Brooke Shields has opened up on the sexualisation she experienced as a child actor.
The Hollywood actress spoke on a panel at SXSW and said: “Hollywood is predicated on eating its young […] At 58 you’re too old to be the ingenue but not quite the granny yet. 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.”
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She continued: “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… we’re not just wrinkle cream.”
(Image: @brookeshields/instagram)
Shields urged her fans to “change the narrative” and say “there is beauty in this age”. At the event, Brooke joined Meghan Markle and Katie Couric in “breaking barriers” and “women’s representation”.
The actress also said she was at the “centre” of Hollywood sexualising young women. Shields was 11-years-old when she was forced to kiss actor Keith Carradine, who was 27 at the time, in 1978’s Pretty Baby.
(Image: Getty Images)
Throughout the film, Brooke played a prostitute and just a year earlier, the actress was made to take part in a nude photoshoot for Playboy. Shields discussed the horrifying things that happened to her and said: “There was this sexualisation of young women and I was at the centre of it. I was promoting it, I was surrounded by a strong mom, had a community around me. I did not become the type of statistic that Hollywood created.”
(Image: Getty Images)
In her documentary Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields, the star’s own daughter branded Pretty Baby as “child pornography” and refused to watch the disturbing 70s film. She even questioned her mother: “Would you have let us [do that] at the age of 11?!”
Brooke responded with a “no” and later told The Sunday Times magazine that it was “hard” not to try and “justify her mother’s decision” to let her take on the role. Shields has gone on to discuss her mother and said: “I don’t know why she thought it was all right. I don’t know.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
