Brooke Shields mirrored on being sexualized as a toddler star in Hollywood.
The 58-year-old actress rose to fame on the age of 11 when she performed a toddler prostitute within the controversial 1978 movie “Pretty Baby,” which featured Shields in a number of nude scenes. As a 10-year-old, Shields posed bare for the Playboy publication Sugar’n’Spice.
On Friday, Shields marked Worldwide Ladies’s Day as she appeared alongside Meghan Markle and Katie Couric on the SXSW panel, “Breaking Barriers, Shaping Narratives: How Women Lead On and Off the Screen.” In the course of the panel dialogue, she weighed on the “sexualization” of younger girls, particularly in our nation.
“I was at the center of it,” Shields stated. “And I was promoting it and I was doing it.”
Brooke Shields opened up about being sexualized as a toddler star. (Getty)
She continued, “And I was lucky because I was surrounded by a very strong mom. I never did move to Hollywood. I always went to regular school.”
“So I had this sort of community around me that was protecting me, buoying me. And so I did not become the type of statistic that Hollywood created,” Shields added.
“Hollywood is predicated on eating its young.”
Shields spoke about her expertise whereas on a panel at SXSW. (Gary Miller/Getty Pictures)
Shields’ late mom Teri managed her profession from the time she made her modeling debut at 11 months outdated into her 20s and sometimes confronted backlash for permitting her daughter to tackle racy roles at a younger age. Teri died at age 79 in 2012 after an extended sickness associated to dementia.
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Whereas showing on the SXSW panel, Shields additionally opened up about ageism in Hollywood.
“At 58 you’re too old to be the ingénue but not quite the granny yet,” Shields stated.
She continued, “I find my reaction is to instead of get angry, find and ferret out the filmmakers who appreciate a woman over 40 and appreciate the life experience, the ‘we’ve raised the children, we’ve had the families, we’ve had businesses, we’ve had professional lives, we’ve left them, we’ve gone back to them.”
“There are people out there who want to cater their programming to women of that age.”
“My entire career has been built on beauty, as I’ve gotten older I want my message to be appreciative, but beauty as a wellness,” she added. “We’re not just wrinkle cream.”
“We need to change the narrative and say that there is beauty in this age.”
Shields appeared alongside Meghan Markle, Katie Couric, Brooke Shields and Nancy Wang Yuen on Friday. (Getty)
Final yr, Shields starred within the two-part Hulu documentary collection “Pretty Baby, “which took an all-encompassing look again on the actress’s profession and detailed the extraordinary media scrutiny she confronted as a toddler star.
In an interview with the Related Press, the mannequin defined why opening up about her sexual assault by an unnamed business skilled was essentially the most troublesome a part of telling her life story.
She continued, “And yet I knew that if I didn’t, I would have felt like a hypocrite or inauthentic. I haven’t been able to talk about it up until now, and then it felt like, you sort of owe it to yourself.”
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“And I just hoped that out of two hours and however many minutes, the one brief story — I mean, I knew it’s going to be clickbait — but I was worried that I would get let down again by the press.”
The 2-time Golden Globe nominee defined that she developed coping mechanisms to deal with the unrelenting press protection and her late mother’s drinking problem.
“I think that happens with a child of an alcoholic,” she advised AP. “You know, you really do learn to compartmentalize.”
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She continued, “You love a person who is very broken and has a disease that they cannot seem to get under control. But you can’t afford to have their love not be real.”
“So you learn, when things felt …not in control…I would become very organized, and that sort of was my center, that was my meditation, you know, redoing my Filofax or refolding my socks.”
Shields mentioned the sophisticated relationship she had with mom Teri in her documentary “Pretty Baby.” (Jack Mitchell)
Shields additionally mirrored on gaining a confidence in her expertise that she did not have in her youthful years. The “A Castle For Christmas” star elaborated on the that means behind a press release she makes within the documentary, through which she stated she is “owning her identity fully.”
“I made myself small for so long, either to be relatable or to not be threatening or humbled, you know?,” she advised the Related Press.
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She continued, “Don’t be a snob. Don’t be arrogant. Have people like you. Be kind to everyone. It was like this the way I grew up, and I was rewarded for it.”
“I’m saying that it’s okay to pat myself on the shoulder a little bit. It’s okay to say I really do have talent because I wouldn’t still be here if I didn’t. It’s not just because I’m smart or just because I look a certain way. I’ve maintained a career and kept challenging myself, and I don’t think I ever felt confident enough to say it out loud. I always just wanted other people’s approval about my talent, never thinking that I could give it to myself.”
