Sharon Stone says Michael Douglas earned $13 million more than her for Basic Instinct
Topics: Celebrity, Film and TV
Rhiannon Ingle
Featured Image Credit: Sipa US / AJ Pics / Alamy Stock Photo
Topics: Celebrity, Film and TV
Sharon Stone says there was a hefty difference in pay between herself and co-star Michael Douglas in Basic Instinct.
The hit 1992 thriller-mystery movie went on to rake in hundreds of millions at the box-office, but Stone says she was paid $13 million less than Douglas.
The award-winning actor has since opened up about the pay gap as she looked back on her decade-spanning career.
Advert
First released way back when in 1992, the film, which was directed by Paul Verhoeven, followed Detective Nick (Douglas) as he investigates the mysterious murder of retired rock star Johnny Boz in San Francisco.
Nick soon starts to suspect that Johnny's girlfriend Catherine Tramell, played by Stone, is responsible for the act.
However, things take a turn when he falls for her in an interesting turn of events.
Stone was 34 when she starred in the erotic thriller, while Douglas was a 15-years her senior at the time with a whole filmography behind him, which included smash hits like hit thriller-drama, Fatal Attraction, as well as the epic crime flick, Wall Street..
Speaking at the New York Women In Film & Television's 43rd annual Muse Awards lunch yesterday (28 March), Stone said: "Michael Douglas made $14 million. Now, I was new. I was new and he was a very big star."
Stone, on the other hand, only took home $500,000 for her leading role.
"We should think a lot more about what women can do," the Casino star went on to say.
She then recalled moments from her early career in showbiz, telling the audience just how different things were in 1990s.
"When I would go to the set there would be 300 men, and my hair and makeup and dressers were men, when I was doing sex scenes. It was all men and me.
"And sometimes," she continued, "I could ask the wardrobe supervisor, who may be a woman, if she wouldn’t mind staying on set while I did that."
Now over three decades since the film was first released, Stone revealed just how much the industry has changed since.
She told the packed ballroom: "Well, things have changed, and there are women in film now, and I am really grateful."
The Oscar nominee then went on to become one of Hollywood most notable actors, starring in major blockbuster hits like Sliver, Catwoman, Total Recall and The Quick and The Dead.