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Sharon Stone’s illustrious four-decade-long acting career kicked off in the 1980s, when she made her film debut as an extra in the Woody Allen film Stardust Memories.
However, the 64-year-old didn’t get her big break until 1992, when she portrayed the breathtakingly gorgeous serial killer, Catherine Tramell in Paul Verhoeven’s erotic thriller, Basic Instinct.
Stone’s provocative portrayal of Tramell was so sensational that it earned the then 32-year-old actress her first ever Golden Globe nomination, and placed her on the radar of top-tier directors like Martin Scorsese.
Astoundingly, apart from being offered an astoundingly diminutive salary, Stone had a hard time landing an audition for the film. In fact, Stone might never have landed the iconic role if her manager hadn’t stolen the Basic Instinct script from the casting director’s office.
Sharon Stone Struggled With Landing Major Roles In Hollywood
The first decade of Sharon Stone’s career does not feature any major acting roles. Despite being phenomenally talented, the actress was inexplicably relegated to obscure productions that rarely earned critical acclaim.
Basic Instinct was my 18th movie,” Stone disclosed in her memoir, The Beauty of Living Twice. “For years, I had been getting pummeled doing a bunch of crap movies and so-so television, back in the day when TV wasn’t king. I was 32 years old when I got that job. I told my agent that if they got me in that door, I would get the job. I knew this was the last chance—I was aging out of the business I hadn’t really gotten into yet. I needed a break.”
In her memoir, Stone disclosed one of the main reasons she couldn’t land roles in Hollywood. “Chuck, my manager at the time, had told me that no one would hire me because everyone said I wasn’t sexy,” Stone wrote.
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“I wasn’t, as they liked to say in Hollywood at the time, “f******. I was still so shy and introverted. But Roy kept badgering me. Roy would ask me, ‘If you keep leaving your sexuality at the door, how do you expect to play anyone at all?’”
Sharon Stone Had To Steal The Basic Instinct Script Before She Was Allowed To Audition
After more than a decade of languishing in obscurity, Sharon Stone finally found a role she thought was perfectly curated to alter the trajectory of her career; Basic Instinct’s Catherine Tramell. Unfortunately, Stone couldn’t even get her hands on the script.
“Chuck had to break into the casting director’s office with his credit card and steal the script, so we could read it,” Stone’s memoir reads, “as no one would give it to us. I knew right away that I wanted to play that part. Chuck then called the director, Paul Verhoeven, every day for seven or eight months to get me a screen test.”
Although Verhoeven eventually agreed to a screen test, Sharon Stone had yet another obstacle to overcome.
“I had already done Total Recall with Paul, but Michael Douglas didn’t want to test with me,” Stone wrote in her memoir. “Hey, I was a nobody compared to him, and this was such a risky movie. So Paul tested with me, and kept playing my test after those of everyone else who had tested.”
Sharon Stone Ultimately Landed Her Breakout Role In Basic Instinct
While her valiant efforts to secure a part in the film ultimately paid off, Sharon Stone couldn’t shake off the reality that she was never a lead contender for the role. As a result, the actress had to deal with unending criticism from the film’s production team.
“After I was told that I got the part for Basic Instinct… I met with Paul in the company’s offices in Hollywood,” Stone’s memoir reads, “then said hello to a few other people on the way down to fill out some paperwork and meet the line producer, an older, kind of dodgy man, in his messy office. He closed the door and sat down and said, ‘You were not our first choice, Karen. No, you were not even the second or the third. You were the thirteenth choice for this film.’”
However, these naysayers eventually changed their tune when Stone’s amorous portrayal of Tramell became a pop culture sensation. “When I went to the Oscars for the very first time after making that film,” Stone writes, “I sat next to this same line producer at the Governors Ball dinner, which happens right after the ceremony. He did not call me Karen.”
