Veteran Hollywood star Michael Douglas has firmly denied actor Sharon Stone’s recent claim that the two had an argument before they were cast together in the popular Gollywood film Basic Instinct (1992).
“He doesn’t remember any argument in that timeframe,” Michael’s representative, Allen Burry, said in a statement to People magazine. “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 (Michael) said, ‘Absolutely, she’s the one.’”
For the unversed, in a recent interview with Business Insider, Sharon reflected on her breakout role as Catherine Tramell in the 1992 erotic thriller and suggested that Michael was hesitant to work with her. “He wouldn’t even test with me, but that was also for a different reason: We had an argument prior to that,” she said, adding that Michael “did not want to put his bare a** out on the screen with an unknown.”
{{/usCountry}}For the unversed, in a recent interview with Business Insider, Sharon reflected on her breakout role as Catherine Tramell in the 1992 erotic thriller and suggested that Michael was hesitant to work with her. “He wouldn’t even test with me, but that was also for a different reason: We had an argument prior to that,” she said, adding that Michael “did not want to put his bare a** out on the screen with an unknown.”
{{/usCountry}}The dispute, according to Sharon, happened at the Cannes Film Festival, where a group—including both actors—was gathered. “He was talking about someone and their kids. I really, really knew this person he was talking about,” she recalled. “So I said something and he responded to me, saying, ‘What the f**k do you know?’ It was in regard to a father-child relationship. Clearly, it triggered him.” She says she stood up to him then and there. “So he screams this at me across a whole group of people... I pushed back my chair and said to him, ‘Let’s step outside.’ That’s how we first met.”
However, Michael’s team disputes that version of events, stating that the only time he remembers spending with Sharon at Cannes was after Basic Instinct had been shot and the two were promoting the film. “And by the time they’d done the movie, they were friends,” Allen Burry added.
Despite the conflicting recollections, Sharon has acknowledged that their dynamic eventually warmed. “We became the greatest of friends, to this day,” she said. “I admire him tremendously.”