The “Basic Instinct” icon and recent “Flight Attendant” star addressed the overturn of Roe v. Wade in the wake of the #MeToo movement. “When they’re saying that rape victims have to have their baby, I think you have to be very clear that women’s rights are on pretty thin ice,” Stone told Vogue Arabia in a cover story. “What’s happening now is the absolute, dramatic backlash to #MeToo.” Stone continued, “I really grew up in the country, and if you get kidnapped and put in a hole in a barn by a hillbilly, that’s when you’re in real trouble. That’s kind of what’s happening now. We’re like in a hole in a barn with a bunch of hillbillies.” The Oscar nominee likened the Supreme Court to a “rabid animal: you step back from it and, you know, wait until someone puts it down,” she advised.
Stone spoke out about being dubbed “bold” and “brave” for being outspoken throughout her career. When asked why she thinks either adjective has been used to describe her, she said, “Because I’m comfortable with myself, and I don’t feel personally oppressed. I think I can probably speak for you and the rest of the female planet when I say that there’s a giant effort to make us not feel free and to feel oppressed. And I don’t go for it.” Stone previously opened up in her memoir “The Beauty of Living Twice” that she would never again work with an unnamed “#MeToo candidate” director who punished her on set for refusing to “sit in his lap and take direction.” She said another producer encouraged her to have sexual relations with her co-star so they could have better onscreen chemistry. The actress also infamously contested with “Basic Instinct” Paul Verhoeven over her consent to filming her “parts” in the sequence where her character Catherine crosses her legs while being interrogated by the police. “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 recalled. It was only when Stone saw a cut of the film with a room full of agents, lawyers, producers, and Verhoeven, that she realized her genitals were on display. “That was how I saw my vagina shot for the first time,” Stone said. “I had decisions to make. I went to the projection booth, slapped Paul across the face, left, went to my car, and called my lawyer, Marty Singer.” Stone continued, “I knew what film I was doing. For heaven’s sake, I fought for that part, and all that time, only this director had stood up for me. I had to find some way to become objective. So I thought and thought and I chose to allow this scene in the film. Why? Because it was correct for the film and for the character; and because, after all, I did it.”
Verhoeven responded to Stone’s claims in Variety, saying that Stone’s “version is impossible.” “She knew exactly what we were doing,” Verhoeven said. “I told her it was based on a story of a woman that I knew when I was a student who did the crossing of her legs without panties regularly at parties. When my friend told her we could see her vagina, she said, ‘Of course, that’s why I do it.’ Then Sharon and I decided to do a similar sequence.” Stone maintained her account, concluding, “Yes, there have been many points of view on this topic, but since I’m the one with the vagina in question, let me say: The other points of view are bullshit.” Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.
