Brooke Shields admitted on the Drew Barrymore Show that she sent a call from Randal Kleiser, The Blue Lagoon director, to voicemail. The call came shortly after a tell-all documentary about her life, titled Pretty Baby, was released on Hulu. Shields made this admission in response to a question about whether any of the male directors mentioned in the documentary had contacted her.
In the documentary, Shields has made several allegations against Kleiser, as well as Pretty Baby (1978) director Louis Malle and Endless Love director Franco Zeffirelli. The allegations against Kleiser include the claim that Shields was exploited and sexualized in the film at the age of 14, and that the director was responsible for it.
Shields had previously claimed that the movie’s producers urged her and her co-star Christopher Atkins to have a real-life romantic relationship to make the film more authentic. However, their age difference (Atkins was 18 at the time) made both of them uncomfortable.
Discussing the incident on the show Shields said: “I saw [Kleiser’s] name on my phone, and I was like, ‘Oh, what do I do?’ and I let it go to voicemail. Because I was like, ‘I want to see what the tone is.’”
“He wants to chat. I don’t know about what, but I don’t feel like bringing any of it back up again,” Shields added, making her sentiments on the matter quite clear.
Here’s a clip of what was said on the show:
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In the documentary, talking about the inappropriateness of the notion of a child being asked to do sexually explicit scenes, Shields said: “They wanted to sell my actual sexual awakening. The irony was, I wasn’t in touch with any of my own sexuality.”
“They wanted to make it a reality show,” she added. The documentary also quotes Kleiser telling a newspaper: “It’s real, she’s going from a child to a woman during the filming.”
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The 1980s film shows two young cousins (Shields and Christopher Atkins) stranded on a deserted island. As the characters grow up and mature into adulthood, they fall in love and engage in a sexual relationship, ultimately resulting in the birth of a child.
In the two-part documentary, Shields has also discussed the sexual impropriety of an 11-year-old playing a child prostitute in Pretty Baby, and Franco Zeffirelli’s abusive methods for making her look sexually aroused on screen.
Shields said in the documentary: “Zeffirelli kept grabbing my toe and, like, twisting it so that I had a look of… I guess ecstasy?”
She added: “But it was more angst than anything because he was hurting me.”
Apart from the fact that these films showed child actors in a sexually explicit light, Shields also believes that these directors failed to protect her interests and innocence in real life: “It was about these males needing me to be in a certain category to serve their story, and it never was about me, it was not protective of me. It was fun and loving at times, but I was just there. I was a pawn, I was a piece, I was a commodity.”
Pretty Baby does not only offer an in-depth look into Brooke Shields’ life as a child actor and the objectification she faced at a young age. It also delves into the complexities of her relationship with her deceased mother. Highlighting how it influenced her experiences in the entertainment industry. It also brings up allegations of sexual assault against an unnamed Hollywood director.
The film also underlines Shields’ resilience and her journey of self-discovery, as well as her efforts to bring attention to the challenges faced by women in the industry.
The documentary sheds light on the importance of confronting uncomfortable truths and creating a safer, more supportive environment for women in the entertainment industry. Here’s how you can watch Pretty Baby on Hulu outside USA.
