Brooke Shields reveals being sexually assaulted in ‘Pretty Baby’, a docu on her life

By Associated Press

PARK CITY (US): Brooke Shields reveals that she was the sufferer of a sexual assault in a brand new documentary about her life that premiered Friday afternoon on the Sundance Film Festival. She doesn’t identify the person who she mentioned raped her, however she described the circumstances: It occurred quickly after she graduated school with somebody she knew professionally and had met for dinner to debate work. The assault occurred when she went to his lodge room to name a cab.

“I didn’t fight that much. I just absolutely froze,” she says within the movie. “I thought my one ‘no’ should have been enough.” Later, when she instructed her buddy, safety specialist Gavin de Becker, about what occurred, he mentioned, “That’s rape.” At the time she wasn’t able to consider it.

It is only one of many revelations in “Pretty Baby,” a nuanced have a look at Shields’ life up till now together with her rise to fame, her difficult relationship together with her mom Teri Shields, who was an alcoholic, and the way the media, from the leisure business to the journalists interviewing her, commodified her sexualization at a younger age whereas shaming her on the similar time. The movie might be on Hulu later this 12 months.

Directed by Lana Wilson, the documentary takes its identify from Louis Malle’s 1978 movie “Pretty Baby,” a drama a couple of younger intercourse employee, performed by an 11-year-old Shields, in New Orleans in 1917. In the movie, written by Polly Platt, she kisses 29-year-old Keith Carradine and likewise seems nude.

It wasn’t the primary, nor would it not be the final time she was sexualized by the media. At 15, she shot “Blue Lagoon,” then got here “Endless Love.” Both had intercourse and nudity. And then there have been these Calvin Klein denim adverts. When she was 16 and a world star, a household buddy and photographer tried to promote nude photographs he took of her when she was solely 9. Her mom sued. They went to court docket. The photographer gained.

ALSO READ | Sundance movie pageant goes wild for attractive company thriller ‘Fair Play’

Shields, who has written two memoirs, has been approached about documentaries earlier than and all the time mentioned no. But now 57, with a child going off to varsity, the encouragement of her buddy Ali Wentworth and a typically good feeling about the place she is in life after years of remedy, Shields felt the time was proper.

As Wilson mentioned, “She was ready to go there,” together with talking about her time at Princeton, her friendship with Michael Jackson, her turbulent relationship with Andre Agassi and the time her outdated “Endless Love” co-star Tom Cruise went on a publicity tour to criticize her use of antidepressants for post-partum melancholy. He’d later apologize.

Wilson was recent off the Taylor Swift documentary “Miss Americana” when she acquired a name from her agent asking if she wished to fulfill Shields concerning the potential mission.

“I wasn’t certain at first because I had just come off another project about a celebrity,” Wilson mentioned. “But I was curious at the same time.”

After the assembly, Shields handed her a tough drive. It was an archive of clips and interviews she’d achieved over a long time that her mom had assembled. There was over 1,000 hours of fabric, organized by 12 months. Wilson began opening up random information: There are Shields on the Reagan White House, there she is dancing with 12 poodles on “Circus of the Stars,” or in a prairie gown singing about loving males. Then she acquired to the “Pretty Baby” press tour.

“She’s sitting there with a series of male talk show hosts being complimented on her beauty and her body and her sensuality, but at the same time being criticized for being an exhibitionist, for going too far, for appearing in what some said was child pornography,” Wilson mentioned. “I started to think about Brooke at age 12 in that situation and about how all girls start to form their own identities. How can you form your identity in a society that defines you exclusively by your status as a sexual object? It’s something a lot of women and girls navigate privately and Brooke was having to do it in public.”

The Associated Press doesn’t sometimes identify victims of sexual assault, until they arrive ahead publicly.

It’s a narrative that’s neither new in Hollywood, neither is it historic historical past. Wilson pointed to Shirley Temple, Jodie Foster, Penelope Cruz, Natalie Portman and Kirsten Dunst as a few of the many examples of actors who have been sexualized to numerous levels in early roles.

One of Shields’ greatest issues in beginning the mission was that her late mom can be vilified another time. But Wilson noticed one thing new in trying again, one thing she thought was value exploring.

“It was a way of distracting from these much bigger questions about the people who are actually in charge of the movies, of the ads, of the entertainment system,” Wilson mentioned. “Teri became the scapegoat when much bigger questions should have been asked of the people who really had power and of everyone watching it.”

Wilson spent 4 very lengthy days interviewing Shields for “Pretty Baby.”

“I’m very lucky she was game for it,” Wilson mentioned.

“Pretty Baby,” she mentioned, isn’t complete by any means. There are issues within the memoirs that aren’t within the movie. But there’s a cultural context that she helps craft within the movie that’s not within the memoirs. And, the throughline is Brooke’s journey to gaining company, over her thoughts, her profession, and her identification.

Choosing to talk about the sexual assault is only one a part of that.

“She is so honest and candid about how hard she was on herself, about the experience, how she blamed herself in so many ways that I think are heartbreaking to hear, but also very relatable,” Wilson mentioned. “It’s something she’s grappled with for a long time and is grappling with still. Getting a window into that experience that isn’t neatly resolved is powerful.”

