Instinct.
Director Paul Verhoeven immediately had her in mind for the role of Catherine Tramell, but convincing the studio, producers, and Michael Douglas took nearly three months, since Stone wasn’t a household name at the time.
Michael Douglas believed the film needed an established star to balance the risk and ensure it would draw audiences, so the movie would rely on two recognizable actors and any potential career fallout would be shared.
He suggested Demi Moore or Michelle Pfeiffer for the role, but no big-name actress was willing to go fully nude.
Interestingly, Sharon hadn’t even auditioned initially because she didn’t want to be rejected. When she finally read the script and knew she was perfect for the role, she hesitated to call Verhoeven, telling Playboy, “I wouldn’t ask, because I didn’t want him to test me just because he felt obligated.”
During a session dubbing lines for an airplane version of Total Recall, she deliberately wore a tight Catherine-inspired dress to show Verhoeven she could embody the femme fatale.
“I was being cool. Very cool,” she said. “I didn’t want him to think I was insane, but I did want to give him a general idea that I could transform myself. Men are visually stimulated, and that’s usually enough, at least at first.”
Blood-stained clothes
Verhoeven reportedly clashed with Michael Douglas during filming. Stone was nervous in her first scenes and struggled to match the performance she’d given at her audition. “She came very close to being replaced,” Verhoeven said, but he knew she had the role’s essence, so he coached her intensively.
Douglas, however, felt left out of the process, leading to a heated argument in a trailer — so intense that Verhoeven burst a vein in his nose and began bleeding heavily. When he emerged in blood-stained clothes, the crew initially feared Douglas had attacked him.
The clash that almost changed Basic Instinct
Sharon Stone claims her first meeting with Michael Douglas was anything but smooth. She revealed that Douglas “did not want to put his [body] on the screen with an unknown,” referring to her at the time.
Sharon recalled, “I understood that,” adding that he “wouldn’t even test” with her because of an argument they’d allegedly had years earlier at Cannes.
She explained the incident: “A bunch of us were all sitting, and [Michael] was talking about someone and their kids. I really, really knew this person he was talking about,” she said. “So I said something and he responded to me, saying, ‘What the [expletive] do you know?’ It was in regard to a father-child relationship.”
Sharon continued: “Clearly, it triggered him. So he screams this at me across a whole group of people. And I’m not the person who goes, ‘Oh, excuse me, superstar.’ I pushed back my chair and said to him, ‘Let’s step outside.’ That’s how we first met.”
Once outside, she explained her connection to the people he had been discussing.
“And then we parted. I wouldn’t say as best friends, but amicably,” Sharon said.
Fast forward to casting Basic Instinct, she added, “I don’t think he wanted me to be his co-star.” Despite the rocky start, she notes that she and Douglas “have remained close friends” and that she admires him “tremendously.”
Douglas, on the other hand, claims he doesn’t remember the Cannes incident. His rep told People that the father of three is “very surprised [by Sharon’s quotes],” as “he doesn’t remember any argument in that timeframe” between them.
Michael Douglas clause
Fun fact about Michael Douglas: the legendary actor — who once dabbled in race-car driving — did most of his own stunt driving in Basic Instinct.
He had also a strict clause in all his contracts forbidding him from ever doing full-frontal nudity on screen, so no surprises there.
Inspired by a college memory
Around 27 minutes into Basic Instinct, movie history was quietly being made. Sharon Stone’s infamous leg-uncrossing scene? Totally not in Joe Eszterhas’ original script.
The idea came to director Paul Verhoeven on set, inspired by a college memory of a woman at a party who had done the exact same thing to embarrass him.
Stone has revealed in multiple interviews that Verhoeven asked her to remove her underwear for the shot because “they were too bright and reflected at the camera.”
She agreed, assuming her most private parts wouldn’t actually be visible.
It wasn’t until an early preview that Stone realized the shot had been used, and yes, it showed more than she expected.
“I was in a state of shock,” Stone said. “At the end of the movie, I got up, walked over to Paul Verhoeven and slapped him.”
”She knew exactly what we were doing..”
Stone admitted she was mostly upset that Verhoeven hadn’t discussed it with her first, but ultimately decided to let the scene stay.
