Sharon Stone has confessed she was "embarrassed" and "horrified" when she first saw Basic Instinct - as she didn't realise how much of her body would be revealed.

The 52-year-old star claimed on CNN's Piers Morgan Tonight show that director Paul Verhoeven had led her to believe only 'shadow' would be shown in her infamous leg un-crossing scene, and she was mortified when he first showed her the film at a screening surrounded by other people.

Sharon said: "He had told me when we shot the scene that the light was reflecting off of my underwear, and that if I took off my underwear, there would be a shadow, that we wouldn't see my pubic hair, as we do in the film, where everybody keeps claiming they see my vagina."

She went on: "He screened the movie with me publicly with many people in a room. He didn't give me a chance to see it, digest it.

"I think more I was just so shocked and I was embarrassed not to be able to process it alone with him than I was so horrified. Because I agree that it was very, very good for the movie. But I didn't have the chance to process it individually and get my brain around it."

But the actress also said she felt her character, man-eater Catherine Tramell, had sexually empowered women.

Sharon said: "It has been a film that empowered women in their feminine - not just their sexual - but their feminine identity.

"That kind of fearsomeness allowed women to feel empowered, allowed women to say what they really wanted to say. And men actually really liked it.

"Men felt like women can tell me what they want and what they like and what they think. And it is exciting to hear that, I think."