Basic Instinct would be a better movie with Jeff Bridges as the male lead

You're not wrong.

I agree. I have never found MD attractive, much less sexy. Jeff Bridges is a very attractive, sexy man. He is also reportedly a very nice man irl.

NOT at all, OP. Basic Instinct is over the top trashy fun. Michael Douglas is important for making Basic Instinct work in ways, Showgirls does not.

MD has a sharpness/sting while JB has the sweet high school quarterback vibe. Basic instinct needed two flawed characters in a dance- not one good/one evil. The movie works because they were both a mess.

I adore both actors. This is an interesting question…..

MD is more likely to intimidate Catherine which is crucial to their sexual tension….but JB is irresistible, even a lez would want a piece of that.

Advantage: Douglas.

I disagree. Of course Bridges is far more attractive than Douglas, physically and in terms of personality, but Douglas's air of tension and barely controlled anger worked very well in context. He seemed to be the guy who really was fucked up enough to be that guy with that gal.

Bridges is mellow and relaxed, which I find immensely attractive. I like nothing better than a big, good-natured, mellow-sensible man! But that wasn't the male lead in "Basic Instinct". The male lead was one fucked-up guy,

Agreed. Michael Douglas has spindles for legs and no ass whatsoever. Just like his rapist father.

Jeff Bridges was gorgeous. I can't believe the way he's presenting himself these days (the past 20 years or so). Aging is one thing, but I believe he would still look good without all that scraggly hair.

And yes, he seems to be a wonderful human being.

Michael Douglas had a nerdy sexiness quality to him in Basic Instinct. I think that was an important element in showing how out of his realm he was in the storyline.

They could just put any actor there, even Peter Dinklage, but it was I who made the movie explode!

Well, duh!

I feel like some of you are underestimating Bridges' skills as an actor.

Casting somebody against type can really work sometimes.

Agreed! He was hot then, I’m too young to know but OPs pic makes my boy parts excited. I have the hots for him now, The Giver and Old Man, he is full on daddy and I don’t know whether it’s his voice or affect but he works for me.

Otherwise I’m into masculine yet slightly pretty Indian men. Go figure.

R6- You are right. I stand corrected. JB is far too laid back and adorable for that role.

You're right, OP.

Michael Douglas was as sexy as a lump of dried-out clay.

R15- Yeah, I have never understood why he was considered attractive or sexy. He just never did anything for me, but I do admit that my negative feelings about his father may have affected my feelings towards him. They look exactly alike.

Not sexy or even goodlooking but he is perfect for the role. Douglas always makes very interesting films. Entertaining

One thing for sure, Bridges would have allowed Stone to be billed alongside him, above the title.

I remember her bitching about this back in the day.

Douglas always got credit for taking "risky" roles, but I never found him more than serviceable in any of them.

I can actually imagine Bridges being much sexier in Romancing the Stone, too.

Disagree, even if Bridges would have given us a better ass.

Michael Douglas has the right combination of polished masculinity and a self-effacing intelligence which makes his sleaziness humane and rather than dangerous. He was perfectly cast.

Jeff Bridges would be better in a Catherine Trammell-type role, as he played in Jagged Edge, than he would as Nick. He had a beautiful and existential aura which lends well to actual villainousness. Bridges’ bearing would have rendered Nick the cop character pathetic rather than flawed and out of his depth.

MD was never marketed as a sex symbol or as sexy. He’s a clever, likable Everyman like Tom Hanks, who tries his best when he finds himself in crazy situations like being mixed up with a probably homicidal lesbian in San Francisco.

Hanks in BA… leering at SS’s crotch…. would his career be the same?

MD is one of those I dont dislike,but dont really care about either. If hes in a movie,fine,I'll watch it. But I dont see a movie just because hes in it. Unlike Jeff,who had my heart from the beginning.

The beginning of what?

The Universe, Rose

Jeff Bridges is the personification of Sex appeal in Against All Odds. Gorgeous. Stunning. Taylor Hackford captured Bridges at his peak beauty.

