Sharon Stone admits she was 'in shock' and 'stopped eating' when she lost custody of her son Roan - after a judge berated her racy role in Basic Instinct as a 'sex film'

Sharon Stone has revealed that she 'stopped eating' when she lost custody of her adopted son Roan, after a judge berated her racy role in Basic Instinct.

The actress, 66, received worldwide attention for her iconic performance as the serial killer, but has now revealed that losing custody left her 'in shock' following her divorce from her second husband Phil Bronstein.

Speaking on The Louis Theroux Podcast, Sharon explained that her role, and in particular the famous leg-crossing scene made people want to 'diminish her personally, the woman that played the part.'

She added that while battling for custody for her son Roan years later, a judge asked her 'tiny child if he knew his mother made sex films.'

The star appeared in the film as a calculating killer while Michael Douglas starred as the investigating homicide detective who becomes obsessed with her. 

Sharon Stone has revealed that she 'stopped eating' when she lost custody of her adopted son Roan, after a judge berated her racy role in Basic Instinct 

She told Louis: 'I was trying to hold my own self respect and dignity against all of the jokes and attention towards my vagina.

'Well, because it was 1/4 of a frame, so it was a compressed frame. It wasn't a whole frame, so people kept trying to see if they could see something, but it was ultimately 1/4 of a frame.

'But because of that, people tried to diminish me as a person from playing this incredibly powerful, manipulative, sociopathic character and for playing it well.

'But because you saw this quarter of a frame up my skirt, they wanted to diminish me as a human being, me personally, the woman who played the part. And I mean, I lost custody of my child over that.

'The judge said that I made sex films. The judge asked my tiny child if he knew that his mother made sex films. I was in shock.

'I ended up in the Mayo Clinic with an extra heartbeat in the upper and lower chambers of my heart, 'cause I just stopped eating.

'I didn't even know what was happening to me. I was just so confused that I could play a part for three months and lose my child. I could be so good at playing a part in a movie that I could lose custody of my child.'

Sharon was married to Roan's father, Phil Bronstein, now 70, from 1998 to 2004. 

The actress, 66, received worldwide attention for her iconic performance as the serial killer, but has now revealed that losing custody left her 'in shock' 

Not amicable: Phil, pictured in 1999, was married to Sharon from 1998 to 2004, when the pair split and entered a custody battle for Roan

Stone wanted a family with Phil, but had trouble conceiving. The star suffered three miscarriages before the couple adopted Roan in 2000.  

After her life-changing stroke in 2001 and the end of her marriage three years later, the couple entered a bitter custody battle, which Stone lost. 

Phil was awarded primary custody, with Sharon getting visits from her son every month. 

Roan is now an actor and stars in What About Love, with Andy Garcia playing his on-screen father. 

Following the divorce, Sharon went on to adopt her son Laird in 2005 and son Quinn in 2006. 

In her 2021 memoir The Beauty of Living Twice, she wrote: 'I was punished for changing the rules of how we see women, and I understand that by writing this book I could be punished again. But this time I'm not afraid.'

She opened up on her feelings about the ordeal, admitting she 'couldn't function' and ended up sleeping 'every afternoon', unable to 'get up'.

She found out she had a prolapsed valve and was anorexic.

Sharon penned: 'I had stopped eating and fallen apart and hadn't even noticed. I had just lain down and given up. My heart, it seemed, was actually broken.'

The star continued to fight for her son for over a decade in a 'game of custody chess'.

Sharon added: 'I did that for 13 years; I played a very long, very difficult game of custody chess in an effort to get him everything I could for his health and well-being.

'Now my home and my family are complete and I am able to re-find success in the rest of my life, as my heart is also complete.'

Speaking to Saga magazine, Sharon previously revealed she 'couldn't function' after losing custody of her son, and would spend her days crying. 

'After I lost primary custody of Roan, I couldn't function. I just lay on the couch. I was so damn tired. I would cry,' she said. 

Sharon (pictured in 2004 with her son) explained that while battling for custody for her son, a judge asked her 'tiny child if he knew his mother made sex films'

'I couldn't focus on anything but having my son back in my arms. Nothing else mattered, just getting him back,' she added.

Stone has since then signed a confidentiality agreement about the custody battle.

In her interview with Louis, Sharon explained that she was 32 when she landed the role of Catherine Tramell, and the 'highly sexualised' film had already sparked controversy even before its premiere.

She said: 'When Basic Instinct was ready to be premiered, there was so much resistance and chaos and strife and PR and problems.

'We couldn't have a regular premiere and a regular theater. So they shut down the Paramount lot and we had to have the premiere on the lot with police at the studio entrances and exits.

'And I was in this terrible position of being that girl that we didn't yet know.

'It was the risk movie of the year, and everybody was protesting because we had this homosexual character and people thought that it was gonna be a bad thing and thought we were making this villainous homosexual killer and it was gonna be bad for the gay community.'

