All it took was a leg crossing to blow Hollywood away.
In 1991, Basic Instinct swept away the box office and the public's hormones by recycling the codes of the noir series with a… Sexy sauce. Provocative, sulphurous, even downright feverish film, during sequences of seduction and body-to-body combat which pay little attention to the implicit inherent in mainstream cinema.
But far from being limited to frontal nudity or buttocks stories, this story is a true ode to femme fatales, and to the greatest of all in the cinema landscape of the 90s: the incendiary Catherine Trammel, hyper writer suspicious, and brilliant manipulator, leading the ambiguous Michael Douglas by the nose.
She is Sharon Stone, in the most popular role of her entire career. But the actress, who will redouble her intensity in front of Martin Scorsese's camera shortly after (in Casino) does not only have good memories of the Basic Instinct tornado. And above all, from THE scene, the one which persists (a little too much) in the minds of spectators more than 30 years later: the interrogation, where Trammel, dressed in a legendary white suit, crosses and uncrosses her endless legs, revealing his privacy. Except… Sharon Stone never wanted us to “see that.”
She testifies.
“I was really shocked”: Sharon Stone denounces this “hyper sexual” staging still 30 years later
Let's be more precise: Basic Instinct, to be seen again today on ARTE, where we also find an entire documentary dedicated to the actress (Sharon Stone, the survival instinct), features a sequence which would go against consent of the star. This one, then. For what ? Because Sharon Stone did not want her penis to appear like this on screen.
And Paul Verhoeven, the filmmaker (experienced in sulphurous sequences, since we also owe him Showgirls), had also promised him that his private life would not be visible. Except… It's a lie. Let's listen to Sharon Stone on this subject, in the documentary dedicated to her, precisely: “Verhoeven asked me to remove the panties I was wearing during the filming of this scene, white panties. He promised me that we wouldn't see anything of my penis in the end. And I felt betrayed… What shocked me was his betrayal“.
If Paul Verhoeven asked her to remove her panties, it was under the pretext that the white of her underwear created a restrictive reflection on the lens. When Stone sees this, the scene as it really is is in a shielded projection room.producers, male, that she did not know“, relate our colleagues from Première. However, the American actress admits it: “If I had been in the director's place, I would certainly have kept this scene… But Paul should have warned me. It was a lack of respect“.
The problem is that this scene will stay.
Be widely cited. Obtain critical and public attention. Being multiple-parodied – even in France, through a sequence from The City of Fear where our national Chantal Lauby “Sharon-Stonises”. And generate a number of reactions, remarks, inappropriate and sexist comments against the actress. For a plan that she refused to exist. Furtive shot, but whose brevity, in fact, apparently encourages the public to linger on it. This is the effect Paul Verhoeven wanted. Even if it means avoiding everything else – a curious phenomenon for a very great film.
And that all this will lead to… Slut shaming.
Slut shaming is this sexist phenomenon consisting of judging a woman based on her – supposed – sexuality. Depending on her attitude, her statements, her outfit… Zahia speaks about it very well in this article. Barely disguised misogyny. And which will resonate for three decades following the release of Basic Instinct.
Sharon Stone detailed it to Bruce Bozzi on the iHeartPodcast show: during the actress's divorce in 2004 while she fought against her ex-husband Phil Bronstein to obtain custody of her son, Roan, Stone actually suffers the very inappropriate remarks of the judge deciding this verdict… Who will directly mention the scene in question.
And this, by asking his son: “Do you know your mother makes sex films?“. Yes yes, it's not a joke. Still upset by this witch hunt, Sharon Stone denounces a “abuse of the system“. And in this podcast castigates the misogyny of an entire society: “we decided what kind of mother I was because I did Basic Instinct“.
