In the '80s and '90s, Kim Basinger was everywhere, whether the conversation was about her acting career or the headlines her personal life was making. She was a Bond girl. She won an Oscar. She had a high-profile marriage—and split—with fellow actor Alec Baldwin. But, in recent years, you may have noticed that Basinger has not been in the spotlight as much as she was during the height of her fame. That's not because she has retired from show business, however. Basinger is still active as an actor, she just doesn't take on quite as many roles as she once did. And she lives a quieter life on the celebrity front, too. Read on to learn more about what Kim Basinger is doing now.
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She's had a lengthy, very successful career.
Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty ImagesAfter a modeling career and coming to fame in the late '70s with her role in the miniseries From Here to Eternity, Basinger continued acting regularly, usually putting out at least one movie per year. These include Never Say Never Again, in which she played Bond girl Domino Petachi, 9 1/2 Weeks, Ready to Wear, Batman, L.A. Confidential, and 8 Mile.
For her work as femme fatale Lynn Bracken in L.A. Confidential, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1998.
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She's still acting, just less often than she used to.
Tinseltown / ShutterstockCompared to the rate at which she was releasing projects in the '80s and '90s, Basinger's career has slowed down, but she's definitely not retired. The 70-year-old actor's two most recent feature film roles were in the two Fifty Shades of Grey sequels: 2017's Fifty Shades Darker and 2018's Fifty Shades Freed, playing the business partner and ex of Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan). She also voiced a character in the series Comrade Detective in 2017 and in the short film Back Home Again in 2021.
Some of her other relatively recent movies include 2010's Charlie St. Cloud, 2013's Grudge Match, and 2016's The Nice Guys.
She's an NFT.
Tibrina Hobson/Getty ImagesIn 2022, the actor took on a role in a new media project that you won't be able to see in any theater or on any streaming service—because it's a non-fungible token, or NFT. Working with late director Peter Bogdanovich, Basinger starred in LIT Project 2: Flux, which is exclusive to the Ethereum blockchain.
“Peter directed a set of clips with Kim acting out all these emotions, with Peter narrating the clips with his voice,” Bogdanovich's manager Oren Segal told Deadline. “They had extensive conversations about it. It’s a new medium, and Peter was really compelled to jump right into it, and now it becomes part of his legacy.”
"After telling a friend the other day that I had just worked with Peter Bogdanovich, he said, ‘Wow! You were literally in his last picture show!’ I thought about it and realized, what an honor to be the last artist he ever directed," Basinger said to the outlet. (The director died not long before the project's release.) "Although we had just met, and it was only for a small project on a Sunday afternoon in December, I am truly grateful I got to meet and work with him. I only wish we could have done a real movie together."
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She plans to make a comeback with another project soon.
Kathy Hutchins / ShutterstockIn a Sept. 2021 interview with Vulture, Basinger mentioned that she was planning to act in a new movie or show soon, though she didn't elaborate on what that project might be.
"You get a lot of offers, being in this business," she said. "It’s a very privileged position to be in. You get offers your whole life. They’ve never stopped, and I’m happy to say that I’m going back on the screen pretty soon myself."
She's living a peaceful life away from Hollywood.
JB Lacroix/ Getty ImagesIn an interview published by Georgian Journal in 2017, Basinger said that she was enjoying living by the beach in California where she could do water sports, hang out with her dogs, and be near her daughter, Ireland Baldwin, whom she shares with ex-husband Alec Baldwin. (Prior to Baldwin, she was married to makeup artist Ron Snyder.)
She also mentioned her boyfriend, hairstylist Mitch Stone. They were friends first, but started dating around 2014, which she called a "beautiful surprise."
"My boyfriend and I spend a lot of time in Hawaii, our favorite place on Earth," Basinger shared. "I have always loved writing and I’m getting more into it these days, especially children’s books. The most important thing I do is work with four wonderful animal protection groups to help stop the cruelty that goes on in every country on this planet."
She added of her life philosophy, "I truly have no regrets, I try to live everyday in the present not having one foot in the future or one foot in the past."
She's an activist and a grandmother.
Basinger has long been supporter of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and other animal rights causes, including posing for the organization's long-running "I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur" campaign. In 2019, she was part of a protest in Seoul, South Korea demonstrating against the consumption of dog meat. And in 2021, she wrote the foreword for the book 250 Vital Things Your Cat Wants You to Know by PETA president Ingrid Newkirk.
In May 2023, the star became a grandmother for the first time when daughter Ireland welcomed a daughter named Holland with her music artist boyfriend, RAC. Basinger shared her excitement about the new arrival on social media and was front-and-center at Ireland's baby shower. Since the baby's birth, new mom Ireland has shared some sweet glimpses of Basinger playing with her granddaughter, including giving another Oscar-worthy performance—this time as Elmo.