She felt it fit Catherine Tramell’s free-spirited, mischievous personality.
”I thought about it for a few days and I knew in my heart, he was right. I hated that it existed, I hated it more that he stole it from me instead of allowing me to choose. But he was right,” Sharon said.
Verhoeven has repeatedly defended his version of events:
“She knew exactly what we were doing. I told her over dinner that it was based on a story of a woman whom I knew when I was a student, who did the crossing of her legs without panties regularly at parties. 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.”
Despite the heated debates, Verhoeven and Stone insist there’s no bad blood. They just…remember things differently.
This cheeky scene went on to become one of the most talked-about, parodied, and referenced moments in film history, proof that sometimes, a single leg-cross can make Hollywood history.
Catherine’s power play… and a sneaky cigarette
Sharon Stone turned the iconic interrogation scene in Basic Instinct into a masterclass in confidence and mischief. Rather than letting the male officers intimidate her character, Stone played Catherine Tramell like it was a game.
“The ruse they use — ‘We have the power, we’re going to show you’—didn’t cut the mustard with Catherine,” Stone told Playboy. “Her attitude was, ‘You’re so powerful. Aren’t you cute!’ And, of course, she had all the power. These men put her in a position where she was alone in a chair in the center of an empty room—surrounded. That would be a very intimidating position, unless she disarmed them, which she did. At the police station, she could have been stricken and scared. But instead she thought, ‘This is going to be fun. Oh, so you want me to sit in the middle of the room here? Oh, charming. Why is that? You want to make sure you can look up my dress? Okay, you can look up my dress.’ It was a game.”
And while the scene became legendary for its power dynamics, eagle-eyed fans have noticed a quirky blooper: Sharon’s cigarette keeps disappearing and reappearing throughout the interrogation. One moment it’s between her fingers, the next it’s gone — then back again — adding a little unintentional magic to an already unforgettable scene.
Michael Douglas was all in for the sex scenes
Michael Douglas has shared that one reason he jumped at Basic Instinct was to keep sex scenes alive in Hollywood. He worried they were vanishing thanks to the AIDS epidemic. Because of the AIDS epidemic, both Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone had to wear protective genital pads while filming the sex scenes.
Even decades later, Douglas recalled how intense it all felt at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival. Watching all the nudity and graphic sex scenes projected on a massive screen?
“It really overwhelmed the cast,” he said. “It was a bit much, even for France.” The post-screening dinner was almost comically silent, with everyone quietly eating. No one dared speak.
Skipped a key forensic twist
One detail that’s raised a lot of eyebrows over the years: Basic Instinct completely ignored DNA evidence, even though the film is set in 1992, a time when DNA was already a standard tool in criminal investigations.
Spielberg spotted a star
Even though he didn’t have a lead role in Basic Instinct, Wayne Knight got a major career boost thanks to the film. Steven Spielberg spotted him while watching it and immediately knew he wanted Knight for the role of Dennis Nedry in Jurassic Park (1993). Knight even stayed through the end credits just to see his name, and he ultimately became the first actor officially cast for the blockbuster.
Sharon Stone’s bold choices
In 2025, Sharon Stone reflected on just how groundbreaking Basic Instinct was for its time. “Now people walk around showing their penises on Netflix, but, in the olden days, what we were doing was very new,” she said.
“This was a feature film for a major studio, and we had nudity, sex, homosexuality, all these things that, in my era, were breaking norms.”
She admitted that while the movie catapulted her to icon status, it didn’t exactly earn her respect. “It made me an icon, but it didn’t bring me respect. 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,” Stone told Business Insider.
And as for her director, Stone emphasized their strong working relationship: “What I did with what happened is exactly the way I wanted to do it. Verhoeven and I have a wonderful relationship.”
Even decades later, Basic Instinct still divides audiences. Was Sharon Stone’s Catherine Tramell a groundbreaking feminist icon, boldly owning her sexuality? Or was the film a tasteless spectacle that relied on shock value and objectification? Fans and critics still argue about whether Hollywood has moved forward—or if it’s just found new ways to package the same controversies. Either way, there’s no denying: this movie changed the rules, and everyone’s still talking about it.
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