Brooke Shields on the ‘Heartbreaking,’ ‘Mind-Blowing’ Experience of Making a Documentary About Her Life

A version of this interview with Brooke Shields and “Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields” director Lana Wilson originally ran in the Race Begins issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.

Brooke Shields was once the most famous teenager in the world. A model at 11 months old, by high school she had played a child prostitute in Louis Malle’s controversial 1978 film “Pretty Baby” and starred in a series of provocative Calvin Klein jeans ads in which she uttered the now iconic line, “You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.” Over the years, Shields has fielded no shortage of 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 exec-produced by Ali Wentworth and George Stephanopoulos. The two-part Hulu documentary chronicles Shields’ rise to superstardom, her complicated relationship with her mother, Teri Shields, and how she broke out of a constrictive image of who she was. We spoke with lanaShields and Wilson over Zoom.

Brooke, what convinced you that it was time to tell your story in a documentary?
BROOKE SHIELDS Ali Wentworth is my best friend, and I truly respect her and George Stephanopoulos, her husband. So I knew that I would be in good hands with very intelligent people. But really, what made me just believe that it was going to be ok was when we met Lana and watching her films and really understanding her talent as a filmmaker — the nuance and the balance. And I thought, ok, this is a complicated story, but it’s only been told in the most simplistic of ways, and every time anybody else had ever pitched to me, it was always simple and thin and lowest common denominator and tabloid and sensationalized. This was the first time that I had ever heard a projection of what it could be that made me feel that it would be valid.

And Lana, what made you want to make a documentary about Brooke Shields?
LANA WILSON Well, it was first meeting her. She watched all my films, which meant a lot to me. And she was game for a process where I could have total creative space and freedom. It was reading Brooke’s books, which are both amazing and make clear what a smart and profound and reflective and hilarious person she is. I really got excited when I looked at this archive she handed me at that first meeting — this idea that this could be the story of Brooke, personally, interwoven with the story of what Brooke Shields the symbol meant at different points in time. I really came to understand that Brooke felt reduced constantly to only one thing at a time or to a very simplistic stereotypical image or idea of who she was. And I thought, well, what was that stereotype? And what was it saying about American society at different points in time that that led to people projecting that onto Brooke?

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Lana, Brooke gave you her entire archive for this project. What was it like to sit down and go through all those decades of material?
WILSON It was a collection of stuff that Brooke’s mother, Teri, had kept and saved for many years, and it was over 1,000 files: video files, photographs…

SHIELDS She would not leave a studio, like Merv Griffin or Johnny Carson, without them printing off a copy at that moment. She left with it in her hands. She had everything.

WILSON I was just astonished by the range of stuff Brooke was doing from a very young age:  She’s performing in a circus act, she’s at the Reagan White House, she’s doing USO shows, commercials. But I became really obsessed with 12-year-old Brooke on the press tour for “Pretty Baby” because that was the moment where she really became a global focal point. I saw this little girl being, on the one hand, praised by these usually male talk show hosts, saying, “You’re very beautiful, look at your face, your body, you’re so mature, so sensual.” But then also saying, “You’re too sexual. Aren’t you worried you’re going too far?” and criticizing her for the stuff she was appearing in. That’s a situation that every girl is still in now, where you’re taught that the way you look is the key to your value but at the same time, if you’re too sexual, you’re criticized and blamed. Seeing that made me think we have come far in a lot of ways, but also, we haven’t.

Brooke, how did it feel to revisit these moments, some of them quite painful, like journalists grilling you about your mother’s supposed “alcoholic” appearance?
SHIELDS I’ve never looked at those interviews, so to see this little person trying to get her truth out and it being just ignored, and trying to protect her mom. It’s heartbreaking on the one hand because she’s so sweet and she’s really just trying to stay afloat. There were so many different emotions that came through but I’d never really faced it before. So watching all of it was very emotional and mind-blowing because I thought, wow, you survived, you made it this far and you’ve got healthy, great kids and a good relationship and you’re not totally crazy. [Laughs]

Looking at my body of work, I don’t think I ever gave myself credit for talent. I was never told I was talented. It didn’t matter if I was training dogs on “Circus of the Stars,” I committed 1,000 percent. I kept growing and learning and getting better and better. I’m proud of my talent. You know, it’s hard to admit that. What am I? Am I an actress? Am I a model? Am I this? It’s like everybody wanted to just have one label and I I see myself as a performer in a in a way that that I never did before, which is a huge gift.

