“Pretty Baby,” a two-part documentary about the intense highs and lows of American icon Brooke Shields, brought the house down with its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on Friday.
The doc explores Shields’ horrific sexualization beginning at age 9, her subsequent top-level modeling and acting career, and the urgent conversations she inspired about what society expects of women.
Directed by Lana Wilson (Taylor Swift’s Miss Americana), “Pretty Baby” tackles pivotal events in Shields’ life that, in a post-#MeToo world, shocked the audience at the Eccles Theater in Park City. Pre-pubescent nude photo shoots, male talk show hosts asking if 12-year-old Shields likes being a sex symbol, the horrors of an alcoholic mother and manager, and Shields’ notable public battles with the likes of Tom Cruise are all on the table.
“I have always considered it an important part of my journey to be as honest as possible. Not just outside, but to myself,” Shields said during the Questions and Answers after the documentary premiered to a standing ovation. “I didn’t want to be locked up. The industry I’m in makes you closeted. I didn’t want to lose out on that.”
An interesting mix of taking chapters from her life fills out the document to offer insights. Childhood friend Laura Linney, Lionel Richie, Ali Wentworth and security czar Gavin de Becker pop out. Drew Barrymore, sitting cross-legged and barefoot on a stool, confirmed the confusion and difficulties that come with being a child star. A particularly horrifying moment came during a segment of The Blue Lagoon, the landmark film about manly teenagers in love on a deserted island. Director Randall Claeser, the doc claims, actively constructed a narrative in the press that Shields was coming of age in real time with her character.
“They wanted to turn it into a reality show,” Shields said. “They wanted to sell my sexual awakening.”
Perhaps, the work suggests, that’s why Shields interrupted his torrid career streak to study at Princeton University.
“Brooke insisted on taking control of her mind, her career, her future. I found it remarkable and very contemporary in so many ways,” Wilson told the audience.
Throughout her adulthood, Shields described her attraction to a figure she claimed was as “controlling” as her own mother — tennis star Andre Agassi, whom she says was torn by jealousy as she burst onto the scene in sitcoms like Friends ” and “ Suddenly Susan. The battles were not private.
After marrying her now-husband Chris Henchy, Shields struggled to conceive. After many attempts, she gave birth to a daughter, Rowan, and immediately fell into an unknown and extreme depression. In 2005, she authored the book Down Came the Rain: My Journey Through Postpartum Depression.
At the same time Shields was promoting the book, Tom Cruise was touring for his Steven Spielberg-directed action film War of the Worlds. Cruise, the most prominent member of the Church of Scientology opposed to therapy and prescription drugs, publicly attacked Shields for promoting anti-depressants. He went so far as to call her “dangerous.”
In the document, Shields described the incident as “ridiculous.”
During one scene in the documentary, the camera zooms in on the headline “What Tom Cruise Doesn’t Know About Estrogen” from a New York Times op-ed she wrote in response to Cruise. The Eccles family cheered and did so again after actor Judd Nelson quoted his friend Shields at the time: “Tom Cruise should stick to fighting aliens.”
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