She added that Faye Dunaway offered to accompany her to the premiere, and when the film ended they were stunned when it received a standing ovation.

In the interview, Sharon also finally revealed the identity of the producer who pressured her to have sex with a co-star for the first time - as well as the actor she was pushed to get intimate with in order to improve their on-screen chemistry.

The actress previously discussed the situation in her 2021 memoir - without disclosing identities - but has now divulged that the producer was Robert Evans, the actor was Alec Baldwin's brother Billy, and the film was Sliver in 1993. 

Evans, who died in 2019, was also a producer on Chinatown and The Cotton Club, and headed production at Paramount for The Godfather, The Italian Job, True Grit and The Great Gatsby.

Sliver was Sharon's next movie after achieving huge success and megastardom in the previous year's hit Basic Instinct.

She said: 'They expected me to bring home another giant smash hit and they gave me casting approval and they gave me all these approvals, but then when it came time for me to do it they told me it was a vanity deal and I couldn't have my approvals.

'Then they started to try to blame me for their mistakes, and they made terrible mistakes in the way that they hired directors and cast.'

She said former actor turned producer Evans summoned her from filming to his office to make the request for her to sleep with leading man William Baldwin - one of four acting brothers, and more widely known as Billy - off set.

She said: 'He called me to his office. He had these very low seventies, eighties couches, so I'm essentially sitting on the floor, when I should have been on set.

'And he's running around his office in sunglasses explaining to me that he slept with Ava Gardner and I should sleep with Billy Baldwin, because if I slept with Billy Baldwin, Billy Baldwin's performance would get better.

'And we needed Billy to get better in the movie because that was the problem. 

'And if I could sleep with Billy then we'd have chemistry on screen, and if I would just have sex with him then that would save the movie, and the real problem with the movie was me because I was so uptight, and so not like a real actress who could just f**k him and get things back on track. The real problem was I was such a tight a**e.'

Sharon said on hearing his demand she just thought how he hadn't listened to the list of actors that she had suggested for Baldwin's part of Zeke Hawkins, and was frustrated that the film's bosses expected her to go from co-starring with Michael Douglas in Basic Instinct to Baldwin.

In the interview, Sharon also finally revealed the identity of the producer who pressured her to have sex with a co-star for the first time while working on the film Sliver (pictured)

She added: 'I didn't have to f**k 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**k people' business.'

Sharon said Sliver still took a substantial $280million at the box office even if it fell below expectations.

The original excerpt about the incident from her memoir, which is titled The Beauty of Living Twice, read: 'I had a producer bring me to his office, where he had malted milk balls in a little milk-carton-type container under his arm with the spout open. 

'He walked back and forth in his office with the balls falling out of the spout and rolling all over the wood floor as he explained to me why I should f*** my costar so that we could have onscreen chemistry,' she recalled. 

'Why, in his day, he made love to Ava Gardner onscreen and it was so sensational! 

The original excerpt about the incident was in her memoir titled The Beauty of Living Twice 

'Now just the creepy thought of him in the same room with Ava Gardner gave me pause. Then I realized that she also had to put up with him and pretend that he was in any way interesting.'

Sharon said all she could think about was how the actor in question, whom they had insisted on hiring, 'couldn't get one whole scene out in the test.'   

'Now you think if I f*** him, he will become a fine actor? Nobody's that good in bed,' she noted. 'I felt they could have just hired a costar with talent, someone who could deliver a scene and remember his lines. I also felt they could f*** him themselves and leave me out of it. It was my job to act and I said so. 

'This was not a popular response. I was considered difficult.'

Nonetheless, Billy, now 61, himself has since gone on to build a lengthy resume of film and TV credits including Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Gossip Girl.

And just two years after Sliver, in 1995, the actor tied the knot with Chynna Phillips - daughter of Mamas & the Papas band members John and Michelle Phillips.

The couple, who have since welcomed three kids together, had recently laid bare their marital issues in a series of frank YouTube clips.

The pair opened up about a serious 'rupture' in their relationship after Chynna converted to Christianity.

Elsewhere during the interview, Sharon shed light on working with Total Recall star, Arnold Schwarzenegger. 

When speaking about her co-star she spoke on how the hunk helped her 'lift weights' and build muscle for the film ahead of their fight scene as on screen husband and wife. 

She also described him as a 'brilliant man' as she delved into her time working alongside Schwarzenegger.

Moving onto Sharon's love life, the two discussed Sharon's stint on the dating app Bumble after Louis points out that she was 'kicked off for impersonating herself.'

Additionally, she also reveals that she 'ended up having all different kinds of experiments.' 

Being on the app during the pandemic, she found herself 'FaceTiming people and chatting for a long time over text,' describing the dates she found herself on as a 'calamity.'

The Louis Theroux Podcast is a Spotify podcast, now available everywhere, with new episodes landing every Tuesday.