Having said that, Douglas was great in Basic Instinct. He and Sharon were perfect at playing the cat-and-mouse game.

[quote]who tries his best when he finds himself in crazy situations like being mixed up with a probably homicidal lesbian in San Francisco.

Homicidal [italic]bisexual sociopath[/italic], thank you very much.

MD comes off as an angry twerp. JB is too good looking and mellow, it wouldn't have worked. But I do think Lens Dunham would've been far superior in the Catherine Trammell role!

MD is better at being a sleazy creep, which was good for this role.

But god, yes, Jeff Bridges was infinitely hotter and may have brought some soulfulness to the part. Interesting to ponder.

Lol R27 !

[quote]But I do think Lens Dunham would've been far superior in the Catherine Trammell role!

During the interrogation scene, people would’ve vomited and fled the theater.

R30 the same thing happened with THE EXORCIST and that was the #1 movie of the year.

"What are you gonna do, charge me with smoking?"

Jeff Bridge was pudgy

The picture in OP is circa 1983, by the time Basic Instinct was filmed Jeff was a bit more worse for wear.

Baloney, r21.

Douglas was not every man like Hanks.

Right out of the gate, he was edgy and sexy on Streets of San Francisco while Hanks was pulling faces and tripping in heels on Bosom Buddies.

That is true, R34, but he still looked better than Douglas in the early 90s.

Only if he was willing to show his big cock, I don't want to see Michael's again thanks!

SS has coasted from that one film made over 30 years ago.

Wasn't it better for Michael Douglas's character to be less attractive than Sharon Stone's? Although appealing, he was out of her league in looks, in money, in social standing. The insecurity drove him and her superiority and arrogance made her more interesting.

Jeff Bridges played a weird psycho killer in The Vanishing. That wouldn't be the right type for Basic Instinct, but he has played outside of the laid back, easygoing roles. He could've pulled off the lead in Basic Instinct.

It would actually have distracted from the movie if the male lead had been so attractive.

Part of Basic Instinct needed to be that the Sharon Stone character was so hot relative to Nick - out of his league. The plot hinges on her seeming manipulation and his willingness to succumb to her seduction.

If Jeff had played him, he'd be too hot. She wouldn't be out of his league. She'd be any time he wanted to hook up, so he's be much less likely to succumb to her seductiveness.

r41 Ewan McGregor could have taken Sharon Stones' role... just trade the skirt out for a kilt

Back when Basic Instinct was filmed Michael Douglas was still considered a sex symbol

[quote][R41] Ewan McGregor could have taken Sharon Stones' role... just trade the skirt out for a kilt

LOL.

With so many ridiculous remakes and reboots, a well-done remake of Basic Instinct with the genders of the leads switched could be interesting.

However, you know they'd cast poorly and the dude would HAVE to be willing to show the peen.

Key phrase: Well-done remake.

I remember screaming and laughing with friends at how creepy and gross MD was back then. How he kept getting these sexy roles- but why him?

I appreciate his vibe in those films more now. (Basic Instinct, Fatal Attraction, the one with Demi Moore)

Michael Douglas is great in flawed, not qute bad... but not quite a saint type roles. He plays grey area characters well. A man prone to evil, but has some redemptions. I liked him as Gordon Gekko in Wall Street.

Jeff Bridges has a nice guy image. Michael Douglas comes across as more susceptible to moral corruption.

Yes...MD can go to the dark side.

I disliked Michael Douglas until I realized that I enjoyed watching all of the films he stars in even very dumb projects like Basic Instinct and Disclosure. Both ridiculous fantasies but so entertaining.

How great is that title, Basic Instinct. Over the top foolishness.

Um, yeah, that's like your opinion, man.

Like, um, like totally, like, my opinion, dude.

Roxy has bigger balls than both of them.

it worked with Michael Douglas. It would have been much edgier with Jeff Bridges, who can inherently play WILD and SEXY better than Douglas. Then again, the Catherine character and stone's performance gave audiences enough wild and sexy to sustain the film.