Back to Basic

SHARON Stone is being a bit presumptuous when she ends her meeting with the Press by thanking us for being there and supporting her movie.

The Hollywood sex siren might not feel that thank yous are in order after reading reviews of her new movie, the sexual thriller Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction. The notices will, I suspect, not be entirely complementary, although reviewers' objections won't prevent this sequel from cleaning up at the box-office.

A follow-up was always on the cards following the sensation caused by the original which put Stone on the movie star map. The big surprise is that it took so long to get made - 14 years. In that time, Stone has been divorced, survived a brain haemorrhage, adopted two children and resurrected her career.

It's a record that comes close to equalling that of another movie diva, Elizabeth Taylor. All Stone needs now is an Oscar - she was nominated but didn't win for Martin Scorsese's Casino - to complete the picture. Going back to Basic is unlikely to let her take Oscar home, although some may think she deserves some kind of award for taunting, teasing and stripping at every opportunity in Basic Instinct 2.

Despite a certain indecision about arrangements for her Press chat (involving several changes of time, venue and day), she arrives punctually for a photocall, then disappears temporarily to change outfit and hairstyle to meet journalists. She returns swathed in a short, revealing coat that's white, feathery and makes you wonder what, if anything, she's wearing underneath.

It must be galling for a serious actress to be famous for uncrossing her legs but Stone is stuck with it. Her famous knickerless flashing scene in the original Basic Instinct was a cinematic first, although some reports claim she was tricked into it by the director. Some may find it difficult to believe that Stone, a woman who clearly knows what she wants and does what it takes to get it, would be fooled into doing anything she didn't want to do. Like her final thank you to us, she knows how to work an audience and get attention.

Whatever the critical response, Basic Instinct 2 will get her noticed once more - and help remind people that women of a certain age can still play strong, sexy roles. At 48, Stone has no hesitation at stripping off at every opportunity in her new movie as novel-writing, bisexual icepick killer Catherine Tramell.

"In America, we tend to erase women after 40," she says. "This is a period where women become their most interesting and sexual in a very different and alluring way. So I think that it's just wonderful that this film explores the sexual dynamic of a woman in her forties in an unabashed, provocative and colourful way. It's gritty, dangerous and quite presumptive."

Stone demonstrates what a good publicist she is - mentioning her campaign for Dior for skincare. "It's also extraordinary that they've hired someone in their middle forties to represent skincare," she continues. "It's a terrific phase that women are being noticed and seen as really sexually viable, beautiful and alluring. I'm incredibly complimented and grateful, not just for myself but for other women in my age group that this page has finally been turned."

Like the rest of us, she's changed a lot in the period since the first Basic Instinct. "We grow up, I'm a mum, I've had an incredibly life-threatening experience and we grow from these things so much. If you think about 15 years ago, half of us didn't even want to make our beds and yet now we have so much responsibility. I've developed, matured, settled down, have a lot more common sense."

Happy to talk about Catherine Tramell's sex life, she's unwilling to tell how her own sexuality changed. "That is none of your business," she says with a smile.

So it's back to Basic Instinct 2. The delay in the follow-up was caused by several problems, including changes at the studio that made the original as well as Stone temporarily leaving the business.

"I can't say that the role was always top of my thoughts. I made a lot of other movies along the way, I've had children, had another life, so this wasn't central to my thoughts," says Stone.

The new movie moves Catherine to London, where she becomes involved, on a more than professional level, with a psychiatrist, played by State Of Play and Blackpool actor David Morrissey. Stone, of course, had a hand in choosing her leading man. What led her to Morrissey? "Jeez, look at him," she enthuses about the actor, who's sitting next to her.

Director Michael Caton-Jones sifted out possible actors, then sought Stone's advice. "I thought it should be someone new and we both agreed that it had to be someone who was extraordinarily talented," she explains. "We also agreed that it had to be someone who was really smart and had a weird sense of humour because we think that the movie is kind of weirdly funny and kinky.

"Every person that we tested was great. So it was a question of what kind of movie should it be? Should it be a movie where the guy is young? What happened when David came in, there was this kind of rubber band-like tension and unspoken dialogue. We laughed, we had a weird humour."

Stone also shares an intimate scene with footballer Stan Collymore in a speeding car which crashes off the road and into the Thames. Filming the underwater scene, with Stone and Collymore trapped in the car in a tank nearly proved fatal for the actress after the heel of her shoe got caught and trapped her in the sunken car. "It was frightening because the shoe that I had on was a sandal with a buckled ankle strap," she says.

"I knew that it was dangerous going in because the floor had a metal grating so that the water could come up through the floor. I knew my diver was wearing a knife on his leg because of the possibility of these kinds of things happening. I knew he'd get me out and that I had a spare tank of air under my seat.

"I wanted to keep cool throughout and not show that my foot was caught. So I kept telling myself not to panic because I'd use more air, and just try to get my foot out."

The question now is whether we've seen the last of Catherine Tramell, or if perhaps Basic Instinct 3 is waiting to be made? Stone effectively dodges the question by looking at Morrissey and saying: "What I'm hoping now is that David will carry the torch and you can see him in the next sequel. I'll go to the movies and go, 'yeah, baby, you've got it'."

* The original Basic Instinct is showing on C4 on Thursday at 10pm. Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction (18) opens in cinemas on Friday.