The “Basic Instinct” star said in Monday’s episode of “The Louis Theroux Podcast” that the 1993 film’s producer, the late Robert Evans, pressured her to sleep with Baldwin to get a “better” performance from the actor. She initially told the story in her 2021 memoir, “The Beauty of Living Twice,” but named neither the producer nor the co-star in that telling.
The 66-year-old actor recalled Evans calling her into his office, which had very low couches from the 1970s or ’80s. She described an exchange that happened while she was “essentially sitting on the floor when I should have been on set.”
“He’s running around his office in his sunglasses explaining to me that he slept with Ava Gardner,” she said. “And I should sleep with Billy Baldwin because if I slept with Billy Baldwin, Billy Baldwin’s performance would get better.’”
She said that the “Chinatown” producer believed his request would give them better “chemistry on screen” and would “save the movie.” She recalled Evans telling her that “the real problem in the movie was me because I was so uptight, and so not like a real actress who could just f— him and get things back on track and the real problem was that I was such a tight-ass.”
Representatives for Baldwin did not immediately respond Tuesday to The Times’ request for comment.
The Oscar-nominated star said that she just kept thinking about the list of actors she had suggested for the part and “why they expect me to go from Michael Douglas [in ‘Basic Instinct’] to Billy Baldwin.”
“I didn’t have to f— Michael Douglas. Michael could come to work and know how to hit those marks and do that line and rehearse and show up. Now all of a sudden I’m in the ‘I have to f— people’ business.”
Stone explained that she thought Evans, who had an infamous cocaine problem, was “just high out of his mind” during the meeting.
Evans, who died in 2019 at 89, reigned as the production chief of Paramount Pictures in the late 1960s and early ’70s. The actor-turned-producer was known for saving Paramount Pictures with the now-classic films “Rosemary’s Baby,” “Chinatown” and Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Godfather.” He transformed from a sportswear mogul into a legendary independent producer. However, he fell from grace in the 1980s when he was involved in a drug scandal and later linked to the high-profile “Cotton Club” murder case. (Evans was never charged with any involvement in the crime.)
In November, Stone opened up about a separate 1980s encounter during an episode of Kelly Ripa’s “Let’s Talk Off Camera,” detailing the alleged incident of sexual harassment while also not naming the person.
According to Stone, a former head of Sony invited her to his office for a professional meeting, then exposed his penis and suggested that an act of quid pro quo could make her a star. Stone, who entered the entertainment industry when she was in her early 20s, was new to Los Angeles at the time.
Stone described a man “pacing around the office” who began showering her with compliments before taking his penis out and putting it right in her face.
“And of course, I was very young and what I do when I’m nervous … I started laughing and crying at the same time and I couldn’t stop because I became hysterical,” Stone said. She added that the executive left through a door behind his desk, and his secretary eventually appeared and escorted Stone from the building. “But this was not the last of many weird experiences like this in my career,” she added.
The “Catwoman” actor said that during the rise of the #MeToo movement, again without naming the executive, she publicly called on him to apologize. “You know who you are,” she recalled saying. “If you want to come to me and say sorry, I will accept you. I will accept your apology.”
On “The Louis Theroux Podcast,” Stone continued to name names but didn’t identify the Sony exec. However, she did trash disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, whom she repeatedly called a “disgusting pig,” and a violent anaconda who called her “Princess Sharon,” was “physically violent with me on more than one occasion” and threw her across rooms because she “wouldn’t do what he wanted me to do.”
Conversely, she said she had “a spectacular successful experience every time” she worked with embattled filmmaker Woody Allen, who directed her in “Stardust Memories” and worked with her on “Antz” and “Fading Gigolo.”
“I worked with him off and on all my life and never a hint of anything inappropriate ever. I’ve never seen him be inappropriate. I’ve never seen him demonstrate a whiff of impropriety towards any woman or any young girl. I’ve never seen him behave in any way that wasn’t completely professional and charming and funny and nice and good,” she said.
Stone also opened up about her Oscars loss in 1996 and said that she hasn’t had another great part since her role in the 1995 film “Casino,” explaining the challenges she’s faced in that time.
‘You have to pretend [losing] is fantastic and it’s not fantastic. And then I didn’t get any good parts ever again, for the rest of my entire life. And guess what, I hate it …. because it’s easier to say ‘she’s cold’ or ‘I don’t like her’ or ‘she’s difficult’ or ‘she must be sick’ or ‘she’s too old’ or ‘she’s hard to cast’ or ‘we don’t know what to do with her’ than ‘what if she comes in and gives another performance and she gets nominated instead of Robert De Niro, well that doesn’t go well, that’s not what we want to have happen.’”
Times staff writer Emily St. Martin contributed to this report.