The actor Sharon Stone has said that judicial prejudice caused her to lose custody of her son after the presiding judge in her 2004 divorce case asked the four-year-old whether he knew his mother made “sex movies”.
Stone was speaking on the Table for Two podcast and alleged that her role in Paul Verhoeven’s 1992 psychological thriller Basic Instinct was “weaponised against her” in the fight for custody of the son, Roan, whom she had adopted with her then husband Phil Bronstein in 2000.
“I lost custody of my child,” Stone said. “When the judge asked my child – my tiny little boy: ‘Do you know your mother makes sex movies?’ Like, this kind of abuse by the system – that I was considered what kind of parent I was, because I made that movie.”
Stone continued, making reference to the infamous interrogation scene in Basic Instinct in which her genitals may be glimpsed briefly.
“People are walking around with no clothes on at all on regular TV now and you saw maybe like a 16th of a second of possible nudity of me – and I lost custody of my child,” she said. “Are you kidding?”
Stone was granted visitation rights to her son, who is now 22. The judge’s decision contributed to her being admitted to hospital later that year with cardiac problems, she said. “It broke my heart,” said Stone. “It literally broke my heart.”
Stone’s long career has largely been defined by the glancing nudity in Basic Instinct, and the actor spoke of being upset when peers at the 1993 Golden Globes ceremony laughed when her name was read out as a nominee.
“It was horrible. I was so humiliated,” Stone said. “Does anyone have any idea how hard it was to play that part? How gut-wrenching? How frightening? To try and carry this complex movie that was breaking all boundaries and everyone was protesting against, and the pressure. I auditioned for it for nine months. They offered it to 13 other people and now you’re laughing at me. I just wanted to crawl into a hole.”
Last year, Stone published a memoir, The Beauty of Living Twice, in which she reiterated her belief that Verhoeven had duped her into exposing herself in the scene, saying she had no idea such a shot would be used until she was in a screening alongside agents and lawyers.
“That was how I saw my vagina-shot for the first time, long after 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,’” Stone wrote. “Now, here is the issue. It didn’t matter any more. It was me and my parts up there. I had decisions to make.”
Stone has said she then went to the projection booth and slapped Verhoeven across the face. He has long claimed she was always cognisant of the nudity.
