She was at the top of her game, until a notorious film turned Elizabeth Berkley into a flop star, according to “Showgirls” director Paul Verhoeven.
In 1995, Berkley was on the top of the showbiz world after gaining huge acclaim, fans and success with her role as Jessie Spano in “Saved by the Bell.”
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But with one performance in the sex and nudity-laden cult movie that depicted the sleazy world of naked cabaret in Las Vegas strip clubs, Berkley’s career and her image hit the skids.
Today, director Paul Verhoeven has held up his hands and apologized to the beauty and admitted: “It was all my fault.”
In an exclusive interview, Verhoeven has reflected on his destruction of Berkley’s promising career and has even apologized publicly.
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The Dutch director also revealed Charlize Theron had a lucky escape, too — as she desperately wanted the lead role.
The film, which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, was deemed one of the worst movies ever made due to nonsensical plots, odd musical numbers, awful acting and incessant nudity. It earned just $8 million at the box office, was subjected to critics’ savagery and won a box of Razzie Awards.
But Verhoeven — who was also behind the camera for box office smashes like “Robocop,” “Total Recall” and “Basic Instinct” — stands by “Showgirls,” and sees it as one of his best pieces of work and wants to make a sequel entitled “Bimbos.”
He doesn’t expect Berkley to return as troubled teen Nomi Malone, who in the original attempted to make it as a show girl in Sin City.
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After the film premiered, Berkley lost more than face. The cringeworthy performance cost her the early momentum of her career. Verhoeven admitted it made her an outcast.
“Showgirls certainly ruined the career of Elizabeth Berkley in a major way,” Verhoeven said. “It made my life more difficult, but not to the degree it did Elizabeth’s. Hollywood turned their backs on her.
“If somebody has to be blamed, it should be me because I thought that it was interesting to portray somebody like that.
“I had hoped the end of the movie would explain why she acted that way, when it’s revealed she has convictions linked with drugs, but that too turned out to be a big mistake.”
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Berkley’s basic acting abilities were pilloried, but Verhoeven feels that was his fault, too. “I asked Elizabeth to do all that — to be abrupt and to act in that way, but people have been attacking her about for that ever since.
“I did consider that people would think she had a borderline personality, but that was because her character had history of drug abuse, so I tried to express that through her abruptness.”
Berkley gambled when taking on “Showgirls” as she had enjoyed four years as a teen pin up as goody two shoes Jessie Spano in “Saved by the Bell.”
Audiences watched in disbelief as Berkley, then age 23, stripped and romped in a pool for “Twin Peaks” star Kyle MacLachlan and even took part in a lesbian sex scene with Gina Gershon.
Verhoeven insists the actress was happy to push the boundaries, thinking she was transitioning from a teen favorite to the next Meryl Streep.
He feels she was given an unfair wrap, and critics were so repulsed by the nudity they failed to see the strength of her performance.
“We did exactly what we intended to do and we didn’t stop at anything, we just went for it. There was never any problem, we just did what we were had set out to do. There was never any question about the nudity and we actually had a very pleasant shoot and everybody thought we were making an interesting movie.”
He added: “In retrospect, Elizabeth may have regretted being so heavily involved with the movie and being so vulnerable to her critics, but when we did it we never had the feeling that this would happen.
“I’ve heard a lot of people criticizing Elizabeth’s acting, but they criticized everything about the movie so we will never say we were shocked. Also, half of the audience only ever had their eyes below her face, so of course they would say that!””
Verhoeven claims Hollywood studio executives were angry that Berkley had pushed the boundaries and limits that female stars would go to — and so shunned her.
“Hollywood was pissed off with her because she went further than any actress has gone or will go and I think they have never forgiven her. Her performance pushed the limits and that worried them.
“They were just so shocked by the movie that they hated her.
“Elizabeth could only have recovered from the movie by being offered a very different role, but that just didn’t happen for her otherwise she would have taken the job.
“New roles were never offered, so it was impossible for her to make a comeback.”
Berkley saw her leading lady aspirations crumble in the wake of the failure. She was offered bit parts in TV shows like “NYPD Blue,” “Titus,” “The L Word” and “CSI Miami.” But she never achieved the level of acting success granted by “Saved by the Bell.”
By 2013 she turned to reality TV to stay in the limelight. She found herself using her dance skills again, but keeping her clothes on alongside D-listers in ABC reality show “Dancing With the Stars.”
Theron, an unknown at the time, had a lucky escape when she was not chosen for the role in “Showgirls.” She went on to star in “Two Days in the Valley” in 1996.
Verhoeven would have cast the blond beauty, who won an Oscar in 2003 for her gritty performance in “Monster,” but felt she was too unknown. He says the decision saved her career.
“Charlize also auditioned, and I don’t recall her having any problem with the nudity at all.
“She was good and wanted the part, but basically she was not well known enough at the time and just did not fit the part, so we said no.
“I have full respect for Charlize, but if she had been offered the part then she would probably have been chewed up in the same way they treated Elizabeth.
“She was very lucky that she did not get the part.
“I wish Charlize congratulations for that because it would have have been a miserable 20 years for her!”
In recent years “Showgirls” has gained a cult following. And Verhoeven said he would still like to give it a follow-up a go.
“I would not do a ‘Showgirls’ remake — one movie was definitely enough! But we had actually been working on the sequel to ‘Showgirls’ which was going to be called ‘Bimbos’ and was going to be ‘Nomi does Hollywood’, but after ‘Showgirls’ was released there was no way anyone was going to give me money for that.
