Actress Laura Linney reveals she was worried about childhood friend Brooke Shields

Actress Laura Linney revealed she was worried about her childhood friend Brooke Shields when the child star appeared in her first primary school ads.

Linney, 59, also recalled how the couple would “dive and cover” when Shields’ alcoholic mother, Teri, came home drunk.

The revelations came in Shields’ new documentary Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields, which explores the complex life and career of the model and actress, along with her relationship with her mother.

Shields, 57, spent her life in front of the camera, first as a child model and then as a model and actress throughout her teenage years. Her mother watched as Shields was turned into a sex symbol — even appearing nude in movies and photo shoots — despite being a minor.

The two-part documentary released on Hulu on April 3.

Laura Linney (left) and Brooke Shields (right) were childhood friends in elementary school

Brooke Shields (right) and her mother Teri (left). Teri served as Brooke’s manager

In the documentary, Linney recalled being a kid in elementary school and watching Shields travel from New Jersey to California to appear in some of her first advertisements.

“The kind of whispers around the school, like ‘She went to California,’ third graders, fourth graders like ‘Where did she go?’” Linney said.

“And I remember seeing the ad campaigns come in, like opening the newspaper and seeing her face, and it was hard to comprehend.”

“I always remember thinking, I hope she’s okay,” she added.

As one of Shields’ close friends, Linney saw firsthand the two sides of Brooke’s mother – one moment a huge personality, the next a terrifying drunk.

“When Teri was sober, she was raw and funny and loud and big and taking up space,” she said. ‘And if she wasn’t feeling well, she went into hiding.’

Linney told of many situations where and and Brooke would play alone in the Shields’ house and Teri would come home drunk. She said Brooke always got into action and knew how to avoid conflict.

“I would follow her lead, she would know what to do, how to do it, how to protect herself, which room to go to, which doors to close,” Linney said.

“We could both hear the keys rattling, we’d go to a room, we’d make sure we were safe, Teri would come home very drunk, and then we’d wait for it to get quiet, and then we’d come out.”

Linney said she understood the complicated situation Brooke was in, afraid of who her mother might be, but loving her all along.

“You want to protect the people you love, even if they are deeply flawed and damaged and harmful,” Linney said.

Brooke Shields with her mother Teri. The two had a complicated relationship

Brooke and Teri Shields in 1981. Teri was an alcoholic whose moods often fluctuated

In the documentary, Shields discussed complicated moments with her mother, such as the time she watched when she was just 11 years old and was forced to seductively kiss Keith Carradine, then 27, in the 1978 film Pretty Baby, in which she played a prostitute. .

Shields said she struggled to understand how her mother didn’t intervene when she revealed that her own daughters, Rowan, 19, and Grier, 16, refused to watch it.

In the documentary, Rowan said, “It’s child pornography! Would you have let us go [do that] at age 11?’

Shields replied “No” as she was overcome with emotion.

The star’s mother passed away in 2012. Shields, an only child, said she couldn’t be mad at her because her mother was so insecure.

The actress long brushed off her mother’s guilt — who allowed Shields to pose nude for a Playboy publication at the age of 10 — but Shields now admitted, “I don’t know why she thought it was okay.” Don’t know.’

The incidents weren’t the first she’s been sexualized by the media. At fifteen she shot The Blue Lagoon and then Endless Love. Both featured sex and nudity, while she also appeared scantily clad in a Calvin Klein denim ad campaign at the same age.