Three decades after her infamous nude scene captivated audiences, Basic Instinct star Sharon Stone blasted modern sex scenes for lacking imagination.
“So often now, when sex scenes come on TV, I fast-forward. I don’t want to see it,” Stone, 68, said on CBS Mornings on Tuesday. “I don’t want to have to go through all of this blatant, harsh sexuality.”
In the 1992 film that launched her to stardom, Stone famously uncrossed her legs during an interrogation scene for just a third of a frame, leading to speculation that she had bared all onscreen.
Stone said the “mystery” is what made the moment so engaging to viewers.
“It wasn’t even an entire frame of film,” Stone recalled. “And, so, people were desperately trying to figure it out. And I think that idea of, ‘Oh my God.’ This hope, this wonder, this mystery, this intrigue, this yearning is something that is what all of our profound sexuality is based on.”
For the Casino actress, modern sex scenes miss the mark completely. The “harsh” and “blatant” sexuality removes any mystery.
“For me, it steals from my own imagination. And I prefer my yearning, mystery, desire,” Stone told Gayle King. “I want to keep that alive inside myself.”
Three decades after Basic Instinct premiered, Stone said she’s still feeling the ramifications.
“But that did change the trajectory of your career, it seems,” King, 71, said.
“Oh my God, it changed everything,” Stone responded. “In many ways, I feel like I wasn’t protected and taken care of. And then in many ways, I feel I was punished for the behavior of others.”
Stone, who did not find out about her onscreen nudity until she saw a test screening of the film, revealed that she lost custody of her son Roan, who was just four at the time.
“My child was put on the stand in custody court and asked if his mother did sex movies. I mean, things that were bizarrely inappropriate,” Stone recalled. The Oscar nominee said she was treated in ways that were “cruel and unkind,” as if she were “some sort of slatternly, vulgar person.”
“Like you were wearing a scarlet A on your head,” King added.
“Yeah, I mean, you know, I played a character 30 years ago. Like, grow up,” Stone said.
Now, Stone enters one of the raciest shows on television, Euphoria, whose actors and actresses frequently engage in some of TV’s harshest sex scenes.
In the show’s third season, Stone will serve as the boss to Maude Apatow’s character Lexi, whose sister Cassie, played by Sydney Sweeney, becomes an OnlyFans model.
HBO Max’s Euphoria Season 3 premieres on April 12, with new episodes releasing every Sunday.