PARK CITY (US): Brooke Shields reveals that she was the sufferer of a sexual assault in a brand new documentary about her life that premiered Friday afternoon on the Sundance Film Festival. She doesn’t identify the person who she mentioned raped her, however she described the circumstances: It occurred quickly after she graduated school with somebody she knew professionally and had met for dinner to debate work. The assault occurred when she went to his lodge room to name a cab.

“I didn’t fight that much. I just absolutely froze,” she says within the movie. “I thought my one ‘no’ should have been enough.” Later, when she instructed her buddy, safety specialist Gavin de Becker, about what occurred, he mentioned, “That’s rape.” At the time she wasn’t able to consider it.

It is only one of many revelations in “Pretty Baby,” a nuanced have a look at Shields’ life up till now together with her rise to fame, her difficult relationship together with her mom Teri Shields, who was an alcoholic, and the way the media, from the leisure business to the journalists interviewing her, commodified her sexualization at a younger age whereas shaming her on the similar time. The movie might be on Hulu later this 12 months.

Directed by Lana Wilson, the documentary takes its identify from Louis Malle’s 1978 movie “Pretty Baby,” a drama a couple of younger intercourse employee, performed by an 11-year-old Shields, in New Orleans in 1917. In the movie, written by Polly Platt, she kisses 29-year-old Keith Carradine and likewise seems nude.

It wasn’t the primary, nor would it not be the final time she was sexualized by the media. At 15, she shot “Blue Lagoon,” then got here “Endless Love.” Both had intercourse and nudity. And then there have been these Calvin Klein denim adverts. When she was 16 and a world star, a household buddy and photographer tried to promote nude photographs he took of her when she was solely 9. Her mom sued. They went to court docket. The photographer gained.

ALSO READ | Sundance movie pageant goes wild for attractive company thriller ‘Fair Play’

Shields, who has written two memoirs, has been approached about documentaries earlier than and all the time mentioned no. But now 57, with a child going off to varsity, the encouragement of her buddy Ali Wentworth and a typically good feeling about the place she is in life after years of remedy, Shields felt the time was proper.

As Wilson mentioned, “She was ready to go there,” together with talking about her time at Princeton, her friendship with Michael Jackson, her turbulent relationship with Andre Agassi and the time her outdated “Endless Love” co-star Tom Cruise went on a publicity tour to criticize her use of antidepressants for post-partum melancholy. He’d later apologize.

Wilson was recent off the Taylor Swift documentary “Miss Americana” when she acquired a name from her agent asking if she wished to fulfill Shields concerning the potential mission.

“I wasn’t certain at first because I had just come off another project about a celebrity,” Wilson mentioned. “But I was curious at the same time.”

After the assembly, Shields handed her a tough drive. It was an archive of clips and interviews she’d achieved over a long time that her mom had assembled. There was over 1,000 hours of fabric, organized by 12 months. Wilson began opening up random information: There are Shields on the Reagan White House, there she is dancing with 12 poodles on “Circus of the Stars,” or in a prairie gown singing about loving males. Then she acquired to the “Pretty Baby” press tour.

“She’s sitting there with a series of male talk show hosts being complimented on her beauty and her body and her sensuality, but at the same time being criticized for being an exhibitionist, for going too far, for appearing in what some said was child pornography,” Wilson mentioned. “I started to think about Brooke at age 12 in that situation and about how all girls start to form their own identities. How can you form your identity in a society that defines you exclusively by your status as a sexual object? It’s something a lot of women and girls navigate privately and Brooke was having to do it in public.”

The Associated Press doesn’t sometimes identify victims of sexual assault, until they arrive ahead publicly.

It’s a narrative that’s neither new in Hollywood, neither is it historic historical past. Wilson pointed to Shirley Temple, Jodie Foster, Penelope Cruz, Natalie Portman and Kirsten Dunst as a few of the many examples of actors who have been sexualized to numerous levels in early roles.

One of Shields’ greatest issues in beginning the mission was that her late mom can be vilified another time. But Wilson noticed one thing new in trying again, one thing she thought was value exploring.

“It was a way of distracting from these much bigger questions about the people who are actually in charge of the movies, of the ads, of the entertainment system,” Wilson mentioned. “Teri became the scapegoat when much bigger questions should have been asked of the people who really had power and of everyone watching it.”

Wilson spent 4 very lengthy days interviewing Shields for “Pretty Baby.”

“I’m very lucky she was game for it,” Wilson mentioned.

“Pretty Baby,” she mentioned, isn’t complete by any means. There are issues within the memoirs that aren’t within the movie. But there’s a cultural context that she helps craft within the movie that’s not within the memoirs. And, the throughline is Brooke’s journey to gaining company, over her thoughts, her profession, and her identification.

Choosing to talk about the sexual assault is only one a part of that.

“She is so honest and candid about how hard she was on herself, about the experience, how she blamed herself in so many ways that I think are heartbreaking to hear, but also very relatable,” Wilson mentioned. “It’s something she’s grappled with for a long time and is grappling with still. Getting a window into that experience that isn’t neatly resolved is powerful.”