Michael Douglas denies rumor he punched “Basic Instinct” director Paul Verhoeven
Michael Douglas denies rumor he punched “Basic Instinct” director Paul Verhoeven
Marina WattsTue, October 6, 2026 at 2:00 PM UTC
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Michael Douglas in New York last January; Paul Verhoeven at Cannes in 2021Credit: Mike Coppola/Getty; Stephane Cardinale/Corbis/GettyKey Points -
Michael Douglas denies any altercation between him and director Paul Verhoeven occurred while working on Basic Instinct.
“I might have wanted to hit him, but I swear I never touched him,” writes the Oscar winner, recalling the tensions on the movie set.
Douglas said the two got into an argument over costar Sharon Stone.
Michael Douglas is addressing longstanding rumors that he had a physical altercation with director Paul Verhoeven while filming Basic Instinct.
The Oscar winner denied any scuffle occurred between the two while filming the 1992 erotic thriller in his memoir One Helluva Ride, but they did have an argument over costar Sharon Stone. She and the Oscar winner were rumored to have had an affair, and the set was already filled with tension.
“I had accepted being ignored [by directors] on films where I was acting and producing,” Douglas writes of his experiences on movie sets.
“Sometimes the director would say, ‘Michael’s okay, he’s fine. Don’t worry about him.’ And then all the attention would go to another actor who was struggling. As producer, I was trying to get the shoot done as efficiently as possible, so I would let it slide.”
Douglas and Sharon Stone in ‘Basic Instinct’Credit: TriStar/Getty
While Douglas wasn’t a producer on Basic Instinct, he “had more riding on this picture than anyone else.” So, toward the end of filming, he asked Verhoeven to stop by his trailer, where Douglas confronted him.
“I told him I didn’t know if he was sleeping with [Stone] or if he just wanted to sleep with her, but it was seriously impairing his ability to direct the movie. ‘Michael, you’re out of line,’ he said.”
Verhoeven denied any wrongdoing, Douglas writes. “He insisted he would never let anything, not a woman, nothing, get in the way of his professionalism. And he did not appreciate me accusing him of doing a bad job. Who did I think I was?”
“I defended myself. When was the last time he’d given me a note? What did he think I was doing here? Bringing in the box office so he could make someone else into a star? It was getting heated. We both stood up; we were face-to-face,” continues Douglas of their power struggle.
Before either could throw a punch, Verhoeven suffered an ill-timed medical emergency. “And then, suddenly, a torrent of blood exploded out of his nose,” Douglas recalls, noting that Verhoeven covered his face and ran out the trailer, leaving the actor confused.
“I dashed after him—where was he going? We needed the on-set doctor! Outside, a scary amount of blood continued to stream from behind his hands. He was immediately rushed to the hospital.”
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As for what happened? “It was serious—an artery had burst, and he was hemorrhaging,” Douglas writes.
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While Verhoeven recovered, the cast and crew lost several days. Upon his return, Verhoeven was instructed to work a reduced schedule. “Meanwhile, everyone had heard our screaming match and the rumor quickly spread across the set that I had punched Verhoeven and broken his nose,” Douglas writes.
“I might have wanted to hit him, but I swear I never touched him. I would never do such a thing to my director! There had already been more than enough threats of fistfights around this film.”
A rep for Paul Verhoeven tells Entertainment Weekly, “Mr. Verhoeven states that there was no physical altercation — just general tension on the set due to a difficult scene.”
‘One Helluva Ride’ by Michael DouglasCredit: Grand Central Publishing/Hachette Book Group
The tension wasn’t something only the actor and director felt. Stone previously spoke of the “tremendous pressure” on the set of the 1992 film, and how it “was taking a toll on everybody.”
“Verhoeven ended up in the hospital — his sinus thing ruptured, and he couldn’t stop having a nosebleed,” Stone recalled in a March 2021 interview with the New Yorker. “There was tremendous pressure on that set.”
“Thank God for Michael Douglas,” she added at the time. “He’s way beyond just being a feminist. He’s a humanist. He really cares about everything he does.”
One Helluva Rideis available for purchase wherever books are sold.
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
