Gina Gershon believes that she missed out on countless acting roles after rejecting Hollywood's casting couch culture.
During an appearance on Juicy Scoop with Heather McDonald, the 63-year-old said that she had to 'navigate' a lot of awkward situations in Tinseltown throughout her career, including pushing back against the advances of powerful men.
'I'm sure I've lost at least thirty five per cent of roles because I didn't play along,' she admitted.
Gershon said that she was often asked to meet people, like 'the head of an agency', and that she'd initially assume that it was for a business lunch before realizing that they wanted to 'date' her.
'I always just said that I had a boyfriend, but these are choices,' she explained.
'If all of a sudden I was like, "Oh my god, I wanna be famous, I wanna make money, I wanna do this and that." And if that was a way to get what I wanted, you know what, that's between me and me and I just have to own up to it,' she continued.
Gina Gershon believes that she missed out on countless acting roles after refusing to go out with certain people in Hollywood
'I don't judge anyone for their choices. But be clear with what your choices are and if you don't want to do that and you're not comfortable...' she trailed off.
She then used a clever analogy to issue a warning to other actors navigating Hollywood.
'I'm very good with animals and yet I wouldn't walk through a jungle after dark by myself, because animals are animals. Don't put yourself in a situation that could potentially be very dangerous,' she said.
Gershon, who is known for her raunchy roles in Showgirls and Bound, recently revealed that she turned down a part in Friday the 13th Part 2 because of the film's excessive nudity.
'I was offered a lead in that movie,' she told Fox News Digital.
'And of course I was so excited to act in movies, but it definitely felt kind of exploitative to me and a little silly that right before she gets killed, her top has to come off,' she continued.
Although the part would've marked Gershon's first on-screen role, she still turned it down.
'At the time, those kinds of slasher movies always had girls dying with their breasts exposed,' she wrote in her new memoir, Alphapussy.
'Don't put yourself in a situation that could potentially be very dangerous,' she said on Heather McDonald's Juicy Scoop podcast
Gershon, now 63, recently revealed that she turned down a part in Friday the 13th Part 2 because of the film's excessive nudity
'My character would be killed by a stake through the heart, blood dripping down her ts. That seemed pretty lame to me: exploitation 101,' she wrote.
After speaking with her father about the offer, Gershon ultimately decided not to go through with it.
'When I sat and thought about it, I just thought, "I don't really want to do this. I wasn't comfortable with it. It seemed silly to me,"' she wrote.
'Not that I had anything against nudity -- I grew up on European films -- but only if it makes sense for the character and the story. But when it just seems silly, I don't know. It just felt like it was something that wasn't for me.'
While she didn't feel comfortable stripping for Friday the 13th, Gershon did end up going topless in Paul Verhoeven's Showgirls.
Many fans will also remember her lesbian love scene in 1996's Bound with Jennifer Tilly.
Gershon previously claimed that she was left with PTSD over her role in the infamous stripper drama, Showgirls.
Reflecting on her role in the camp classic, Gershon, 63, said that she was so traumatized that she couldn't even watch the film after its 1995 release due to all the backlash that it received.
'You know, I couldn't watch it for years because I was like... a little bit of PTSD, I think, in a very slight way,' she revealed on The Julia Cunningham Show.
Gershon is known for a number of racy roles, including 1995's Showgirls
Many fans may also remember her lesbian love scene in 1996's Bound with Jennifer Tilly
Gershon then said that she begged director Paul Verhoeven to remove a brutal rape scene from the movie, which sees the character Molly gang-raped at a party.
'I remember when I saw that rape scene, I'm like, "Are you insane? You have to take this scene out!" I was so offended by it,' she said.
However, Gershon said that she's now become more comfortable with the film over time.
'When I saw it from afar, it's really a comment on ugly America and on capitalism and on power struggles and dynamics and all those things,' she explained.
'Of course that rape scene has to be there. It's the grossest thing in there, and the powerful men, they're all protected. So that's why it's exciting when [Elizabeth Berkley's character Nomi] kicks the guy’s a.'
However, Gershon did admit that when she signed on for Showgirls, she thought it would be closer to Verhoeven’s Dutch films, which have a ‘darker’ European style to them, compared to his American filmography, which includes movies like Basic Instinct, RoboCop, Total Recall, and Starship Troopers.
'I think his American films, now that I've studied it and stepped out of it, they're really interesting comments on America and fascism,' she reflected.
Showgirls was released in 1995 to widespread condemnation from critics and a dismal performance at the box office due to its severe NC-17 rating.
However, the tawdry drama has not only gained a cult following over the last three decades; it's also been critically reappraised, with many now calling it a misunderstood masterpiece and satire of American culture and show business.