Brooke Shields Breaks Silence About Sexual Assault
April 3 marked one year since Brooke Shields released her bombshell documentary Brooke Shields: Pretty Baby. The documentary took a look at Brooke’s experience as a young actress in Hollywood and her journey into becoming a woman with her own voice in the industry. Part of the doc also revealed how she was the victim of sexual assault. Keep reading to see what she shared.
Looking Back On Brooke Shields’ Docuseries
Pretty Baby addressed a lot of the sexualization Brooke Shields was subjected to as a young actress in Hollywood. She grew up in the spotlight, with some of her first jobs starting when she was an infant. The 1977 film Pretty Baby, which the documentary is named after, essentially globalized the sexualization of the child star.
People were floored at the revelations that Shields made in the two-part series. She also opened up, for the first time, about her experience with sexual assault. The model said that she was assaulted by a popular Hollywood executive more than 30 years ago. According to her, it impacted multiple areas of her life moving forward.
She didn’t say a word to anyone at the time, fearing for the future of her career. “No one is going to believe me,” she said. “People weren’t believing those stories back then. I thought I would never work again.” The Blue Lagoon star also said that she blamed herself at the time, telling herself she shouldn’t have been in that situation. It didn’t stop her from continuing though.
Shields Gained ‘Agency Over Her Own Life’
“I always kept going, like a bull in a china shop. I will not be defeated,” she told People at the time of the release of the docuseries.
At the age of 12, Brooke Shields was a well-known star around the world. She admitted that she always felt embarrassed by the attention she got.
“I would be asked stupid questions like, ‘How does it feel to be beautiful?’ And what went through my mind was, ‘How does it feel to be stupid?’” she said. “To sit there, even though it was under the guise of adoration—there’s nothing you can respond to, because they’re just telling me what I look like.”
When she reflects on her life and all of her experiences, Brooke Shields says that it is a “miracle” that she survived.
The documentary director Lana Wilson said that seeing Brooke Shields come forward to tell her story was amazing. “I saw someone who gradually gained agency over her own life,” Wilson said. “Brooke was open, game for anything, fearless. The only concern she voiced at that first meeting was that this wouldn’t be deep enough.”
At the end of the series, both Wilson and Shields say that it was a story of perseverance.
Brooke Shields: Pretty Baby is available to stream on Hulu.
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