Kyle MacLachlan reveals moment of 'sheer horror' watching raunchy Showgirls pool scene with Elizabeth Berkley

Kyle MacLachlan said watching his Showgirls pool scene for the first time was a 'painful' experience.

The 67-year-old actor admitted he felt 'sheer horror' when he saw the final cut of the intimate scene he filmed with costar Elizabeth Berkley in the 1995 cult classic film. 

In the now cult classic stripper film, MacLachlan's character Zack Carey has a steamy sex session with Berkley's Nomi Malone in a pool – which stunned viewers at the time thanks to its graphic nudity.

MacLachlan shared his thoughts after a fan asked him if he ever watched one of his own scenes and felt it was 'totally different than what you experienced when you were doing it.' 

'Yeah, the scene in the pool in Showgirls,' he said while discussing his new memoir Fictional Selves at a book event in New York City on Monday, per People. 

In an excerpt from the book, he had also reflected on filming Showgirls and described the raunchy scene, writing: 'Elizabeth flops around as if in distress, and I hold on for dear life.' 

While promoting his memoir, he also recently shared his apology to Laura Dern for his years-long affair with his Twin Peaks costar Lara Flynn Boyle.

At the Ethan Hawke-led onstage Q&A, MacLachlan recalled watching himself in the scene for the first time.

'I've sat at those first screenings where it's just you and your agent and you watch a movie,' he recalled. 

'Sometimes it's a nice experience, sometimes it's not,' he continued. 'But the idea of watching you watch Showgirls for the first time... Sheer horror. Oh my God.' 

He said he felt differently while filming the scene on set versus watching it back later. 

'[While filming], 'I'm thinking, "This is edgy." Watching it back was a different story. I was like, "Oh boy. We've got to stop the bleeding,"' he said in a recent interview with People. 

In his memoir, he also compared watching the pool scene to a forced experience like in the 1971 film A Clockwork Orange. 

He described his first viewing as 'genuinely painful, as though my eyes have been taped open like Malcolm McDowell's in A Clockwork Orange.' 

At the book event two days ago, Hawke mused about taking risks as an actor while MacLachlan agreed. 

Hawke said onstage: 'I could imagine people saying to you, "Why didn't you turn Showgirls down?" A lot of the best films you do are things everybody tells you to turn down. 

'You have to follow audacious spirit. Until you jump off that cliff, you don't know what's going to happen,' he continued. 

MacLachlan concurred and referenced a quote he used in his memoir from one of his costars Isabella Rossellini regarding working with the late filmmaker David Lynch. 

MacLachlan starred in Lynch's iconic films Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks. 

'I can describe working with David as: one, two, three — leap into the void,' read the quote from Rossellini. 

After sharing the quote onstage, MacLachlan said: 'Perfect. It sums it up perfectly.' 

Back in May 2012, he also reflected on filming Showgirls and how the movie has become a camp classic. 

'I went into that film with the best of intentions,' he told Metro. 

'Paul Verhoeven [the director] and Joe Eszterhas [the writer] were at the top of their game and I trusted they'd deliver something that would be controversial and hard-hitting. 

'It turned into something completely different,' he continued. 'The fun of it is it's found its own niche in an unexpected way.  

'People still get a kick out of it. I remember the experience and kind of laugh at the movie,' he added. 'At the time, the finished film came as a surprise.' 

He also shared his 'conviction' about the project prior to filming.

'We all went into it with absolute conviction. Had we gone into it thinking we were making a camp classic, we'd have ruined the camp element,' he said.

'It had to be taken seriously as we were filming it. Only when it was assembled and I saw it for the first time, I thought: "Oh boy, this isn’t going to be pretty."'