Q 6

PLAYBOY: With which items of clothing do you have the best relationship?

Kim Basinger: My sports bra and sweat pants.

Q 7

PLAYBOY: What's the best acting advice you've heard lately?

Kim Basinger: It was something Glenda Jackson said about emoting in a scene: "When I have to cry, I think about my love life. And when I have to laugh, I think about my love life." One day, I'd like to play Glenda Jackson roles.

Q 8

PLAYBOY: What did you discover about yourself while doing the controversial film 9½ Weeks?

Kim Basinger: That there wasn't a role I couldn't play. The film has been calmed down some from the book, so if you want to see S/M, whips and chains and everything, you really are going to be disappointed. But what we did shoot was very explicit psychologically and visually. The hardest part was mine--because I lived in turmoil inside and outside the movie for one solid year. It was the most depressed I've ever been and the most elated I've ever been. The role was like an exorcism for me. Some nights I'd go back to the hotel and sound like an idiot. But it was also very freeing. I could go home after doing a grueling scene that I had dreaded so much that I didn't sleep well for a week beforehand, take a shower and just lie there, look at the ceiling and burst out laughing. And feel released. And feel that there wasn't anything I couldn't go with and do as an actress.

All those pains we went through to make 9½ Weeks would, themselves, make a fascinating documentary, because we all took a chance: the director, Adrian Lyne; myself; Mickey Rourke. We all put ourselves on the line, on a very fine line. Everybody's relationships fell apart, went to hell. Even if you read the book, you can't imagine the real relationship between these people. It is erotic and intense and happy and sad and depressing--a psychological roller coaster. The woman I played was taken from one end of herself to another. It's a very scary thing to have someone discover who you are before you discover who you are--and then have him tell you about yourself before you are able to let it sink in. It's almost like watching a bus hit someone before it happens and then have it happen three seconds later. It's more than seeing the future. It's somebody else seeing your future.

Q 9

PLAYBOY: How did you learn about sex?

Kim Basinger: My brother told me in a swing one afternoon. I think I was in the fifth grade. He told me all about having a period--and everything else. He loved to talk about sex all the time. He said "Let me tell you what I found in the hall closet. You won't believe this." [Laughs] I said, "Oh, stop, you're kidding me." And he said, "When Momma comes out here to hang the clothes, I'm gonna show you something." And then out came this big purple box of sanitary napkins. [Laughs] I said, "Well, what are those?" And he said, "She wears these things." [Laughs] He said, "All girls do, all girls." What he didn't know was that I'd seen a lot more in life than he thought I'd seen.

Q 10

PLAYBOY: Let's play doctor. What emergency medical procedures do you know, and where did you learn them?

Kim Basinger: Absolutely none. Isn't that a shame? I saw a man the other night in a restaurant who I thought was going to choke to death. I started sweating. We were the only other couple there. This man's wife and boy looked like they couldn't have helped at all. So I thought, Jesus, what are we going to do? What if this man just dies? I got him some water.

Q 11

PLAYBOY: What's the most surprising thing a doctor ever said to you in a checkup?

Kim Basinger: [Laughs] Oh, my God. When I was in the, uh...most vulnerable position, my urologist said, "Boy, were you mean to Roy Hobbs." Can you believe that? What a hell of a place to be when this guy is getting so involved in The Natural. I couldn't believe it.

Q 12

PLAYBOY: When you cook, what's your dinner-party specialty?

Kim Basinger: When I cook, it's such a joke that everyone says, "Why don't we just go to the Mexican restaurant?" If I had a specialty, it would be fettuccini made with red pepper and vodka. A guy at Orsini's restaurant taught me. The secret is putting the hot Italian peppers in the vodka and letting it all age for a month or two.