“If we could just make Elizabeth Berkley 20 years younger now I would love to make ‘Bimbos’ today.”
Even knowing the likely backlash of the project, Verhoeven chuckled: “Absolutely, absolutely. I think the world is ready for more.”
Verhoeven feels few people understood his artistic endeavors on “Showgirls.”
“I believe the problem with ‘Showgirls’ has always been that there is still a misunderstanding of the movie.
“We were making a film that was hyperbolic and an exaggeration and so my intention was always to use a style that was exaggerated in everything.
“Still to this day it is widely considered a bad movie, but I think that’s because people still don’t understand it. I used exaggerated nudity, colors and movement.
“I was trying to make it as exaggerated as Las Vegas is in real life. That is why the musical numbers are as bad as they are — I purposely tried not to make good music in those scenes, but obviously that turned out to be a big mistake.
“The idea was to make the same loud, sleazy, bad music that you hear in those Vegas shows, because that’s how it actually is.
“That might sound weird and it might have been a mistake in the end, but that was the original idea.
“I tried to do that with everything and might have failed miserably at conveying that to the audience.
“I never watch any of my movies once I finish them, but the one exception is ‘Showgirls,’ which I watch 20 times over and that is because I truly think it is so elegantly made. I think the movement is elegant, the way it is shot is elegant and the use of color is elegant.
“The story is really not that good, but I think the movements and the way it is choreographed are a pleasure to watch.
“Even after all the bad reviews and lack of enthusiasm from the audience, I’ve always really liked the movie and still do. It’s nice to see that certain audiences are now more positive than they were 20 years ago. For me, that’s a reason to be happy, but it’s not the most important thing in my life.”
Verhoeven, 77, said none of his characters were likable.
“Nearly every character in the movie is a bad person except for one girl, Molly, and she is the one who gets raped.
“Molly is the only really genuinely supportive person and she is punished. The reason I did this was to show that Vegas is not a nice place and that is basically what the movie is all about.
“It is possible ‘Showgirls’ was lacking in closure. Even some of my closest collaborators felt that way and have said they thought the rape scene took the fun out of the movie”
Verhoeven feels the movie could have been a hit had he instructed writers to make it a thriller murder mystery — similar to his smash three years earlier, “Basic Instinct.”
“It would have been much more acceptable if I had asked the writer, Joe Eszterhas, to write it as a murder mystery instead.
“Audiences would be intrigued by the thrill of finding out who the villain is; so if they asked me to do ‘Showgirls’ again, I would ask them to write the script where somebody gets killed at the beginning.”
Verhoeven had international success with nudity and mystery in “Basic Instinct,” starring Sharon Stone and Michael Douglas.
“I think the nudity in ‘Showgirls’ would have been more acceptable to the public if there had been an underlying theme of ‘Who did this? Who is guilty?’ In ‘Basic Instinct’ there are some very long sex scenes and they were only possible because all the while the audience is asking if Sharon is going to kill Michael and that was the setup of the movie.”
Verhoeven remembers fondly how he was inspired to create one of the most memorable scenes of 20th century cinema -— Sharon’s infamous “leg-crossing” scene during her police interview.
“There was a student at my university in Holland who was five or six years older than us and she would go to parties like that. She would turn up, sit down and open her legs like that. On one occasion my friend, in all naivety, said to her, ‘Are you aware that we can see your vagina between your legs?’ And she replied, ‘Yes of course, that is the reason I do it.’
“The scene was not in the original ‘Basic Instinct’ script, but I had dinner with Sharon one evening and told her the story and asked what she thought about it and I saw a devilish look in her eye and she just said, ‘Yes!’
“I was so surprised when my editor used that shot because it was never a very big deal at the time and I didn’t really expect him to use it. I had no idea how fascinating the scene would become!
“I remember a female assistant editor then began watching the scene on loop, basically looking at the shot under a microscope convinced she could see Sharon’s vagina. I told her, ‘No, you just see the inside of her thighs’ and so we began discussing what we could see because, if you look at the scene it is only four frames, so it is very difficult to know exactly what you see because it is only meant to be a suggestion. So we began looking and looking at the celluloid of the film with a magnifying glass and that’s when we realized that yes, we could see her vagina. But because the speed at which we shot it, we decided to leave it in, but we never expected it to be so sensational — and yes, it is Sharon Stone’s real vagina.”
Humble Verhoeven says “Showgirls” remains important to his career and was proud at becoming the first recipient to show up at the Golden Raspberry Awards — “The Razzies” — the ceremony for Hollywood’s worst films in 1995.
“I remember thinking ‘nobody will expect it and it’ll probably be unpleasant to do but why not, let’s go and see what happens!’ Nobody knew I was there at first and they kept playing scenes from the movie. Everybody was laughing, but when they started to give out the prizes, to their amazement, I stood up to collect them!
“I had to walk up there seven times that night. I got Worst Director, Worst Movie, Worst Music, Worst Acting and it just went on…it was absolutely fantastic because by the end of the evening people were screaming and laughing and clapping, it was a really great experience for me.
“On this occasion, I think attending the Razzies and ‘turning the other cheek’ was absolutely the right thing to do because it was like a catharsis for me and felt like the end of the whole negative spiral, like it had all been wiped away. As soon as I came out of that room I felt purified in some way.”
