While some fans wonder what happened to Wayne Knight, his die-hard followers know that he's one of the busiest character actors of his generation. Of course, Wayne's best-known for playing Newman on Seinfeld, despite almost not getting cast on the show. Then there's his role in Jurassic Park, which features one of the most gruesome deaths in cinema, and his hilarious part on the short-lived 3rd Rock From The Sun.

Related: This How Much The Cast Of '3rd Rock From The Sun' Is Worth Today

But Wayne simply wouldn't have gotten any of these roles had it not been for his start-making performance in Basic Instinct. While Wayne's part was relatively small in the Sharon Stone/Michael Douglas-led movie, it was extremely memorable. In fact, Wayne was part of what's seen as one of the most iconic moments in film history. Here's what he really thought about the role that made him famous...

How Wayne Knight Was Cast In Basic Instinct

During an interview with Vulture, Wayne Knight claimed that doing a sketch comedy with Emma Thompson opened the door to both Basic Instinct and JFK, the two films that got him booked in Jurassic Park and on Seinfeld. While Wayne's 'magic bullet' scene in JFK was parodied on Seinfeld, the movie wasn't as monumental to his career as his brief appearance in Basic Instinct where he fails to interrogate a sultry Sharon Stone.

"Basic Instinct was actually part of a process that began when I did a sketch-comedy show with Emma Thompson years before called Assaulted Nuts in England. It had a half-British cast and a half-American cast, and Emma and I became friends. She then came together with Kenneth Branagh; they were going to do Dead Again, and she asked me if I wanted to do the film. I, of course, said yes," Wayne Knight explained to Vulture. "In that process, I had been cast in Assaulted Nuts by Risa Bramon. She was a casting director in New York, and she and Billy Hopkins became casting directors at Lincoln Center for a period, and I replaced Jack Weston in Measure for Measure at Lincoln Center. While they were there, because Branagh had said yes to me, they had me meet Oliver Stone, and that became JFK. So now I’ve done a film with Branagh and Oliver Stone, and a director comes in named Paul Verhoeven who’s looking for a character face for this specific part. So this is part and parcel of a process whereby I’m meeting bigger directors and getting seen by people who are making bigger films."

How Wayne Knight Feels About THAT Scene In Basic Instinct

Director Paul Verhoeven has come under fire for the iconic movie moment where Sharon Stone's character uncrosses her legs during an interrogation led by Wayne Knight's ADA John Corelli. While Sharon Stone has made accusations against the director regarding this scene, suggesting that she was tricked into showing more instead of it just being suggested, Wayne has his own perspective on it.

"I found [Sharon Stone's] interactions with Verhoeven to be peculiar," Wayne admitted. "I didn’t know what their relationship was, but it felt heightened. It didn’t feel like just an actress and a director. But I have no idea. I’m just a character actor coming into a scene, and this is a star I don’t know. I wasn’t like, 'Hey, how ya doing?' We’re just going about our business."

Regardless of the controversy surrounding it, Wayne found filming the scene utterly fascinating, intense, and intimate. Although he claims to have had very little to do with Sharon Stone. Instead of having a chance to act opposite her, he was mostly working with the camera as it was directly in his face. This was to capture his character sweating and licking his lips.

Related: Basic Instinct Director Defends THAT Scene

"So [director Paul Verhoeven's] watching through the camera and side-coaching me," Wayne said to Vulture about working on the famous scene. "We go through the scene, and he’s like, 'Now you’re looking, you’re looking, you’re looking.' I say, 'Okay, I’m looking.' He says, 'Maybe while you look you do a little lick' I go, 'A what?' He says, 'A lick, like a little lick of your lips.' So I’m looking and I do a little lick of my lips, and he’s staring at me through the camera. He says, 'Maybe another lick. Maybe you do two licks.' I do lick, lick. Then he stares. He says, 'Maybe you try a third lick.' And I do the third lick, and he says, 'No, that’s too many licks.'"

How Basic Instinct Made Wayne Knight Famous

Although Wayne Knight only worked a single day on Basic Instinct, the movie changed his life by altering the trajectory of his career.

"My big mug and that look at her uncrossing her legs became part of the trailer," Wayne explained. "It became part of the Zeitgeist for the movie, and that movie was incredibly popular."

Related: What Sharon Stone Has Said About Her 'Basic Instinct' Role

So popular, in fact, that Steven Spielberg reportedly stayed through the end credits just to learn his name. Immediately after, Steven brought Wayne in for the Dennis Nedry role in Jurassic Park.

"I was perhaps the first person he cast. Fat people like that might die; you better lock them down! The idea was that the look on my face and the sweat on my brow — just imagine, instead of it being open legs, it was a dinosaur," Wayne said to Vulture. "I’ve never been bothered by typecasting as long as there was a continuity of work. My career began as a stage actor doing a big diversity of stuff, and then you kind of get frozen as this comedic presence that doesn’t see you in other lights. But it’s hard to complain."

Next: How Samuel L. Jackson Really Feels About His Character In 'Jurassic Park'