As for the actress who eventually landed 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. “This is about more than just looking up my skirt, guys. Wake up. Women championed the film; the men were obsessed with the woman who could stop him. She was their favorite. But now, just now, I go to events and there is a certain respect in this film,” Stone wrote for Vanity Fair.
But then the only thing we could talk about was the scene where Stone spreads her legs. During the shoot, Stone was told that her private area was not visible, but she still needed to remove her underwear. While watching the film, Stone discovered that she had been lied to. In the end, she decided to keep the scene. “Why? Because it was right for the film and for the character; and because, in the end, I did it,” she explained.
This was just one incident of many that Stone had to come to terms with during her career. In her Vanity Fair article, Stone lists her many experiences of harassment, from one director who demanded Stone sit on his lap to another who shamed her and her mother when Stone refused to act out a humiliating scene. Still, she persisted, writing in Vanity Fair, “I did my best to make it matter.”