Sharon Stone says she faced “300 men” on the set of ‘Basic Instinct’.
The Oscar-nominated ‘Casino’ actress, 65, who has claimed she was lied to by the 1992 film’s director Paul Verhoeven so her infamous leg-crossing scene in which her privates are briefly flashed could be included in the final cut, added she is now glad there are now more women in film than when she started out.
She told the New York Women In Film and TV’s Muse Awards: “We should think a lot more about what women can do.
“When I would go to the (‘Basic Instinct’) set there would be 300 men, and my hair and makeup and dressers were men, when I was doing sex scenes. It was all men and me.
“And sometimes I could ask the wardrobe supervisor, who may be a woman, if she wouldn’t mind staying on set while I did that.
“Well, things have changed, and there are women in film now, and I am really grateful.”
Her remarks were contained in newly released footage from the New York awards, after her other remarks about getting paid $13.5 million less than her ‘Basic Instinct’ co-star Michael Douglas, now 78, for the film.
which made nearly $353 million at the box office largely thanks to audiences wanting to see her notorious leg-crossing scene – says she landed a paltry $500,000 paycheque for her role.
She said at the event on Tuesday (28.03.23) about being short-changed for playing kinky killer author Catherine Trammel in the noir flick: “Michael Douglas made $14 million.
“Now, I was new. I was new and he was a very big star.”
She revealed her $500,000 payday to a crowd of mainly female film and TV executives, and added she faced disrespect from a line producer on the film, who kept referring to her as Karen for the “entirety” of the project.
Sharon said: “Even at the Governor’s Ball (after the Oscars), he still called me ‘Karen!’
“And, I carried that humiliation really deeply within me – even though my name wasn’t on the poster.”
Sharon – who has an estimated $60 million fortune – told a Women’s Cancer Fund event on March 23, days after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank she had lost half her money in the recent financial crisis.
She said: “I just lost half my money to this banking thing and that doesn’t mean that I’m not here.”
Sharon has repeatedly alleged she was tricked by ‘RoboCop’ and ‘Showgirls’ director Paul Verhoeven, 84, into stripping off her underwear for her famous ‘Basic Instinct’ police interrogation scene, in which her psychotic bisexual character Catherine Tramell uncrosses her legs to briefly reveal her privates.
Paul told Empire Magazine in 2016 the idea for the scene came from a party the director attended with a woman who was not wearing underwear.
He insisted he discussed the idea with Sharon before they shot the scene and she was “really excited by the idea”.
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