A version of this interview with Brooke Shields and “Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields” director Lana Wilson was originally published in the Race Begins issue of awards magazine TheWrap.
Brooke Shields was once the most famous teenager in the world. A model at 11 months old, in high school she had played a child prostitute in Louis Malle’s controversial 1978 film “Pretty Baby” and starred in a series of provocative ads for Calvin Klein jeans in which she uttered the phrase now iconic, “Do you want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.” Over the years, Shields has received many offers to tell her story on camera, but she wasn’t comfortable doing so until now, with “Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields,” directed by Lana Wilson (“Miss Americana”) and executive . -produced by Ali Wentworth and George Stephanopoulos. The two-part Hulu documentary chronicles Shields’ rise to stardom, her complicated relationship with her mother, Teri Shields, and how she broke away from a constricting image of who she was. We speak with lanaShields and Wilson via Zoom.
Brooke, what convinced you it was time to tell your story in a documentary?
BROOKE SHIELDS Ali Wentworth is my best friend and I really respect her and George Stephanopoulos, her husband. I knew then that she would be in good hands with some very smart people. But really, what made me believe that everything was going to be okay was when we met Lana, saw her films, and really understood her talent as a filmmaker: the nuances and the balance. And I thought, okay, this is a complicated story, but it’s only been told in the most simplistic way, and every time someone else has told me, it’s always been simple and thin and the lowest common denominator and tabloid and tabloid. This was the first time I had heard a projection of what could be which made me feel like it would be valid.
And Lana, what made you want to make a documentary about Brooke Shields?
LANA WILSON Well, it was the first time I met her. She saw all my movies, which meant a lot to me. And she was open to a process where I could have complete freedom and creative space. She was reading Brooke’s books, which are amazing and make it clear how smart, deep, thoughtful, and hilarious she is. I got really excited when I looked at this file that she handed me in that first meeting – this idea that this could be Brooke’s story, personally, interwoven with the story of what the Brooke Shields symbol meant at different times. I really came to understand that Brooke was constantly reduced to one thing at a time or a very simplistic stereotyped image or idea of who she was. And I thought, well, what was that stereotype? And what was he saying about American society at different times that led people to project that onto Brooke?
Lana, Brooke gave you her entire file for this project. What was it like to sit down and go through all those decades of material?
WILSON It was a collection of things that Brooke’s mother, Teri, had saved and kept for many years, and it was over 1000 files: video files, photographs…
SHIELDS I wouldn’t walk out of a studio, like Merv Griffin or Johnny Carson, without a copy being printed right then and there. She left with her in her hands. She had it all.
WILSON I was in awe of the variety of things Brooke was doing from a very young age: she’s performing in a circus act, she’s in the Reagan White House, she’s doing USO shows, commercials. But I became very obsessed with 12-year-old Brooke on the “Pretty Baby” press tour, because that was the moment when she really became a global focal point. I saw this girl being, on the one hand, praised by these usually male talk show hosts, saying: “You are very beautiful, look at your face, your body, you are so mature, so sensual.” But then also say: “You are too sexual. Aren’t you worried that you’re going too far? and criticizing her for the things she appeared in. That’s a situation every girl is still in now, where you’re taught that the way you look is the key to your worth, but at the same time, if you’re too sexual, you get criticized and blamed. Seeing that made me think that we’ve come far in a lot of ways, but also, we haven’t.
Brooke, how did it feel to relive those moments, some of them quite painful, like when journalists question you about your mother’s alleged “alcoholic” appearance?
SHIELDS I’ve never watched those interviews, so I see this little person trying to get her truth out and just being ignored, and trying to protect her mother. On one hand, she’s heartbreaking because she’s so sweet and she’s really just trying to stay afloat. There were so many different emotions that came up, but she had never really faced them before. So watching it all was very emotional and amazing because I was like, wow, you survived, you made it this far and you have great healthy kids and a good relationship and you’re not totally crazy. [Laughs]
Looking at my body of work, I don’t think I’ve ever given myself credit for talent. They never told me I had talent. It didn’t matter if I was training dogs on “Circus of the Stars,” I was 1000 percent committed. I kept growing and learning and getting better and better. I am proud of my talent. You know, it’s hard to admit that. It’s me? I am an actress? I’m a model? am i this It’s like everyone wants to have just one label and I see myself as an artist in a way I never have before which is a great gift.
