In her new documentary, Brooke Shields displays on being exploited and sexualized as a toddler star in Hollywood.
The 2-part documentary — which known as Fairly Child: Brooke Shields — pulls again the curtain on Brooke’s expertise making a few of her earliest motion pictures, together with 1978’s Fairly Child, which impressed the title.
One other movie she displays on within the doc is The Blue Lagoon, which was launched in 1980.
For context, The Blue Lagoon is extremely controversial. It facilities on two cousins, Emmeline and Richard, who’re shipwrecked on a tropical island as infants. A lot of the movie is concentrated on their teenage years, which depicts the 2 younger characters falling in love and finally conceiving a child.
Brooke was simply 14 years outdated when the film was shot, starring as Emmeline alongside Christopher Atkins, who was 4 years older than her when he performed Richard.
Other than its controversial plot, the movie is taken into account to be scandalous due to its scenes of kid nudity — with Brooke spending the big majority of the film with simply her hair overlaying her breasts.
Talking about making The Blue Lagoon in her new documentary, Brooke displays critically on the movie’s director, Randal Kleiser, who additionally famously directed Grease.
Brooke claims that Randal tried to market the movie round her present picture as an underage intercourse object by making an attempt to make it look like she was experiencing a sexual awakening in the identical method as her character.
Randal is quoted within the documentary as telling a newspaper: “It is actual, she’s going from a toddler to a girl throughout the filming.”
Speaking in regards to the expertise herself, Brooke says in an interview that it was like he was making an attempt to show the film right into a “actuality present,” including: “They needed to promote my precise sexual awakening.”
“The irony was, I wasn’t in contact with any of my very own sexuality,” she stated.
So, being that Brooke is at present selling the documentary, she not too long ago made an look on the Drew Barrymore Present through which she make clear the response to her claims.
Within the interview, which airs at the moment, Drew requested if “any of the male administrators” she refers to within the documentary have reached out to her because it was launched.
Brooke famous that Louis Malle and Franco Zeffirelli — who directed Fairly Child and Limitless Love, respectively — have each since died, and that Randal is the one director to have reached out.
“I noticed his identify on my telephone, and I used to be like, ‘What do I do?’” she stated nervously. “And I let it go to voicemail as a result of I used to be like, ‘I need to see what the tone is.’”
“He needs to talk. I do not find out about what,” she added, earlier than explaining why she’s since determined to say no the calls.
“I do not really feel like bringing any of it again up once more,” she stated, “and it’s not about that, you already know?”
Talking extra usually in regards to the administrators she labored with in her early profession when she was depicted as an underage intercourse object, Brooke stated it was about “these males needing me to be in a sure class to serve their story.”
“It by no means was about me, it was by no means protecting of me. It was enjoyable and loving at instances, however I used to be simply there,” she defined. “I used to be a pawn, I used to be a chunk, I used to be a commodity.”
