“It made me an icon, but it didn’t bring me respect,” Stone told Business Insider<\/a> of the controversial moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n She added, “I very much believe that none of us knew at the time what we were getting in regard to that shot, and when [director] Paul [Verhoeven] got it, he didn’t want to lose it, and he was scared to show me. And I get that.”<\/p>\n SHARON STONE, MICHAEL DOUGLAS CELEBRATE 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF \u2018BASIC INSTINCT\u2019: \u2018A LITTLE CONTROVERSY\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n Looking back on her infamous “Basic Instinct” leg-crossing scene, Sharon Stone says she wouldn\u2019t take it out, despite having had the legal right to do so at the time. (Sunset Boulevard\/Corbis via Getty Images\/\u00a9TriStar\/courtesy Everett Collection)<\/p>\n She said once she calmed down, “I didn’t make him take it out of the movie when I had the legal right to. So I did have the chance to do it differently, and I didn’t because once I had the chance to step back, I understood, as the director, not the girl in the film, that that made the movie better.”\u00a0<\/p>\n Stone went into more detail about her reaction in her memoir “The Beauty of Living Twice.”<\/p>\n “First, at that time, this would give the film an X rating,” Stone explained. “Remember, this was 1992, not now, when we see erect penises on Netflix. And, Marty said, per the Screen Actors Guild, my union, it wasn\u2019t legal to shoot up my dress in this fashion.\u00a0Whew,\u00a0I thought. After the screening, I let Paul know of the options Marty had laid out for me. Of course, he vehemently denied that I had any choices at all. I was just an actress, just a woman; what choices could I have?”<\/p>\n \u00a0“I very much believe that none of us knew at the time what we were getting in regard to that shot, and when [director] Paul [Verhoeven] got it, he didn’t want to lose it, and he was scared to show me. And I get that.”<\/p>\n \u2014 Sharon Stone<\/p>\n She wrote that before she had been called in to see the shot, she had been told “‘We can\u2019t see anything \u2013 I just need you to remove your panties, as the white is reflecting the light, so we know you have panties on.'”<\/p>\n Stone wrote that she eventually decided to let it stay in because “it was correct for the film and for the character; and because, after all, I did it.”<\/p>\n In fact, Stone told Insider that she almost didn\u2019t get the part of villainess Catherine Tramell because Michael Douglas<\/a>, who played the detective investigating her for murder, didn\u2019t want to work with an unknown.<\/p>\n Sharon Stone at the Golden Globes in January. (Matt Winkelmeyer\/WireImage)<\/p>\n “Everyone they went out to would turn it down,” she explained. “But the thing was, Michael Douglas did not want to put his bare a– out on the screen with an unknown \u2014 and I understood that. He wouldn’t even test with me, but that was also for a different reason: We had an argument prior to that.”\u00a0<\/p>\n SHARON STONE’S 8 BIGGEST ROLES: \u2018BASIC INSTINCT\u2019 AND BEYOND<\/a><\/p>\n Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone dancing in a scene from “Basic Instinct.” (Getty Images)<\/p>\n LIKE WHAT YOU\u2019RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS<\/a><\/p>\n Stone said<\/a> at the Cannes Film Festival before she was cast in “Basic Instinct” she called him out for talking about someone she knew.\u00a0<\/p>\n Sharon Stone uses an ice pick in a scene from “Basic Instinct.” (Sunset Boulevard\/Corbis via Getty Images)<\/p>\n “So I said something and he responded to me, saying, \u2018What the f— do you know?\u2019” she said. “So he screams this at me across a whole group of people. And I’m not the person who goes, \u2018Oh, excuse me, superstar.\u2019 I pushed back my chair and said to him, \u2018Let’s step outside.\u2019 That’s how we first met.”<\/p>\n CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER<\/a><\/p>\n The pair did indeed go outside, Stone claimed, and she said she explained to him what she knew of the person he was talking about.\u00a0<\/p>\n Sharon Stone claimed she and Michael Douglas had an altercation at the Cannes Film Festival before she was cast in “Basic Instinct.” (Sunset Boulevard\/Corbis via Getty Images)<\/p>\n “And then we parted,” she said. “I wouldn’t say as best friends, but amicably. So, fast forward to casting \u2018Basic Instinct,\u2019 I don’t think he wanted me to be his costar.”<\/p>\n Reps for Douglas told Insider that he didn\u2019t remember seeing Stone at Cannes until they were promoting the film together.\u00a0<\/p>\n Sharon Stone claimed Michael Douglas didn’t initially want her as his co-star. (Sunset Boulevard\/Corbis via Getty Images)<\/p>\n Allen Burry, a rep for Douglas, told Fox News Digital, “Michael Douglas has nothing to say beyond what was reported yesterday by People magazine online.”<\/p>\n![\"Spilt](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/basic-instinct-split-image.jpg\")
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