Craig Barritt/Getty
Brooke Shields has never hesitated to talk about how she was sexualized as a child star in Hollywood. But now the actress has revealed she was raped as a young adult.
in a new documentary pretty baby, In the film, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on Friday, Shields didn’t name the attacker, but he was struggling to find a job after his early success just after graduating from Princeton University. Shields had dinner with the man in question and ostensibly discussed work. She then returned to her hotel room and waited for a taxi to be called. rice field.
“He said, ‘Come back to the hotel and I’ll call you a cab,'” Shields explains in the film. “And when I went to the hotel room, he disappeared for a while.”
Mr. Shields, who felt uncomfortable that it was not his room, decided to observe the volleyball player outside the window using the binoculars that the man left in the room. “The door opened and this guy came out naked and I had my binoculars and was like, ‘S—‘,” she continues. is perfect for me, just like wrestling.”
Continuing her explanation, Shields explained that she did not try to escape. “So I didn’t fight that much. I didn’t. I was completely frozen. I thought one ‘no’ was enough. I knew how to disconnect from my body. I I was practicing it….I got off the elevator and got my own taxi.I cried all the way to my friend’s apartment.
For a long time, the actress didn’t even handle the experience as sexual assault. And I said, ‘I don’t want to believe that,'” she says.
Shields appeared nude in the 1978 film, kissed 29-year-old Keith Carradine, and had already been sexualized by Hollywood. pretty baby (lending the documentary its title) when she was only 11. At 15, she starred in two more films, blue coral reef When Everlasting love, It included sex and nudity, and an ad for her iconic Calvin Klein jeans that advertised “nothing comes between me and my Calvin.”
Getty Images/Courtesy of Sundance Institute Brooke Shields stars in the documentary Pretty Baby, which premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.
Even with that history, Shields couldn’t help but feel somehow responsible for his own assault. “That was what my brain had to do,” she admits. “He told me, ‘I can trust you, but I can’t trust people.'” That was the way I received the message. We drank wine at dinner. I went up to my room. I trusted him so much.”
She went on to say that she wrote to her attacker that she had destroyed a “huge trust” in him, but that it was dismissed.
“I just put my hands up and said, ‘I refuse to be a victim because this is going to happen regardless of who you are and whether you are ready or not. “I wanted to erase everything from my mind and body and go my own way. The system never helped me. So I had to become stronger.”
Shields has previously addressed being sexualized from an early age in two memoirs. However, this is the first time she has revealed an attack of this kind.
Lena Wilson (Miss Americana) will direct the documentary, which will air on Hulu later this year.
Additional reporting by Mike Miller.
Want more movie news?Apply Entertainment Weekly’s Free Newsletter Get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, movie reviews and more.
Relevant content:
