Michael Douglas recently shed light on his fight reports with Paul Verhoeven. It is no secret that Verhoeven and Douglas were not exactly close during the making of Basic Instinct. The two often clashed on set, with one heated argument later leading to rumors that Douglas had physically confronted the director. In his recently released memoir, Douglas explained that, as an established A-list actor and experienced producer, he was used to stepping back when directors needed to focus on less experienced actors. But he felt Verhoeven took that a step too far on Basic Instinct.

Despite his frustrations with the director, Douglas maintained that he never crossed the line into physically assaulting anyone.

Michael Douglas revisited a major behind-the-scenes clash with Paul Verhoeven in his memoir One Helluva Ride. He recalled a heated shouting match during the making of the 1992 thriller, Basic Instinct. Right after their altercation in a trailer, Verhoeven reportedly emerged out covered in blood. The incident later became the source of exaggerated Hollywood rumors that Douglas had punched the director. Douglas, however, firmly denied ever laying a hand on Verhoeven.

"I might have wanted to hit him, but I swear I never touched him. I would never do such a thing to my director!," he wrote in the memoir, as reporter by EW. 

"There had already been more than enough threats of fistfights around this film," he added, as per EW. According to Douglas, the tension began because he felt Verhoeven was giving their co-star Sharon Stone too much attention and preferential treatment. When he finally confronted the director, Verhoeven reportedly told him he was completely out of line. The Basic Instinct director has since responded to Douglas’s account of the altercation.

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After Douglas’s memoir was released, Verhoeven’s representative issued a formal statement to Entertainment Weekly to clarify what really happened.

According to an official statement to Entertainment Weekly, Paul Verhoeven viewed the incident as a case of “general tension on the set due to a difficult scene,” not a personal vendetta. The exchange was heated, but it never escalated into a physical fight. However, the stress of the moment reportedly caused an artery in Verhoeven’s nose to burst, leaving him bleeding as he rushed out of the trailer to find the on-set doctor.

The hemorrhage was serious enough to send Verhoeven to the hospital and bring production to a halt for several days. When he returned, he was told to work a reduced schedule while he recovered. For Verhoeven, the shouting match and the burst artery were simply the kind of thing that could happen while making a provocative erotic thriller under intense studio pressure.

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What do you think about Paul Verhoeven and Michael Douglas' clash? Let us know in the comments!