Kim Basinger Refers to Her Marriage to Ex Alec Baldwin as 'Sleeping With the Enemy'
Kim Basinger says she's "cool now" with her ex-husband, Alec Baldwin, but that wasn't always the case.
Basinger and Baldwin were married from 1993 to 2002, and in an interview with Net-A-Porter's The Edit, the 62-year-old actress sort of jokes about just how bad her relationship with the 58-year-old actor became.
"There were times I could have chosen [my movies] better. I did this film, The Marrying Man, where I met my eventual [now-ex] husband, Alec Baldwin, but I was teeter-tottering because I had also been offered Sleeping with the Enemy [which eventually starred Julia Roberts]," she says. "Isn’t it funny that I turned down Sleeping with the Enemy and then I went on to sleep with the enemy!"
WATCH: Sex and the City Creator Reveals He First Wanted Alec Baldwin to Portray Mr. Big
Basinger quickly adds, "[Alec and I are] cool now, though. Life goes on.”
The 9 1/2 Weeks star also says that her divorce affected how she raised her and Baldwin's now 20-year-old daughter, Ireland Baldwin. "Divorce is hard on a kid, no matter how you cut it. And ours was very public and nasty," the Oscar winner shares. "So I brought up Ireland in a very unconventional way. I just wanted her to be free."
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And free she was! "If she wanted to have her friends over and write over the walls with pen, that was fine," Basinger admits. "I wanted her childhood to be full of love and light and animals and friends."
The actress also reveals that it was her daughter who convinced her to star as Christian Grey’s sexual, S&M mentor, Elena Lincoln, in the upcoming sequel, Fifty Shades Darker. “The only reason I accepted the role [of Elena Lincoln] in Fifty Shades was because my daughter, Ireland, insisted," she explains. "She wasn’t enthralled with the first movie, but she knew the books. She said, ‘You have to do it. Mom, it’s really powerful for women. Your character is about a woman’s power.'"
WATCH: Ireland Baldwin Reveals Her Family's Reaction to Modeling
Basinger says, even then, she wasn't completely convinced. "At first I thought, ‘Eww, I can’t do that dominatrix stuff, it’s not me.’ But it’s not like that," she continues. "My character’s strength is more emotional and mental. She shows Christian all his moves.”
We've yet to see Basinger shooting scenes for Fifty Shades Darker, which is currently in production in Vancouver, Canada, but we did spot Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan, who portray Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey, on set earlier this month -- and they were wearing wedding rings. Check it out: