Kim Basinger made the time for low-budget '11th Hour'

The first days of filming the low-budget indie "The 11th Hour" in Hamburg, Germany, were rocky for Kim Basinger.

She and Danish writer-director Anders Morgenthaler "were not communicating well," said Basinger, who won the supporting actress Oscar for her unforgettable turn as a prostitute in Curtis Hanson's 1997 noir classic "L.A. Confidential."

"I didn't think it was working. I had to ease into the [character]."

Morgenthaler noted that the two had to "dance around each other. After two days, I went into her trailer and said you need to trust me completely. I want to be your friend on the movie."

After their frank discussion, "we started to form our own language, our own communication," Basinger said. "We stood up, got our sea legs and then we just started to skate together beautifully."

"The 11th Hour," which arrives in theaters and VOD on Friday, is an intense, difficult drama about a successful, fortysomething married business executive named Maria who, after suffering her eighth miscarriage, is told she is too old to carry a child to term. Devastated by the news, she sets out on a dangerous and terrifying quest to obtain a child.

It was crucial for Basinger to buy into Morgenthaler's vision because the director wrote the part of Maria specifically for the actress.

''She has this special sensibility," Morgenthaler said. "She is very, very fragile. Some interpret that as being weak, and some interpret that as being strong. I am one of these people who interpret it as being super-strong."

During a recent interview, the contemplative actress, who is still one of cinema's great beauties at 61, admitted that fear was a big factor in her deciding to play Maria.

"If I'm interested in something and there is fear involved, I will do it," Basinger said. "I want to conquer all of my fears before I leave this planet. For me, the theme of the whole movie was finding the truth of one's real being. She has to go to the abyss to find the truth."