A key figure in Sharon Stone's career is director Paul Verhoeven, who cast her in 1990's "Total Recall" as Lori, the seemingly loving wife of Carl Hauser (Arnold Schwarzenegger) who is actually a manipulative double agent. The over-the-top science fiction film became a massive hit, and as a result, Stone was cast in five new films by 1991, including "Year of the Gun," neo-noir thriller "Where Sleeping Dogs Lie," and "Scissors."
But it was reteaming with Verhoeven in the 1992 erotic thriller "Basic Instinct," in which she plays the seductive murder suspect and novelist Catherine Tramell, that made Stone a movie star. However, the film was a difficult shoot, in part because the sexual content was so daring at the time. Stone later commented that "this was a feature film for a major studio, and we had nudity, sex, homosexuality, all these things that, in my era, were breaking norms" (via The New Yorker).
Grossing over $350 million in theaters (via Box Office Mojo), "Basic Instinct" made Stone incredibly famous, but she found it hard to cope with her new celebrity. The already introverted actress said, "I had the kind of fame where people chase you down the street, and stores have to lock the doors and hide you." She was also amused to discover interviewers believed she was actually Catherine and were slightly afraid of her as a result. For better or worse, the role of Catherine would define her movie career from then on.
