‘Basic Instinct’ Director Denies Sharon Stone Was Tricked Into Not Wearing Underwear

Paul Verhoeven told Variety his memory of shooting the frontal nudity scene was “radically different” than the actor’s.
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Paul Verhoeven is disputing Sharon Stone’s account of what really happened behind the scenes of that streamy “Basic Instinct” scene.

In her recent memoir “The Beauty of Living Twice,” Stone wrote that a member of the 1992 film’s production team told her to remove her underwear while shooting the movie’s interrogation sequence because it was “reflecting the light.” After being assured that the crew couldn’t see anything, she said she was shocked to learn she’d been duped into baring all only upon viewing the finished film.

Speaking to Variety in an interview published Wednesday, Verhoeven offered praise for Stone’s performance as Catherine Tramell in “Basic Instinct,” which raked in a reported $352 million worldwide.

Still, he said his memory of shooting the frontal nudity scene was “radically different” than the actor’s and called her version “impossible.”

“She knew exactly what we were doing,” the director, whose credits also include “Total Recall” and “Showgirls,” said. “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. 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.”

In her book, Stone described a much more tense exchange.

“There have been many points of view on this topic, but since I’m the one with the vagina in question, let me say: The other points of view are bullshit,” she wrote.

“It was me and my parts up there. I had decisions to make. I went to the projection booth, slapped [director] Paul across the face, left, went to my car, and called my lawyer, Marty Singer. Marty told me that they could not release this film as it was. That I could get an injunction ... Whew, I thought.”

Ultimately, Stone said, she agreed to include the scene because “it was correct for the film and for the character; and because, after all, I did it.”

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