WILSON I just want to add that doing these interviews the last couple of days, I’ve been thinking more about how interesting that is because it’s like, yeah, people told you, “Oh, she’s beautiful. She’s pretty.” But being beautiful and pretty has nothing to do with, like, training the 12 poodles.

SHIELDS With a Russian accent, by the way, because that’s the only way they would listen to me. Literally training poodles in a circus act!

I went back and re-watched “Pretty Baby” and you are great in it. It’s criminal that no one told you.
SHIELDS Thank you. It’s so crazy that at this age, to look back and go, god, that’s really good. [Laughs] Wait a minute! Nobody told me that. For someone like Louis Malle to trust me, was no rhyme or reason. It defied rational thinking that he that he saw something. Why did Bob Hope trust me with carrying his shows and going to Beirut and Russia and all these places to entertain the troops? He also tried taking away my my punch lines but that’s because he didn’t want me to be funnier than he was. [Laughs] There were so many instances where really talented, wonderful people were trusting me. And I was afraid that maybe it would make me arrogant [if I sought praise]. I just shoved it down and thought, just work hard.

Brooke, you say at one point, “I’m surprised that I survived any of it.” What do you attribute that resilience to? We’ve all heard stories of child stars, especially from that era, who did not fare so well. 
SHIELDS I think a couple of things. One, Mom was such a heavy drinker and I couldn’t afford to lose my sensibilities. I was too preoccupied with keeping her alive. I got a lot of approval for being a “good girl,” so that was another thing that just upheld the image. And I now see that there is something innate in my character that was not going to let it take me down and get the best of me. I kind of approached the craziness that was coming at me as, 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 I lived with an addict.

Then staying in New York City, going to regular, real schools, not professional children’s schools or taking high school equivalency tests to get out quickly so I could work—all of those were grounding forces. And no one had ever come to my aid in the press, and I knew they wouldn’t if I fell off a path. They didn’t when I was on the path. So I was like, oh, you better get your shit together because there’s going to be nobody there to pick you up.

The documentary tackles how misogynistic our culture still is, but it introduces a note of progress 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 that feel?
SHIELDS I was floored. I was like, “Who are you people?” We thought it was just going to be b-roll, but this conversation unfolded and I looked at these young women and I just thought, you are young women, you are already finding your voice. I’ve done something right to give you the space. That’s all I’ve ever wanted for my girls, for them to find who they are.

WILSON I always thought it would be powerful to not see Brooke’s daughters until the very end of the film because there’s this cumulative effect that comes with going through Brooke’s complicated relationship with her mom and through postpartum depression and everything that comes after that. It really was just me saying, “Have you guys seen any of your mom’s early films?” And they just started talking about it. That dynamic inside the family was so moving to me because it was so different from Brooke’s dynamic with her own mom. And I think that part of Brooke’s accomplishment is not only in gaining agency in her own voice and owning her career, but also in creating that kind of family dynamic.

Brooke, as someone who grew up worshipping Debbie Harry —
SHIELDS [Smiles] She was invited [to our premiere], but she lives up out of the city and she drives her little teeny Mini Cooper. She doesn’t like to go to premieres very much.

There is an archival photo of you and her in the film. I’ve always wanted to ask you what it feels like to have inspired a classic Blondie song? [“Pretty Baby,” from 1978’s “Parallel Lines”]

SHIELDS Mind-blowing. I mean, when she told me that when I was a kid, I was like, No way. I was just 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 came up to the studio to say hi to the photographer. I couldn’t breathe. She took a picture with me and and she told me later that it was from “Pretty Baby,” the movie, that she wrote this because, she said, “You were a creature. Like, this beautiful creature,” and the power that was in that was something she felt was so a part of our society.

Read more from The Race Begins issue here.