'I chose to allow this scene in the film. I was just an actress, just a woman what choices could I have?' Ultimately, she opted not to pursue legal action. In her book, Stone described a post-screening conversation with Verhoeven where the director 'vehemently denied that I had any choices at all. 'Marty said, per the Screen Actors Guild, my union, it wasn’t legal to shoot up my dress in this fashion. 'At that time, this would give the film an X rating,' she wrote. Stone also immediately consulted with her lawyer, Marty Singer, who advised that she seek an injunction preventing the film's release.

Watch Paul Verhoeven's full Director's Reel below or needle-drop to 1:51 for the Basic Instinct discussion

He was more audacious than I, and went over to her and said: 'Are you aware that we can basically see right into your vagina?' She said, 'Of course I know - that's why I do these things.' I told that to Sharon the night we had dinner, and I said to her what if we build that scene into the movie?' 'My friend and I saw that she was not wearing any underwear. 'There was a woman in our circles who was a bit older than us,' the Dutch filmmaker recalled. Speaking with Yahoo Entertainment in 2016, Verhoeven revealed his inspiration for that sequence, tracing it back to his college days in Holland. During her interrogation, Catherine uncrosses her legs, clearly revealing to the men in the room - and audiences in the theater - that she's not wearing any underwear. That's particularly true of Basic Instinct's most famous sequence, where Sharon Stone's crime novelist/possible killer, Catherine Tramell, commands the attention of a roomful of cops, including soon-to-be-lover Nick Curran (Michael Douglas). both because of what's onscreen and what went down behind the camera. Three decades later, the film still has the power to shock and unsettle. When it premiered in theaters 30 years ago, on March 20, 1992, Paul Verhoeven's blockbuster erotic thriller challenged conventional onscreen depictions of sexuality and female power. There's nothing basic about Basic Instinct.

Basic instinct 1992 leg cross scene