Kim Basinger was destined for a career in the performing arts because she is the daughter of a jazz pianist and a ballet dancer. The Georgia native relocated to New York City at the age of 17, where she began modelling. In 1983, she made headlines by posing for Playboy, and the following year, she co-starred with Sean Connery in the James Bond film Never Say Never Again. Basinger’s role as a Bond girl was just the start of her career in sex culture; in the 1980s and early 1990s, she broke taboos with films like 912 Weeks, a sexual drama similar to Fifty Shades of Grey.
Of course, Basinger made an appearance in the Fifty Shades series many years later, playing the role of the person who first exposed Christian Grey, a kinky businessman, to the BDSM when he was a young boy. The most recent appearance in a feature film for Basinger was in 2017’s Fifty Shades Darker. A few months later, she had an appearance in the highly regarded Amazon series Comrade Detective, but she hasn’t been on either the big or small screen since. How did this Oscar-winning celebrity manage to vanish from view? Hollywood no longer wants to cast Kim Basinger, and here’s why.
Her status as a sex icon damaged her.
Although consenting to a full-frontal nude picture with Playboy may have seemed like a terrific chance at the time, it put Kim Basinger’s career on a course that was challenging to turn around. When she played Domino Petachi in Never Say Never Again, she solidified her status as a sex symbol, and in the years that followed, she was typecast.
With productions like the 1987 crime comedy Nadine, she made an effort to step outside of her comfort zone, but the reviews weren’t always positive, and Basinger eventually realised that she couldn’t create any buzz without getting a little racy. As a result, she nearly gave up on producing movies, but director Curtis Hanson persuaded her to play to her strengths.
Basinger reportedly had second thoughts about playing the prostitute Lynn Bracken in Hanson’s neo-noir blockbuster L.A. Confidential, which is still her most well-known performance, according to the Los Angeles Times (via GQ).
Casting director Ed Johnston stated that because she began her career as a sex symbol, Hollywood’s elite were unable to see her in any other capacity. In the end, Basinger overcame her misgivings about the role and went on to win an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Given that she had just four years prior declared bankruptcy after being sued by producers for pulling out of the independent film Boxing Helena, it was an impressive turnaround.