‘Basic Instinct’ Director Says Sharon Stone “Knew Exactly What We Were Doing” In Film’s Infamous Nude Scene

Basic Instinct director Paul Verhoeven is disputing Sharon Stone‘s claims about the film’s infamous leg crossing scene. Earlier this year, Stone revealed in her memoir “The Beauty of Living Twice” that she had been tricked into the revealing shot. But now, Verhoeven is saying Stone’s account is untrue, insisting that she agreed to the scene, HuffPost reports.

Stone first shared her story months ago, writing in her book, “I’d been told, ‘We can’t see anything — I just need you to remove your panties, as the white is reflecting the light, so we know you have panties on.”

In an interview with Variety published earlier this week, Verhoeven offered a different version of events, fully denying Stone’s claims. “My memory is radically different from Sharon’s memory,” the director began, before explaining that he and Stone “still have a pleasant relationship and exchange text messages,” and that he thinks she did a “wonderful” performance in Basic Instinct. Still, he told Variety that Stone’s version is “impossible,” adding, “She knew exactly what we were doing.”

Verhoeven added, “I told her it was based on a story of a woman that I knew when I was a student who did the crossing of her legs without panties regularly at parties. When my friend told her we could see her vagina, she said, ‘Of course, that’s why I do it.’ Then Sharon and I decided to do a similar sequence.”

According to Stone’s account, she was called in to see Basic Instinct for the very first time and only realized how revealing the scene was then. “After we shot Basic Instinct, I got called in to see it. Not on my own with the director, as one would anticipate, given the situation that has given us all pause, so to speak, but with a room full of agents and lawyers, most of whom had nothing to do with the project,” she wrote. “That was how I saw my vagina-shot for the first time.”

Despite Stone’s attempts to remove the scene from the film, she eventually decided to let it remain in the final cut because “it was correct for the film and for the character; and because, after all, I did it,” she wrote.

Where to watch Basic Instinct