10 Actors Whose Movie Character Requests Got Rejected

8. Sharon Stone Wanted To Wear Underwear For The Leg-Crossing Scene - Basic Instinct

The Batman Penguin
TriStar Pictures

Sharon Stone will forever best be remembered for the infamous, iconic scene from Basic Instinct where her seductive serial killer Catherine Tramell crosses her legs in the middle of an interrogation in order to toy with and distract the police officers questioning her.

The scene is well remembered for the fact that Stone didn't wear underwear while shooting it, causing her vulva to be momentarily visible to the audience.

Stone originally wanted to wear white underwear to film the scene, but director Paul Verhoeven claimed that the underwear would cause reflections on the camera lens, and so insisted that she remove them, which she reluctantly did. In Stone's own words:

"When we shot it, it was going to be a hint... but [Verhoeven] told me: 'You can see the white of your underwear, I need you to take it off.' He assured me that nothing would be seen. So I took off my underwear and put it in my shirt pocket... At that time, there was no high definition, so when I looked at the monitor, I really did not see anything."

Stone added that once she saw the final film on the big screen, she slapped Verhoeven, who for his part has maintained ever since that Stone consented to being filmed in this exposed way.

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Contributor

Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.