Sharon Stone says she lost custody of her son because of 'Basic Instinct' role
Sharon Stone made waves with her role in the '90s film "Basic Instinct," but the personal aftermath of the film proved to be heartbreaking.
Stone, who played Catherine Tramell in the 1992 erotic thriller co-starring Michael Douglas, discussed the impact of the film’s overt sexuality on her personal life during an appearance on the "Table for Two" podcast Tuesday.
The actress told host Bruce Bozzi that she lost custody of her son in the wake of the film’s racy legacy. Stone is mother to sons Roan Bronstein, 22, Laird Stone, 17, and Quinn Stone, 16. She shares Roan with journalist Phil Bronstein.
"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?' This kind of abuse by the system, that it was considered what kind of parent I was because I made that movie."
She added: "People are walking around with no clothes on at all on regular TV now, and you saw maybe like a sixteenth of a second of possible nudity of me – and I lost custody of my child."
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Stone said the loss of custody took a toll on her physical health. "I ended up in the Mayo Clinic with extra heartbeats in the upper and lower chambers of my heart," she said. "It broke my heart."
Stone has previously spoken about the grueling process of making “Basic Instinct,” which went on to become the fourth-highest grossing movie of 1992. She described the tensions of making the film, which drew controversy for its graphic sex scenes, in an interview with the New Yorker in 2021.
"(Director Paul) Verhoeven ended up in the hospital — his sinus thing ruptured, and he couldn't stop having a nosebleed," Stone told the outlet. "There was tremendous pressure on that set."
At the time of its release, the Motion Picture Association of America wanted to give "Basic Instinct" an "unusual and potentially financially crippling NC-17 rating (no moviegoers under 17 allowed)," The New York Times wrote at the time. In the film's most infamous, shocking scene, Stone's character uncrosses her legs while wearing a white dress, revealing her lack of underwear.
"Now people walk around showing their penises on Netflix, but in the olden days, what we were doing was very new,” Stone continued. “This was a feature film for a major studio, and we had nudity, sex, homosexuality, all these things that, in my era, were breaking norms."
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Contributing: Bryan Alexander, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Sharon Stone talks losing child custody after 'Basic Instinct' role
