Michael Douglas has responded to claims made by his Basic Instinct co-star Sharon Stone, who recently alleged that the two clashed before ever stepping onto set together.
In a new interview with Business Insider, Stone recalled a tense first encounter with Douglas prior to filming the 1992 erotic thriller, suggesting their relationship began with a heated argument.
‘A bunch of us were all sitting, and he was talking about someone and their kids,’ Stone said.
‘I really, really knew this person he was talking about. So I said something and he responded to me, saying, “What the f–k do you know?”‘
She continued: ‘Clearly, it triggered him.’
‘So he screams this at me across a whole group of people. And I’m not the only person who goes, “Oh, excuse me, superstar.” I pushed back my chair and said to him, “Let’s step outside.” That’s how we first met.’
‘I explained to him what the f–k I knew about this family he was speaking about,’ she said, noting that while they didn’t part as friends, it was at least on civil terms.
The actress went on to say that the disagreement may have influenced Douglas’s initial reluctance to work with her when Basic Instinct came around.
‘He wouldn’t even test with me,’ she claimed, suggesting that at the time, Douglas – already an Oscar winner – was hesitant to co-star opposite a then relatively unknown actress.
‘He did not want to put his bare a** out on the screen with an unknown – and I understood that,’ she said with a laugh.
Despite the rocky beginnings, Stone reflected positively on their eventual working relationship. ‘I was not rattled if he yelled at me,’ she said.
‘That worked very well in our dynamic.’
She also emphasised the professional chemistry they found during filming and described Douglas as someone she ultimately grew close to: ‘We became the greatest of friends, to this day. I admire him tremendously.’
Douglas, however, appears to remember things differently.
In a statement provided to People, a representative for the now 80-year-old actor said he was ‘very surprised’ by Stone’s version of events, particularly her suggestion of an argument before filming.
‘He doesn’t remember any argument in that timeframe,’ the rep stated.
The rep also pushed back on Stone’s claim that Douglas didn’t want her as a co-star: ‘He actually only remembers seeing and meeting Sharon for the first time when he saw [director] Paul Verhoeven’s screen test of her for Basic Instinct and said, “Absolutely, she’s the one.”‘
According to Douglas’s team, any off-screen bonding between the two stars took place much later, during the film’s promotional tour.
‘He definitely spent time with her at Cannes,’ the rep noted, ‘but that was later, when they were promoting Basic Instinct in 1992. And by the time they’d done the movie, they were friends.’
While the truth of their early interactions may differ depending on who you ask, both actors agree on the strength of the final result.
Basic Instinct became a cultural phenomenon upon release, thanks in large part to the onscreen electricity between Douglas and Stone – whatever the behind-the-scenes dynamic may have been.
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