Sharon Stone says Basic Instinct scene cost her custody of her son

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Sharon Stone
Dave Benett
Josh Salisbury10 March 2023
The Weekender

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Basic Instinct actress Sharon Stone has said the role caused her to lose custody of her son in 2004.

The star said a famous scene in the 1992 movie where she briefly exposes herself uncrosses her legs was referred to by a judge deciding custody of her son.

She told a podcast that the judge asked her then four-year-old son: “Do you know your mother makes sex movies?”

Stone and then-husband adopted their son Rian in 2000, but Mr Bronstein was awarded custody of him in 2004 when the couple divorced.

Speaking to the Table for Two podcast, she said the loss “literally broke my heart”, adding that the scene was weaponised against her in the custody battle.

She told host Bruce Bozzi: “I ended up in the Mayo Clinic with extra heartbeats in my upper and lower chamber of my heart.”

She said: “You saw maybe like a 16th of a second of possible nudity of me. And I lost custody of my child.”

Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct
Alamy Stock Photo

The actress added: “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. Are you kidding?”

Stone spoke of how others in Hollywood judged her for the scene in the thriller, in which she played Catherine Tramell, a novelist who seduces a police detective.

“I got nominated for a Golden Globe for that part, and when I went to the Golden Globes and they called my name, a bunch of people in the room laughed," Stone said.

“I was so humiliated. I was like, does anybody have any idea how hard it was to play that part? How gut-wrenching and frightening?”

Stone said she now avoids roles that have dark personalities and added that the public should not conflate actors with their characters.

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