In Hollywood, Gina Gershon has always trusted her instincts.
Early in her career, she was offered a role in Friday the 13th Part 2, but ultimately decided against it after discovering she would be topless. Gershon has a new memoir, AlphaP–sy: How I Survived the Valley and Learned to Love My Boobs, which chronicles her rise to stardom and the many famous people she met along the way.
“I was offered the lead role in that movie,” Gershon told Fox News Digital. “And, of course, I was very excited to be in the movie, but having her have to take off her jacket just before she’s killed off felt obviously exploitative and a little silly to me.”
Gershon writes in the book, “At the time, in these kinds of slasher movies, it was common for girls to die with their breasts exposed. My character was killed with a stake through the heart, blood dripping down her body. That seemed pretty lame to me. Exploitation 101.”
Gershon asked his father for advice.
“Listen, I was really lucky to have a father who really taught me how to believe in my decisions,” she told FOX News Digital. “It wasn’t like I had to rebel against my family. I remember asking him about it, thinking he would say, ‘My daughter would never do that!’ And he said, ‘It’s your body.’ If you’re happy with it, I’m happy with it.” ”
“I sat down and thought about it, and I was like, ‘I really don’t want to do this,'” she said. “I wasn’t comfortable. It seemed silly. I wasn’t against nudity. I grew up on European films, but only when it made sense to the characters and the story. But when it just seemed silly, I don’t know. It felt like something that didn’t sit well with me.”
After speaking with her father, Ms. Gershon turned down the role.
“My father may have been born too early, but he taught me many valuable lessons in the 19 years we spent together,” Gershon wrote. “Mostly, he taught me to believe in myself and make my own decisions.”
“The theme of trusting your intuition kept appearing in my life,” she added.
It’s important advice that stuck with Gershon over the years, including when she starred in 1995’s “Showgirls.” Directed by Paul Verhoeven, the film depicts the coming of age and moral decay of a young dancer. “Saved by the Bell” alum Elizabeth Berkley also appeared.
Gershon admitted in her book that she and Verhoeven fought “constantly” over creative differences regarding her character, Crystal Connors.
“I think Paul secretly enjoyed discussing the most mundane of things,” she wrote. “Sometimes I thought he was throwing things out there to see if he could get a lift from me. Or maybe he didn’t. Maybe it was annoying that I just rolled over and didn’t comply with his requests.”
“In any case, our battles have become exhausting. And let me say this: I liked Paul. I really liked him! Especially when we weren’t locked into a control game. He’s a very smart, very interesting guy. He’s a mathematician and a theologian. I really enjoyed our conversations about religion and philosophy.”
Gershon said he planned to film a scene that took place in Crystal’s dressing room. That’s when she received a surprise.
“I was in the hair and makeup trailer again, waiting for the team to transform me, when Paul walked in and said out of nowhere, ‘I think you should show your vagina for today’s scene,'” she wrote. “Oh, that was out of the blue. Just that morning, I made a promise to myself that I would avoid arguments at all costs that day. Oh, this is going to be crazy.
“‘Why?’ I asked, and I continued, in my most sincere, calm actress voice, without provocation or name-calling, ‘I mean, why would Crystal do something like that?’ I’m open to anything as long as it makes sense. How does it reveal my personality? How does it move the story forward?
The filmmaker noted that Berkeley would do so, and that Sharon Stone also performed the infamous scene in the previous film, Basic Instinct.
Gershon wrote that her contract did not require that much nudity for the role and that she remained calm. To avoid a tug-of-war on the scene, she proposed a far-fetched alternative to defuse the situation. Because of this, the director decided to drop the idea and proceed with the scene as originally written.
“To my great relief, Paul slowly backed away from the trailer, looked at me like I was crazy, and said, ‘No, it’s okay, we’re going to do this scene as written. Just forget I said anything,'” she wrote. “He never mentioned my vagina again.”
In response, a spokesperson for Verhoeven told Fox News Digital: “Mr. Verhoeven has not read the memoir and has no comment.”
“I think the real challenge was that I went into ‘Showgirls’ thinking it was a completely different kind of movie,” Gershon explained to Fox News Digital.
“It was very serious, and I loved the role. It was very operatic in my mind. And then when I got to the set, I realized that it was a completely different movie than I had envisioned. So I think the biggest challenge was adapting to the content of the movie and finding a way to play it that made sense within the environment.”
Despite receiving widespread attention for its NC-17 rating and explicit content, the film underperformed at the box office, People magazine reported. According to the outlet, “Showgirls” cost less than $45 million to make and was widely panned by critics.
Today, however, the work is widely regarded as a cult classic.
“‘Showgirls’ has been a very interesting journey,” Gershon told FOX News Digital. “It’s funny how when this movie came out, so many journalists jumped on the bandwagon of, ‘This movie is terrible.’ They really ripped it apart.”
“Thankfully I came out mostly unscathed, but it still didn’t feel good,” she said. “I hope the whole movie does well. And in fact, I think it might have done well. I just thought the marketing was ridiculous and it shouldn’t have been rated NC-17 in the first place. That’s a whole other story.”
“Now, for some journalists, that’s like the first question they want to talk about: ‘Let’s talk about ‘Showgirls.'” It’s such a cult classic! ” she laughed. “All of a sudden, people who hated this movie now love it. I’m glad this movie brought hours of fun to so many people. It really taught me not to pay too much attention to reviews. Don’t listen to critics too much. That was a big lesson for me.”
Following her instincts, Gershon said her goal has always been to tell great stories.
“I just want to do something that I’m proud of or something that I would want to go see,” Gershon added.
