As for the actor who ended up taking the role of Catherine Tramell in the erotic thriller “Basic Instinct,” Sharon Stone is well aware of what the film did for her and her career. “It’s about more than just a peek up my skirt, people. Wake up. Women championed that movie; men were obsessed with a woman who could make it stop. She was their favorite. But now, only now, do I go to events and there is a certain respect about that film,” Stone wrote for Vanity Fair.
But at the time, the only thing anyone could talk about was the scene where Stone spreads her legs. While shooting, Stone was told her private area was not visible, but she needed to remove her underwear regardless. During a viewing of the movie, Stone discovered she was lied to. She ultimately decided to keep the scene in. “Why? Because it was correct for the film and for the character; and because, after all, I did it,” she explained.
This was only one instance of many that Stone has had to put up with in her career. In her Vanity Fair article, Stone lists her multiple encounters with harassment, from one director who demanded Stone sit on his lap to another shaming her and her mother when Stone refused to act out a degrading scene. Still, she persisted, writing in Vanity Fair, “I did my best to make it count.”
