Sharon Stone recreated her iconic leg crossing scene from Basic Instinct at the 2019 GQ Men of the Year Awards. The actress was on hand to accept the Woman of the Year Award and gave an empowering speech to the audience. The scene in question made Stone a household name and brought her a lot of attention, both good and band. In the end, the moment changed her life forever and made the 61-year old actress who she is today, though she may have preferred it happened another way at the time.

Basic Instinct hit theaters in 1992 and was all people were talking about in March of that year, thanks to Sharon Stone. It also became the fourth-highest grossing movie of the year. According to the director Paul Verhoeven, Stone knew perfectly well what she was doing and was more than happy with the perverse situation. However, Stone believes she was exploited. She had this to say on stage at the GQ Men of the Year Awards, while recreating the iconic scene.

"Some years ago I was sitting on a soundstage, and my director said, 'Can you hand me your underpants, because we're seeing them in the scene and you shouldn't have underpants on, but we won't see anything. And I said, 'Sure.' I didn't know this moment would change my life."

In an interview from a few years ago, Sharon Stone basically said the same thing. When shooting the iconic Basic Instinct scene, she says, "(Paul Verhoeven) assured me that nothing would be seen. So I took off my underwear and put it in my shirt pocket. At that time, there was no high definition." Continues the actress, "so when I looked at the monitor, I really did not see anything." She didn't figure everything out until she saw the movie on the big screen and was in a state of shock.

While standing on the stage at the awards ceremony, Sharon Stone decided to take the scene back and made the audience recreate it with her. "We have every right to be powerful in whatever form of sexuality we choose to have, and no one is allowed to take that away from you," the actress said, adding that her dignity was "hard-won." The scene in question haunted the actress for years, but now she is owning it. She even appeared in a Basic Instinct sequel. She goes onto explain.

"So I want to say thank you for choosing me to be Woman of the Year, because there was a time when all I was was a joke."

Paul Verhoeven maintains that Sharon Stone knew all along about the scene and how it would play out when Basic Instinct hit theaters. "Everyone told her that this scene would ruin her career, so Sharon came and asked me to take it away," says the director. He refused and stated that she knew exactly what she was doing. In the end, Stone seems to have put all of this behind her and is ready to move forward. You can check out the recreation and speech below, thanks to Sharon Stone's Instagram account.