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The actress -- fresh off one of the nastiest custody battles in Hollywood history with ex Alec Baldwin -- had two movies released this year, in both of which she played women going through hell.
There was the harrowing summer release The Door In The Floor with Jeff Bridges, in which the one-time Oscar winner played a woman suffering through a marriage torn apart by tragedy.
And there's this week's thriller Cellular, in which she plays Jessica Martin, an upper-middle-class L.A. high school teacher who's kidnapped suddenly and mysteriously by brutal thugs, locked in an attic and intermittently terrorized for information she doesn't have. Between violent visits, the science teacher finds the wherewithal to partially assemble a smashed phone and, in a shot in the dark, reaches the cell phone of a college student named Ryan (Not Another Teen Movie's Chris Evans).
What follows is essentially two separate movies connected by a tenous cell signal -- Ryan bypassing the unhelpful police to take matters into his own hands (and leaving a trail of destruction along the way), and Jessica trying desperately to stay alive in her claustrophobic attic as her captors become more desperate and angry.
Directed by David R. Ellis (Final Destination 2), the movie's parts were filmed separately, with Evans and Basinger only meeting once. In an ironic twist, the story was created by Larry Cohen, who also wrote the similarly plotted Phone Booth. (See sidebar).
As for inspiration, Basinger says she's had plenty in real life to draw from when it comes to being terrorized. "If you've lived enough life and you've been through some pretty horrible experiences with people, and if you've ever been threatened in any way ... well, let's just say I have a really great memory bank, and I can go back and grab some of that any time I want," she says cryptically.
The temptation is to think she's referencing her marriage to Alec Baldwin and their custody battle over their nine-year-old daughter Ireland. In February, a judge allowed the Manhattan-based Baldwin increased access. By June, the couple was in front of a judge again, on the receiving end of a list of strict rules on e-mail and fax content and general behaviour. They were also ordered to undergo something called "parent-centredness counselling."
Dressed tastefully and casually in a black skirt and top -- and still looking spectacular at age 50 -- Basinger has been open about suffering in the past from panic disorder. On this day of interviews in a Santa Monica hotel room, she's friendly and ebullient, but her hands shake noticeably.
Asked whether the custody battles are behind her, she declines to give an answer and offers a pained expression. "Ohhh," she says in a not-unfriendly manner, "it's just such a boring story now."
Basinger adds, in reference to Cellular, that she doesn't want to be seen to be playing the martyr. "God forbid, I've never walked in those shoes. I've never been kidnapped, and the word 'kidnapped' especially to a mom is just horrifying.
"I found this a unique opportunity as an actress, because it sort of read to me like a play, that I would be so alone and I had the opportunity to take the audience with me into the attic, where I don't know why I'm there and I don't know what these guys are going to do to me.
"And I talked to David about clearing the set completely so it would be more like I was alone with the audience with all the shock and hysteria and we could let it unravel. I also had him tell Jason (Statham, who plays the chief thug) -- who is a doll -- to surprise me with whatever it was he was going to do to me."
Still, you'd think a woman with panic disorder would want to steer clear of movies like this. "See, it's just the opposite," she says. "Acting has been so therapeutic, because it's made me face my fears. Sometimes I go, 'God, why did you make me an actress?' And the crew says, 'God, why did you make her an actress?' " she adds with a laugh. "My makeup girl Jaime says it all the time: 'God, why did you make this klutzy girl an actress?'
"But along with therapy and God and a sense of humour, I've always felt that, by the end of my life, I want to have faced as many of my fears as I can. There's a tremendous list left."
Case in point: Her daughter recently convinced Basinger to speak at a school benefit. "She came into my closet and I'm usually a 'big jeans' person -- especially since I had a baby. And big T-shirts. And Ireland came in and pulled out these little teeny jeans that show off your navel and said, 'I want you to wear this, Mom.' And I put them on and spoke at her school. I don't want to stand up in front of anybody and do anything, and I was very nervous doing it. But I knew I would disappoint her if I didn't. She's a people person and I want to nurture that."
After her daughter, she says the camera is the love of her life. "It really is like a relationship with any two people, a love relationship. It's not like it doesn't want to love you, but it can be cruel, it can challenge you. And when you come through with the camera, it begins to have respect for you. It's trustworthy and loving and connective."
Whew, it's a wonder the lens stays unfogged. She continues, "I've always considered my longevity in this business to be a gift from God. But it's a gift where one day you wake up and you go, 'I get it! I have the buttons, I have the tools.' I know where to go to get this emotion, because I really have lived that much life."