Brooke Shields reflects on being made 'sex symbol' so young after starring in intimate scenes aged 11
Actress Brooke Shields has opened up about the pressures of living up to expectations set during the controversial start to her career.
The film star began modelling when she was just 11-months-old, before bagging her first major movie role at the age of 11 in Pretty Baby, which ultimately became a career defining moment for her.
In the 1978 flick, she played a child prostitute living in New Orleans - and appeared nude in several scenes, while she also kissed her then-27-year-old co-star Keith Carradine.
Five decades later, the disturbing storyline of Pretty Baby remains a prominent topic of conversation surrounding Shields, due to how she was sexualised while still a child.
Advert
Now 60, The Blue Lagoon actress has opened up about how her early roles somewhat set a precedent for her career - and how she felt pigeonholed as some kind of 'sex symbol'.
Shields credits her guest appearance on Friends in 1996 as a turning point for her, as it made her realise she was 'happiest' when being comedic rather than commodified as something she did not want to be.
The former model memorably licked Matt LeBlanc's fingers while playing an obsessive fan who believed that his Days of Our Lives character, Dr Drake Ramoray, was actually a real person.
Reflecting on how she much preferred bringing viewers laughter in Friends rather than being objectified like in her other roles, she told AARP: "Believe me, I would’ve done it a couple of decades before.
“But that wasn’t what people wanted of me. They wanted me to be this, I don’t know, sex symbol...and that was fine.
"Doing sketch comedy. I was always happiest."
In a two-part documentary titled Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields, the star previously sobbed as she reflected on her mother's decision to allow her to film intimate scenes when she was a child.
Her two daughters, Rowan, 23, and Grier, 20, appeared in the documentary and asked their famous mother whether she would allow them to do the same as her parent, Teri, had.
Heartbreakingly, she was seen breaking down in tears as she simply responded: "No."
You can take a look at the trailer for Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields here:
Shields also admitted she struggled to explain the reasoning behind Teri's decision to her own children during an interview with The Sunday Times in 2023.
"That was hard for me, to not justify my mum to them," she explained. "I mean, I could say, ‘Oh, it was the time back then,’ or ‘Oh, it was art.’ But I don’t know why she thought it was all right. I don’t know."
Despite her mother's actions, Shields said that she doesn't fully blame her and that she found it difficult to be angry towards her.
"Everyone always wanted me to be angry with her," Shields said. "But anger was just too sad for me to take when I looked at how insecure she was."
The actress also addressed the freedom that her guest appearance in Friends gave her during a recent interview with People, where she discussed her new series You’re Killing Me.
When asked about the 'pushback' she received following the cameo where she played quite an unhinged character, Shields again reiterated how the gig allowed her to move away from the industry's expectations of her.
She said: "It was, 'No, it makes the stakes too high, makes you look crazy'. I was like, 'The more crazy she looks, the better it’s going to be'. And then the payoff happened.
"I grew up in entertainment, modelling and fashion, and that’s mostly predicated on other people’s imprinting on you.
"And it took me a long time, longer than I hope for my girls, to realise that my voice really was important."
Olivia Burke