Brooke Shields discusses new documentary with The New Yorker
Brooke Shields is the subject of a new two-part documentary, Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields, now streaming on Hulu, that follows the path of recent cinematic reconsiderations of public twentieth century women (Framing Britney Spears, Pamela, a Love Story) whose lives became fodder for misogynistic scrutiny.
On the occasion of the film's release, Shields, 57, sat down with The New Yorker to discuss the career highs, lows and gray areas that it revisits, and assert herself as a survivor.
• On her first gig, at eleven months old: "Ivory Soap. What is so interesting about memory is that the story had been recounted so many times that there's something in my psyche that is convinced that I remember, you know, a room full of people and tons of soap. It occurred to me one day: I'm not so sure I actually remember this.
"[The photographer Francesco] Scavullo, who was close with my mom, called and said, 'Hey, Teri, bring the baby down! We need a baby who looks the part.' It's a baby in a diaper-how could you not look the part?"
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• On Pretty Baby (1978), in which 11-year-old Shields portrayed a child prostitute: "See, I think it's the most beautiful movie I've ever made. It's the only real quality film I've ever been in. I value that movie in such a different way and wrote my thesis on it. You couldn't make it today, obviously.
"My mom brought me to this studio. I went in and talked with Louis Malle. He just asked me questions, like, 'Are you aware of what prostitution is?' And I was, like, 'Yeah, I see the girls on 42nd Street, standing on the corner. I'm always worried that they're cold.' Growing up in Manhattan, I saw New York in the seventies in a very raw way. It wasn't about a Lolita. It was about an innocent, and how that innocence gets taken-and her choice to not be a victim.
"I didn't have any qualms about it. People have wanted me to be a victim and feel abused... I understand that now, looking at it through a different lens, it's uncomfortable."
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• On making The Blue Lagoon (1980) at 14 years old: "The thing is, I was unaware that that was their goal. I didn't know that that was what Randal [Kleiser, the director,] had said to people, that they were going to really see this actress really be awakened and we're going to catch it on film. I mean, such a pathetic perspective. I remember thinking, Can we just act? Do you not think that I'm talented enough? You think I need that? I was completely rebellious, in my own head."
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• On the press' treatment of her: "It just never ended... There was no one place that had even a modicum of integrity. To have Barbara Walters talk about my measurements? There was nothing intellectual about it. You saw these adults, who were supposed to be the smart people in the world, be so lowest common denominator. I just became shut down to all of it.
"You watch this little girl, and you think, Shame on you, guys. I've put more blame and shame on the interviewers than I ever would about Pretty Baby (1978). It was an artistic endeavor. Then you get to these journalists, and you think, How is that okay to talk to a child like that?"
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• On working with Franco Zeffirelli (on 1981's Endless Love): "God rest his soul, okay? Don't strike me down! He was not nurturing, not warm by any means. He was very enamored with the boy [actor, Martin Hewitt]. Had this sort of love-hate with my mother, because he couldn't manipulate me and he couldn't own me. It's interesting, now that the cast of Romeo and Juliet (1968) came out about what their experience was, which was fascinating to me.
"I would bet that Zeffirelli said one thing to the studio [about those actors' nudity], and then on the set it was, 'Oh, that's rough.' You don't say no to him. That's not the way he operated. And he would get angry. He was the Maestro. He would make fun of me. He said my voice was too squeaky and that I was never going to be considered a real actress."
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• On not believing her own hype: "I didn't understand [in 1981] how you could arbitrarily call a certain face the face of a decade. I mean, does God come down and say, 'This is the face'? I couldn't get my mind around it, because you don't do anything to look a certain way. You're born looking a certain way, and then that becomes your currency in the world's eyes."
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• On her present perspective: "I don't think I've really changed. At every step of the way, every time someone criticized, it so clearly became about them. I would watch it time and time again, and I would think, You're the one with the problem. You want me to have this problem, and I can't grant you that. That's hard for you to take, because then I'm not a victim, and it reflects back onto you in some way. I'm proud of the way that I was able to maintain my point of view about things. I do think that I fight now more for my talent than I ever did, because I never thought I had talent, and that's changed. I just can't believe how much I've done and how much I still want to do. I'm not jaded or angry. I'm just still here."
Maturing in the world’s glare required compartmentalization, Brooke Shields says. “It’s how I survived.” https://t.co/dVgR21YDhn
- The New Yorker (@NewYorker) April 8, 2023
[Sources] Source 1, 2, 3, 4