Director Paul Verhoeven said that he and Sharon Stone are on good terms, despite their conflicting versions of how the famous “Basic Instinct” legs-uncrossing scene came to be.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, the 83-year-old director decried the “new purity” of moviemaking and noted the iconic moment in which Stone’s character exposes herself during an interrogation still causes a stir.
“We had no idea that shot, showing a little bit of vagina — not more than a stripe — would be a problem,” he said.
Verhoeven was promoting his movie “Benedetta,” about a woman who has a love affair with a nun. The filmmaker said he made the film in France and Italy to avoid Hollywood censorship.
“Sexuality has been moved out of movies,” he told The Sunday Times. “In the 1970s you could talk about it. But you arrive now, decades later, and those movies are not possible any more. It would be very difficult to make a film like ‘Showgirls’ or ‘Basic Instinct’ now.”
Verhoeven and Stone have not been on the same page regarding the genesis of the controversial scene. Stone wrote in her memoir that she was tricked into taking off her underwear by a production team member who told her it was creating glare. She said she slapped Verhoeven afterward and contacted her lawyer, only to later acquiesce because she believed the provocative action was true to her movie character.
Verhoeven has claimed it was a collaboration all along, and he explained to Stone beforehand that a woman he knew pulled the same stunt as a student.