Brooke Shields discussed being a sexualized actor as a child and the dangers of growing up in Hollywood as she marked International Women’s Day on Friday by appearing on a panel at SXSW.
Shields, 58, who spoke alongside Meghan Markle and former news anchor Katie Couric about “breaking barriers” and “women’s representation”, said she was at the “center” of young women being sexualized in Hollywood and that her mother and team had protected her from that. predators.
The actress was just 11 when she had to seductively kiss Keith Carradine, then 27, in the 1978 film Pretty Baby, in which she played a prostitute. She also appeared nude in a Playboy shoot at the age of 10 – with the star confronting childhood exploitation in the documentary Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields.
She said: ‘There was a sexualisation of young women and I was at the center of that. I promoted it, I was surrounded by a strong mother, I had a community around me, I didn’t become the kind of statistic that Hollywood created.”
Brooke Shields discussed being sexualized as a child actor and the dangers of growing up in Hollywood as she marked International Women’s Day on Friday by appearing on a panel at SXSW.
The actress was just 11 when she had to seductively kiss Keith Carradine, then 27, in the 1978 film Pretty Baby, in which she played a prostitute (Shields is seen in a promotional shot for the film shared in her documentary)
She added, “Hollywood is based on eating its young.”
Shields reflected on growing older in Hollywood and her determination to be the voice of women over 40, saying, “At 58, you’re too old to be the ingénue, but not quite the grandma.
“I think my response, instead of getting angry, is to find and seek out the filmmakers who appreciate a woman over forty and appreciate the life experience.
‘There are people who want to focus their programs on women of that age.
‘My whole career has been built on beauty, as I get older I want my message to be appreciative, but beauty as well-being… we are not just wrinkle cream
“We need to change the narrative – and say there is beauty in this day and age.”
Shields has previously said she struggled to understand how her mother Teri Shields didn’t intervene during the filming of Pretty Baby, as she revealed her own daughters, Rowan, 19, and Grier, 16, refused to watch it.
In an excerpt from the documentary Pretty Baby, Rowan says: ‘It’s child pornography! Would you have made us do that at age 11?’
She said: ‘There was a sexualisation of young women and I was at the center of that. I promoted it, I was surrounded by a strong mother, I had a community around me, I didn’t become the kind of statistic that Hollywood created.”
Shields, 58, who spoke alongside Meghan Markle and former news anchor Katie Couric about “breaking barriers” and “women’s representation”, said she was at the “center” of young women being sexualized in Hollywood and that her mother and team had protected her from that. predators
Shields has previously said she struggled to understand how her mother Teri Shields didn’t intervene during the filming of Pretty Baby when she revealed her own daughters, Rowan, 19, and Grier, 16, refused to watch it (pictured)
Shields reflected on growing older in Hollywood and her determination to be the voice of women over 40, saying, “At 58, you’re too old to be the ingénue, but not quite the grandma.”
Shields arrived in Austin on Thursday
Shields answers “No” as she is overcome with emotion. Recalling the conversation, she told The Sunday Times Magazine: ‘That was hard for me, not to justify my mother to them, but when they asked I thought, ‘Oh God, I have to admit this.’ But I don’t. “I don’t know why she thought it was okay.”
The star’s mother was an alcoholic who died in 2012. Shields, an only child, said she couldn’t be mad at her because her mother was so insecure.
The actress has long deflected blame from her mother, who allowed Shields to pose nude for a Playboy publication at the age of 10, but now Shields has admitted: ‘I don’t know why she thought it was okay. Don’t know.’
The documentary, directed by Lana Wilson, takes its name from Louis Malle’s 1978 film “Pretty Baby,” a drama about a young sex worker, played by Shields, in 1917 New Orleans.
In the film, written by Polly Platt, she kisses Carradine while also appearing naked.
At one point, Shields reportedly made a disgusted face and was yelled at by the director. Yet her mother never intervened.
“That was… that was hard for me to not justify my mother to them, but when they asked me, I was like, ‘Oh God, I have to admit this,'” Shields told the Times when talking about the documentary spoke.
“I mean, I could say, ‘Oh, that was back then,’ or ‘Oh, it was art.’ But I don’t know why she thought it was okay. Don’t know.’
It was not the first nor the last time she was sexualized by the media. At fifteen she played ‘Blue Lagoon’, and then ‘Endless Love’. Both contain sex and nudity. And then there were those Calvin Klein denim ads.
When she was 16 and a global star, a family friend and photographer tried to sell nude photos he had taken of her when she was just 10. Her mother sued and the family went to court, but the photographer won.
The actress has long deflected blame from her mother, who allowed Shields to pose nude for a Playboy publication at the age of 10, but now Shields has admitted: ‘I don’t know why she thought it was okay. Don’t know.
The following year there was more sex and nudity for her in Franco Zeffirelli’s romantic drama Endless Love, about two high school sweethearts who are not allowed to see each other.
And at 15, she appeared—writhing in skin-tight denim—in the provocative ads for Calvin Klein Jeans, with the suggestive tagline: “Want to know what comes between me and my Calvin’s?” Nothing.’
The films and that advertising campaign helped her achieve international fame.
For years, she credited her fiercely defensive mother Teri, who was also her manager. “If someone looked at me sideways, she said, ‘I’ll cut off your asses and make you eat them,’” Shields said in 2019.
In the documentary, the actress reveals that she was raped in a hotel room in her early 20s by an unnamed man in the film industry.
At 14, she began filming the leering teen romance Blue Lagoon – in which her character often undressed and had sex with her fellow castaway, played by Christopher Atkins, then 18
Shields has previously claimed her mother was “in love with her” as she immersed herself in her daughter’s career – and never dated anyone.
She told Drew Barrymore in a 2023 interview that her mother accompanied her to every interview she had when she was younger.
Shields said, “Nobody’s going to get you. I’ll be there. I’ll be there first. You’re mine. I’m not going to give you to anyone.
‘Under the guise of protection, but it was more ownership and fear.’
But Shields didn’t mind how her mother behaved at the time, because she associated the work she did with being able to buy “stuff” for her mother.
‘I made a movie and we have a car. “All I knew was to keep my mother alive, keep dancing and get things,” she recalled.