WILSON I just want to add that doing these interviews in the last few days, I’ve been thinking more about how interesting it is because it’s like, yeah, people were like, “Oh, she’s beautiful. She’s pretty.” But being beautiful and pretty has nothing to do with training all 12 poodles.
SHIELDS With a Russian accent, by the way, because that’s how they would listen to me. Literally training poodles into a circus act!
I went back and rewatched “Pretty Baby” and you’re great in it. It’s criminal that no one told you.
SHIELDS Thank you. He’s so crazy that at this age, looking back and saying, gosh, that’s really good. [Laughs] Wait a minute! Nobody told me that. For someone like Louis Malle to trust me, there was no rhyme or reason. He defied rational thought that he saw something. Why did Bob Hope trust me to take his show and go to Beirut and Russia and all these places to entertain the troops? He also tried to take away my jokes, but that was because he didn’t want me to be more fun than him. [Laughs] There were so many cases where really talented and wonderful people trusted me. And I was afraid that maybe it would make me arrogant [if I sought praise]. I just pushed it down and thought, just work hard.
Brooke, you say at one point, “I’m surprised I survived any of that.” To what do you attribute that resilience? We’ve all heard stories of child stars, especially from that era, who didn’t do so well.
SHIELDS I think a couple of things. One, Mom was a heavy drinker and she couldn’t let me lose feeling. He was too concerned with keeping her alive. I got a lot of approval for being a “nice girl” so that was another thing that just kept up the image. And now I see that there is something innate in my character that I was not going to let it tear me down and get the best of me. I approached the madness that was getting to me like, oh, no, no, no, no. You’re not going to get the best of me. I’m not going to be like all those other people. I saw the tragic stories and lived with an addict.
Then staying in New York City, going to regular, real schools, not vocational kindergartens, or taking high school equivalency tests to get out quickly and be able to work, those were all grounding forces. And no one had ever come to my aid in the press, and I knew they wouldn’t if I got out of the way. They didn’t when I was on the road. So I said oh you better get ready because there won’t be anyone there to pick you up.
The documentary addresses just how misogynistic our culture continues to be, but features a progress note in the scene where you, Brooke, and your teenage daughters are discussing agency and consent at the dinner table in the context of your career. How did you feel?
SHIELDS Was shot down. I was like, “Who? are Your people?” We thought it would just be recorded material, but this conversation unfolded and I looked at these young women and thought, these are young women, they’re already finding their voice. I’ve done something right to give you the space. That’s all I can do. that I have always wanted for my daughters, that they discover who they are.
WILSON I always thought it would be powerful to not see Brooke’s daughters until the end of the movie because there’s this cumulative effect that comes from going through Brooke’s complicated relationship with her mother and postpartum depression and everything that comes after. It was really just me saying, “Have you guys seen any of her mom’s early movies?” And they started talking about it. That dynamic within the family really touched me because it was so different from Brooke’s dynamic with her own mother. And I think part of Brooke’s accomplishment is not just gaining agency in her own voice and owning her career, but also creating that kind of family dynamic.
Brooke, as someone who grew up loving Debbie Harry:
SHIELDS [Smiles] she was invited [to our premiere], but he lives out of town and drives his little Mini Cooper. He doesn’t really like going to premieres.
There’s a file photo of you and her in the movie. I’ve always wanted to ask you how she feels about inspiring a classic Blondie song. [“Pretty Baby,” from 1978’s “Parallel Lines”]
SHIELDS Amazing. I mean, when she told me that when I was a kid, I was like, No way. He was obsessed with her. Like, she was just the coolest thing. I had no idea that “Pretty Baby” was written about me. I just wanted to meet her and then I was doing a cover. [shoot around the time of] the New York blackout in ’77 and she went up to the studio to say hello to the photographer. She couldn’t breathe. She took a picture with me and then she told me that it was from “Pretty Baby”, the movie, that she wrote this because she, she said she, “You were a child. Like, this beautiful creature,” and the power that was in that was something that she felt was a part of our society.
Read more of The Race Begins issue here.
