Brooke Shields broke down in tears as she recalled her mother’s decision to allow her to film intimate scenes at the age of 11.
Shields, 59, was arguably one of the most famous faces in the 80s. After starting her career as a child model, Shields would go on to star in films such as Pretty Baby, The Blue Lagoon and Endless Love at a young age.
However the actor’s early career has since been looked at more critically in recent years, with many questioning the decision to allow a child to star opposite older male actors in sexualised roles.
Shields herself has since reflected on this during a two-part documentary titled Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields, watch the trailer below:
One particularly harrowing moment sees a now adult Brooke, who has grown children of her own, recall her mother’s decision to allow her to star in Pretty Baby at such a young age.
In the controversial movie Shields play a child prostitute living in New Orleans, with the film seeing her kiss co-star Keith Carradine (who was 27 at the time) as well as appearing nude in several of the scenes.
While casting a child to play a sexualised role is something which sounds abhorrent to us in the modern day, Shields’ mother was present on set for filming and allowed the events to take place, telling her daughter it was simply ‘make-believe’.
Brooke Shields in Pretty Baby at the age of 11 (Paramount Pictures Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)
Understandably this decision horrified her two daughters, Rowan and Grier, who were seen in the documentary questioning their mother on whether or not she’d let them act in such a sexual film at a young age.
“Would you have let us [do that] at the age of 11?” older daughter Rowan asks in the clip, to which Shields responds by breaking down in tears and saying ‘no’.
Pretty Baby isn’t the only sexualised movie Shields’ mother Teri allowed her to film underage either, with The Blue Lagoon seeing her acting out intimate scenes at the age of 14.
Speaking about her mother’s decision to allow her to be sexualised in films and modelling campaigns during an interview with The Sunday Times in 2023, Shields admitted struggling to justify Teri’s actions to her own daughters.
“That was hard for me, to not justify my mum to them,” she explained.
The actor now struggles to defend her mother’s actions (Hulu)
“I mean, I could say, ‘Oh, it was the time back then,’ or ‘Oh, it was art.’ But I don’t know why she thought it was all right. I don’t know.”
Despite her mother’s actions, the actor went add that she doesn’t fully blame her, explaining that it was difficult to be angry.
“Everyone always wanted me to be angry with her,” Shields said. “But anger was just too sad for me to take when I looked at how insecure she was.”