10 Things You Didn’t Know About Total Recall

By Daniel Mumby /

8. How Sharon Stone Got The Basic Instinct Gig

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As iconic as Stone€™s performance of Catherine Tramell is, she wouldn€™t have got the role if she hadn€™t behaved a certain way during the shooting of Total Recall. In post-production the actors were brought back into the recording studio to loop the film for TV €“ effectively redubbing to remove or lessen the bad language and innuendos, which being a Verhoeven film took a long time. Stone had come across Joe Eszterhas€™ script for Basic Instinct, and used the whole looping process as an unofficial audition; she wore a short cocktail dress, addressed Verhoeven in a cold, stand-offish manner and didn€™t speak to anyone else. Verhoeven was so surprised and impressed by her attitude that he screen-tested her against the wishes of his producers, and the rest is history.