Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images(LOS ANGELES) — Vanity Fair has published an excerpt of Sharon Stone’s new memoir, The Beauty of Living Twice, in which she takes an unflinching look at Hollywood, her career, and that infamous scene in Basic Instinct.
Calling herself a “nobody” in Hollywood before that film, she explains how hard she fought to get the role.
“Basic Instinct was my 18th movie,” Stone writes. “For years, I had been getting pummeled doing a bunch of crap movies…I was 32 years old…aging out of the business I hadn’t really gotten into yet. I needed a break.”
She explains her manager at the time had to break into the office of a casting director working with director Paul Verhoven and steal the script for her.
“I had already done Total Recall with Paul, but Michael Douglas didn’t want to test with me. Hey, I was a nobody compared to him, and this was such a risky movie.”
Stone adds, “Eventually, after they had offered the part to 12 other actresses who had turned it down, Michael agreed to test with me.” The pair became good friends.
Stone had to find her inner Catherine Tramell to play her killer character, and to find peace with that scene, in which her character strategically uncrosses and then crosses her legs, making her police interrogators sweat.
“So I… chose to allow this scene in the film. Why? Because it was correct for the film and for the character; and because, after all, I did it,” she recalls.
Stone adds, “By the way, you probably don’t recall, but my name wasn’t at the top with Michael Douglas’ on the poster.”
However, the movie became a smash, and her character gave her an edge she needed to navigate the industry that finally recognized her.
By Stephen Iervolino
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