Sharon Stone says she lost custody of her son due to ‘Basic Instinct’

It has been more than 30 years since the release of ‘Basic Instinct’, a cult film directed by Paul Verhoeven which perfectly defined what a erotic thriller. In 1992 it was a great commercial success and catapulted Sharon Stone to the international market, but it has also been met with a lot of controversy from all kinds of groups, from feminist to LGBTQ+ (the killer is a bisexual psychopath), obviously also conservative sectors, shocked by its sexual and violent (and empowering) content. As Stone revealed on the ‘Table for Two’ podcast, the issue didn’t stay in debates or protests, but it came at a very high personal cost to her.

The actress says that when she divorced Phil Bronstein in 2004, her nude scene in ‘Basic Instinct’ caused the judge to strip her of custody of their son they adopted together four years earlier, Roan Joseph Bronstein: “I lost custody of my son”says Stone, “The judge asked my son, my baby, ‘Do you know your mom makes sex movies?’. It’s kind of an abuse of the system, judging what kind of mother I am because I made that movie.”

In these almost 20 years things have changed a lot, although justice is still patriarchal and male-dominated, but as Stone points out: “People now go without clothes on free-to-air television and you saw me for about 16 seconds maybe naked and i lost custody of my son, Are you kidding?” he asks rhetorically. As a result of this judge’s decision, Stone ended up admitted to the Mayo Clinic with tachycardia: “It broke my heart. It literally broke my heart.”

And bear the teasing

That was probably the worst thing to happen to her for playing the explosive Catherine Tramell, but the industry hasn’t exactly been kind to her either. According to Stone, when she went to the Golden Globes as a nominee for the film, her colleagues scoffed when they said her name: “It was horrible. I felt very humiliated. Does anyone have any idea how difficult it was to play that role? The heartbreaking? The scary thing? In addition to bringing this complex film that was breaking all the boundaries and everyone was protesting and the pressure. I did castings for nine months. They offered it to 13 other people and now you’re laughing at me. I just wanted to get into a hole.”

To make matters worse, Stone revealed in her memoirs, titled “The Beauty of Living Twice,” that the nude in question wasn’t something she was prepared for, that she’d discovered she was already sitting in a movie theater and, in fact, consented. to deceive him: “That’s how I first saw the vagina picture, long after I was told ‘You can’t see anything, I just need you to take off your panties because white reflects light, so I know you’re wearing underwear’ “”writes in the book published in 2022, “Now here’s the rub. It didn’t matter anymore. It was me and my parts up there. I had decisions to make.” All Stone could do was slap Verhoeven, who was in the projection booth.