Brooke Sheilds takes control of the narrative by sharing her story in her own words in the Hulu documentary Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields, from director Lana Wilson.
From Matador Content and BedBy8 for ABC News Studio, the film follows Shields from her early years as a blossoming model and actress to her present day as a powerful woman, mother, wife and performer with a career spanning more than four decades. It also touches on her complicated relationship with her mother and manager Teri Shields and how working on early projects including Louis Malle’s Pretty Baby, Randal Kleiser’s The Blue Lagoon and Franco Zeffirelli’s Endless Love — all before age 16 — left her vulnerable to public criticism and unwanted attention from adult men.
Now, Shields is ready to tell her story in her own words.
“It was the right time, and it also felt very good to finally — you know, nobody really ever asked me my opinion and nobody was really interested in it,” Shields said during a panel for the film at Deadline’s Contenders Television: Documentary + Unscripted virtual event. “They wanted the narrative to be what they wanted to project onto it. So it was very important and very special for me to be able to say, ‘OK, you’ve all said what you had to say, now let me tell you the truth.’”
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Shields knew she was in the right hands with Wilson, already having been a fan of her body of work. But even with the right people on her team, the journey was emotional for the Suddenly Susan actress.
“It was everything; it was definitely very emotional,” she reflected. “There were parts of it that were cathartic. There were parts that made me sad. For the first time ever seeing my whole life all the way through, which I’d never done before, was the first time two things happened: I absolutely marveled at the strength that was always there in this little girl that somehow was stubborn enough to keep going and keep fighting for what she knew she needed in our life and in different ways, and I’m so proud of my body of work. I’ve been so used to being just famous or pretty or infamous or controversial or all of these things. And all the while, I’ve been most motivated and attached only really to my actual talent and how I keep growing and being creative and sort of see it all — it made me very proud.”
While on this journey with Shields, Wilson was impacted by her documentary subject’s story, which taught her a lot about the type of mom she wanted to be.
“I actually became a mother while making this,” she said. “I found it incredibly extra personal and really inspiring looking at Brooke’s life, her relationship with her mom and her relationship with her daughters today. If I could create a dinner table like hers, where my kid is able to speak freely and feel supported, having a family dynamic where people can push back against each other and disagree and debate but also understand and be willing to learn and challenge and grow in the way you see Brooke and her whole family in that final scene of the documentary, I think that would be incredible.
“I also think that right now in the age of social media, there are really thorny issues and questions that don’t have any easy answers,” Wilson added. “I think we’re all just trying to feel good about ourselves within the framework we’ve been given. I’ve personally thought about how I think teenagers should wear whatever they want and express their sexuality and personality and identity however they want. I do think the adults who are making the dominant visual culture of advertisements in movies and TV should really look at what they’re doing. Are we only representing a really narrow slice of what it means to be female and what sexual empowerment looks like? So I hope the documentary is provocative and leaves you with a lot of questions and starts a lot of urgent conversations.”
Check back Monday for the panel video.
