Gina Gershon Says Watching Her Performance in “Showgirls” Left Her Feeling 'Tense and Anxious': 'Like a Little Bit of PTSD'
Gina Gershon Says Watching Her Performance in “Showgirls” Left Her Feeling 'Tense and Anxious': 'Like a Little Bit of PTSD'
Virginia ChamleeWed, March 11, 2026 at 8:58 PM UTC
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Gina GershonCredit: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty; Mgm/Ua/Kobal/Shutterstock -
Gina Gershon is recounting her experience rewatching Showgirls
The movie follows one woman's outrageous journey through the Las Vegas revue scene
In a new interview, Gershon said she couldn't watch the erotic drama "for years" — in part due to her accent in the film
Gina Gershon says she has PTSD from the 1995 movie Showgirls.
In an interview on SiriusXM's The Julia Cunningham Show, 63-year-old Gershon said she couldn't watch the erotic drama "for years" — in part due to her accent in the film.
Gershon — who is from California — writes in her book that she wanted to use a Tennessee accent in the film, so she lied and told director Paul Verhoeven she was from the state. But Verhoeven, she says in the podcast, did not want her to use an accent.
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ShowgirlsCredit: Getty
"You know, I couldn't watch it for years 'cause I was like, I was too, a little bit of PTSD, I think, in a very slight way, no disrespect to real PTSD, but I would get very tense and anxious when I thought about certain things and stories, and so I never really watched it again, and I would kind of use the excuse of like, 'Well,' and it was a real excuse, like, 'I can't deal with my accent, 'cause I had to lie about my accent," Gershon said, adding that she wanted "everything" about her character to be "fake."
Starring Saved by the Bell alum Elizabeth Berkley as Nomi Malone, Showgirls follows her outrageous journey through the Las Vegas revue scene.
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The movie premiered on Sept. 22, 1995, its NC-17 rating and graphic content generated controversy, yet it achieved little box office success; the film made less than its $45 million budget and was widely panned by critics.
Speaking on the podcast, Gershon said she thought the film would be "closer to one of [Verhoeven's] Dutch films, which are a little bit seedier, a little bit darker, and I think his American films, now that I've kind of studied it and I've stepped out of it, I mean, they're really interesting comments on America and fascism."
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The actress said that she and the director "argued a lot" about some of his choices, such as the inclusion of a rape scene but in hindsight, she feels the movie was better than many initially said it was.
"Going 30 years later, 25 years later, a friend of mine, a writer friend, she said, 'No, you don't understand how great Showgirls is.' I'm like, 'I guess I really don't,' but when I saw it from afar, not being in it, and all of a sudden I'm like, 'Oh my god.' It was really a comment on ugly America and on capitalism and power struggles and dynamics and all those things that of course that rape scene has to be there. It's the grossest thing in there and the powerful men, they're all protected and, you know, so that's why it's exciting when she kicks the guy's ass," Gershon said.
She continued: "I thought it was gonna be a different movie than it was, but you know what? It's also an interesting lesson in, you know, when you get to the set or any situation really, you know, in your mind, you think what it is, but when you go there and it's not, then you have to assess and ... You gotta make it make sense, but then I just changed my approach to the whole character, so that was kind of interesting. It was a good lesson."
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
