Posted on 11/11/2025 5:27:55 PM PST by DoodleBob
This year marks the 30th anniversary of Showgirls, Vanessa Berkley’s big-screen debut that has gone from unmitigated disaster to cult camp classic. Paul Verhoeven’s risqué provocation starred Berkley as Nomi Malone, a Vegas transplant with nothing in her pocket but dreams of dancing and a wild drive to achieve them. The NC-17 film was roundly panned upon release, mocked across late night and in the press, and bombed hard at the box office. Berkley, who had emerged years earlier as a teen TV star on Saved by the Bell, faced critics’ unrelenting wrath and was promptly dropped by her team at CAA. She characterizes the period since as “30 years of building blocks” to right now: “In all this time, I’ve been working toward this moment.”
…She was only 21 when Showgirls was released. To prepare her for difficult interviews, publicists kept showing her clippings of reviews blatantly insulting her looks and abilities. “A lot of things went on that wouldn’t be allowed now — someone could not be pummeled to that degree,” she says. “I couldn’t understand how people could be so cruel, but I’m tough. I had to separate out what they said from what I believed to be true.”…
Most of the Showgirls creatives fled the burning building, but Berkley toured 10 countries to meet press requirements — by herself. “It didn’t feel good, but I’m proud that I did that. I’m not a quitter,” she says. “I wanted to speak. I wanted to be heard. I had no other platform.”
…
The world came to accept Showgirls as a damn good, unhinged time…. Berkley wasn’t aware of the magnitude of the shift until 2015, when she attended a 20th anniversary screening at Cinespia in Los Angeles. The reception was ecstatic.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
The movie was bad, but she took the fall for it and it wasn’t her fault. The screenplay, direction and everything was bad and they dumped it all on her.
My buddies and I went to see this as it was such news at the time. Don’t remember anything other than one bad scene at a pool.
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