People thought Sharon Stone was taking drugs on the set of ‘Basic Instinct,’ but she was really having ‘mini seizures’

• Sharon Stone's breakout role was in the 1992 erotic thriller "Basic Instinct."
• Stone survived a massive stroke in 2001, but in the years leading up to it she had "mini seizures."
• Her "Basic Instinct" coworkers thought she was doing drugs on set when she was really seizing.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Sharon Stone's most notable role of her career came with "Basic Instinct," and the 1992 erotic thriller took an extreme toll on her health.

In a new interview with the New Yorker, Stone said her on-set colleagues believed she was doing drugs during the filming of the movie, but the behavior they were seeing was actually early signs of the stroke she would barely survive almost a decade later.

"I was clearly having some mini seizures when I was doing 'Basic Instinct,'" Stone said. "I would go like this. [She tilts her head back and flutters her eyes.] I used to tell people I was having them, and nobody would believe me."

In 2001, after Stone was hospitalized for a stroke, she said "Basic Instinct" director Paul Verhoeven was one of the only people from Hollywood who visited. A decade before her hospitalization, Verhoeven had told Stone that her colleagues thought she was "taking drugs at work."

"I kept saying, 'I'm not taking drugs and I don't know why this happens to me,'" Stone said. "So when this [stroke] happened, there was a little bit of 'Ohhh.'"

Stone is still feeling the impact of her massive brain injury, which she said led to some hearing loss in one ear. She now feels occasional "pressure" that makes it difficult to participate in big group conversations.

"My brain seizes 24/7, but I take a drug to stop that," Stone told the New Yorker.

In Stone's new autobiography, "The Beauty of Living Twice," out Tuesday, the actress opens up about her experiences on the set of "Basic Instinct," including how she slapped Verhoeven after seeing the final cut of the movie for the first time.

Stone said she had been led to believe her vagina would not be visible on camera during the "leg-crossing" scene, but eventually allowed it to remain in the film because it was "correct for the film and for the character."

The actress also wrote she was asked to have sex with her male costar by at least one movie producer, who believed it would improve their "onscreen chemistry."

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