Sharon Stone, the s-x symbol and ultimate mysterious girl of the 90s was recently candid about her life and tumultuous journey as an actress on the Table for Two podcast. She revealed how her role in Paul Verhoeven’s 1992 psychological thriller Basic Instinct, infamous for her n-de scene, caused her to lose the custody of her son. The judicial stereotype of her work as an actress and the n-de scene in particular deprived her adoptive son Roan of a mother’s love.

Sharon Stone’s Work Was Weaponized Against Her

Sharon Stone‘s reputation and work became a tool to be used against her in the custody battle of her son Roan with her then-husband Phil Bronstein. After discovering that the couple can’t conceive after having three miscarriages due to Stone’s autoimmune disease, the couple adopted a baby. In the year 2008, the actress was in court fighting for the custody of her four-year-old son. In a country where over eighty-five percent of custodial parents are mothers, Stone was only left with visitation rights to her son.

Sharon Stone

It is quite a surprising decision especially when Bronstein has had some shady spots in his career as a journalist. But as Stone claims, the decision was not fair. She reveals how her four-year-old was asked a highly inappropriate and aggravating question by the judge.

“When the judge asked my child – my tiny little boy: ‘Do you know your mother makes s-x movies?’ Like, this kind of abuse by the system – that I was considered what kind of parent I was, because I made that movie.”
Stone is referring to the semi-nude interrogation scene in Basic Instinct. It was the boldest act to be shot at the time. But Stone paid a big price for it. As she calls it: “abuse by the system”. The work she does as an actor, in no way is a parameter of her potential as a parent. And painting their parents’ jobs in the worst light in a child’s mind while being a complete stranger is not a behavior expected from someone in a position of judicial authority,

Sharon Stone was Criticized for Basic Instinct

Sharon Stone

The scene caused a lot of chatter in Hollywood at the time. It made the actress a butt of jokes among her peers. As she recalls being laughed at, at the Golden Globes when she was nominated for the movie. Stone said:
“It was horrible. I was so humiliated.”
Stone now claims that she was kept in the dark while filming the scene. She did not know that her privates had made it to the silver screen until she actually saw it in a screening of the final cut with agents and lawyers sitting beside her. After watching the scene, she claims to have slapped film director Verhoeven across the face. Stone revealed in her memoir:

“That was how I saw my v-gina shot for the first time, long after I’d been told, ‘We can’t see anything – I just need you to remove your panties, as the white is reflecting the light, so we know you have panties on,’” Stone wrote. “Now, here is the issue. It didn’t matter anymore. It was me and my parts up there. I had decisions to make.”
The judge made the decision based on Stone’s perceived public image at the time. This was a fault in the court’s judgment as the decision was rooted in prejudice and seemed to be lacking an understanding of the matter. This is not uncommon and it is interesting how these prejudices are found against female stars only.

Source: Variety