Brooke Shields

The star, who's been a lightning rod for attention since she was a child, on how she has survived controversy and life in the public eye.

She was a maternal figure for me in the film, and she was very serious. I thought, O.K., you’re just going to sit here and take this, and you’re going to not flinch. I just sat there as I repeatedly got slapped in the face. I was a golden-retriever puppy. I had already had my nap, so I was in a good mood, whereas all the other kids were crying and angry and sad and tired, so I got the part. I wanted so much approval from her—as a woman, as an actress, as a mom. And it’s a love story.” He wouldn’t have said “coming of age” at that point, because I don’t think I would have understood it, but he was talking about the mother and the daughter. It was about an innocent, and how that innocence gets taken—and her choice to not be a victim. It’s about a girl who lives in a brothel in 1917 New Orleans—in a way, as you were saying about yourself, not knowing that this isn’t anything but normal—and then following her mother’s footsteps and becoming a sex worker. I’ve seen actors go from anonymity to fame overnight, and the shock to their system is what undoes them—whereas I only knew working, and I only knew school and jobs. I value that movie in such a different way and wrote my thesis on it. (As Pauline Kael put it, “All we have to look forward to is: When are these two going to discover fornication?”) The film, released in the summer of 1980, turned Shields into a provocative sex symbol, once again putting her on a pedestal that felt more like a witness stand.

Her first major film role, at age eleven, was in Louis Malle's 1978 Pretty Baby, about a child prostitute in early 20th-century New Orleans. Shields was ...

She was a mother figure to me in the film and she was very serious. And in the end I felt like I won because I was unimpressed. I had raised her in a way since she was a little girl. I remember changing the way I reacted to her during the slapping scene. I had already taken my nap so I was in a good mood while all the other kids were crying and angry and sad and tired so I got the role. How were the characters and plot described to you, and who described them? It was about an innocent woman and how that innocence is taken – and her decision not to be a victim. Chronologically, what I want to talk about next is very complicated, which is your breakthrough role in the Louis Malle film Pretty Baby. It wasn’t an audition; It was a meeting. I’ve watched actors go from anonymity to fame overnight, and the shock to their system shatters them — while all I knew was work and all I knew was school and jobs. I went to school in Manhattan and didn’t work until three o’clock. But what’s so interesting about memory is that the story has been told so many times that something in my psyche is convinced I’m remembering a room full of people and tons of soap.

The actor and model spoke ahead of her forthcoming two-part documentary Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields, which will be released on Hulu on 3 April.

If you are a child and you need help because something has happened to you, you can call the NSPCC free of charge on 0800 1111. You can also call the NSPCC if you are an adult and you are worried about a child, on 0808 800 5000. There was one moment when we were in the car and the cameras were there and he grabbed me to kiss me, and I said, ‘No! Shields attended Jackson’s public memorial service, which was held at the Staples Centre in LA. Then I could figure out how to structure the narrative in my head. He died in 2009 at the age of 50.

Brooke Shields spoke about when Michael Jackson wrongly suggested the pair were in a relationship which left her completely enraged by his comments.

She added: "There was one moment when we were in the car and the cameras were there and he grabbed me to kiss me and I said, ‘No! I don't know." "That was … But it never even crossed my mind," she told I am having a shot at a normal life — you cannot drag me into crazy town.’" We are just friends and you need me as a friend.’

She said she had a spat with Jackson after he falsely claimed the pair were dating during a live TV special with Oprah Winfrey. In an interview with The Sunday ...

But I’m as shocked as I think the world is,” she told the magazine. In an interview with The Sunday Times Magazine, she said: “I called him up and I think I said, ‘This is kind of pathetic that you need to do this. I wish I knew the truth. Then I could figure out how to structure the narrative in my head. I don’t know how to think about it. Actress Brooke Shields has opened up about her friendship with Michael Jackson.