"While we were doing [the initial murder scene], Jan asked me to throw all blood all over [Sharon] continuously so it would really be gruesome. And she nearly fainted."

"I still regret that I hadn't put the naked Leilani on the roof so that she would be sunbathing, because she comes down in the next scene and I thought it would be great in the wide shot."

"I don't think [the leg crossing scene] is a problem for [Sharon] anymore because I think she feels it was really an essential element of the movie."

(Above quotes from the director's commentary on the Basic Instinct DVD)

"Hitchcock would have loved to do a movie I think which has the actress in it that Basic Instinct has."

"I didn't know Joe Eszterhas."

"The Fourth Man is a prequel, you would say, to Basic Instinct."

"[Sharon Stone] was Catherine Tramell from the moment she started to talk. It was like amazing."

"I said, 'Sharon, you have to accept that you do everything I want. Whatever I want, you have to do it.' She said 'Okay.' She didn't have much to lose really."

"I remember in the editing room there was a big discussion if what you were seeing were her thighs or her vagina. The males said her thighs, and the females said 'Are you out of your mind? You're looking right into [her vagina].'"

"We knew that there would be some people who would, let's say, feel that we would have gone beyond the borders of what would be expressed in Puritan conservative America."

"Showgirls would change my career more. Also Joe Eszterhas. Thank you very much, Joe."

"A woman killing people at orgasm basically just for fun to see if she gets away with it is a kind of a idiotic premise."

"I think it's a great movie."

(Above quotes from the featurette "Blonde Poison" on the Basic Instinct DVD)

Gay and lesbian activists protested the film, interfering with filming and picketing outside theaters upon its release. They thought it portrayed lesbians in a negative light.

Paul and Jan De Bont were surprised by the negative attention from gay activists. Being from more liberal Holland, they didn't consider the homosexuality in the script to be a big deal.

Verhoeven shot the film partly as an homage to Alfred Hitchcock and especially to Vertigo.

Catherine Tramell's pen name in the movie is Catherine Woolf.

The leg-crossing shot is based on an incident that happened at a party when Verhoeven was a student.

Jerry Goldsmith considers the score the most difficult--and one of the best--he's ever written.

Some of the crew claim they're still not sure who the real murderer was.

1500 extras were hired for the movie.