Basic Instinct star Sharon Stone says she fast-forwards TV sex scenes: 'I prefer my yearning'
The Oscar-nominated actress can next be seen in the new season of “Euphoria.”
Basic Instinct star Sharon Stone says she fast-forwards TV sex scenes: ‘I prefer my yearning’
The Oscar-nominated actress can next be seen in the new season of "Euphoria."
By Derek Lawrence
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Derek Lawrence
Derek Lawrence is a former associate editor at **. He left EW in 2022.
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April 1, 2026 3:36 p.m. ET
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Sharon Stone. Credit:
Charles Sykes/Bravo via Getty
Despite her iconic role in the erotic thriller *Basic Instinct* and her upcoming *Euphoria *gig, Sharon Stone has no interest in watching sex scenes on TV shows.
After previously working with series creator Sam Levinson's father Barry Levinson, Stone has joined the third season of *Euphoria*, and she believes that "all parents should see" the provocative HBO drama. "It really is what is happening in the world," she told Gayle King on on Tuesday's *CBS Mornings*. And yet, as a television viewer, Stone skips through the more risqué sequences.
"When sex scenes come on TV, I fast-forward," she shared. "I don't want to see it. I don't want to have to go through all of this blatant, harsh sexuality. For me, it steals from my own imagination, and I prefer my yearning, mystery, desire; I want to keep that alive inside myself."
During the conversation, Stone cited the much-discussed scene from *Basic Instinct*, in which her suspected killer Catherine Tramell is being interrogated. When crossing her legs, Stone is briefly fully exposed, in what she has since deemed the controversial "vagina shot." (The actress previously said that she was tricked in appearing bottomless, while director Paul Verhoeven has repeatedly denied that being the case.)
"People were desperately trying to figure it out," Stone said of the speculation about whether she was wearing underwear. "And I think that that idea of, 'Oh my God,' this hope, this wonder, this hope, this intrigue, this yearning is something that all of our profound sexuality is based in."
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Decades later, as popular as the 1992 film was, Stone feels like she faced a great deal of negatives after the release, including losing custody of her son, who, while on the stand during a hearing, was asked if his mom did "sex movies."
"I feel like I wasn't protected and taken care of," she said. "In many ways, I feel like I was punished for the behavior of others.... People treated me in ways that were very cruel and unkind, as if I was some sort of slatternly, vulgar person. I played a character, 30 years ago, grow up."
*Euphoria* season 3 premieres April 12 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO.
Source: “EW Drama”