Within Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields In a documentary that premiered Friday at the Sundance Film Festival in the United States, American actress Brooke Shields reveals that she was raped early in her Hollywood career.
The former supermodel has kept the identity of her attacker a secret, but said she tracked down the man – whom she knew – shortly after graduating from college, believing he had shown up at a work meeting to discuss her casting call for a new movie. .
The man took her back to her hotel, saying that he wanted to call a taxi for her from her room. Instead, he went to the bathroom before going out naked and raping her, he said.
“It was like a fight… I was afraid of suffocating or something like that,” the actress testifies in the documentary.
“I didn’t fight much. I didn’t. I was completely petrified. I thought my ‘no’ should have been enough. And I was like, ‘stay alive and go.'”
intense sexualization
After the assault, Brooke Shields recalls calling a friend who worked in security, Gavin de Becker, who told her, “It’s rape,” to which she replied, “I’m not ready to believe it.”
Until now, the actress had never publicly commented on her aggression. This revelation, which echoes the #MeToo wave, is one of many poignant moments in the film, which will premiere on streaming platform Hulu in two parts.
The first part is dedicated to the intense sexualization that Brooke Shields was subjected to at a very young age, in particular during a nude photo shoot at the age of 10, as well as after her appearance in the film at the age of 11. Pretty Baby in which she played a prostitute girl.
The documentary sees a young Brooke Shields facing lecherous questions from much older men on talk shows about her roles in movies like The blue Lagoon Where an endless loveand the controversial series of Calvin Klein commercials in which he appeared.
standing ovation
After experiencing global stardom as a teenager, the youngster went to Princeton University. After graduating, she initially struggled to find papers again, which led to her grim encounter with her rapist.
“My personal message is perseverance, and not allowing yourself to be a victim in the eyes of any society or industry,” he told AFP before the film’s premiere at the festival held until January 29 in Utah (western United States). ) -for the first time face to face in three years, because of the Covid-19.
“I am proud of how I have continued to learn, grow, work and love what I do,” she added.
The documentary, which earned Brooke Shields a standing ovation at Sundance, also chronicles the media’s obsession with her virginity, her mother’s alcoholism and her first marriage to tennis star Andre Agassi. Several of her famous friends are interviewed there, including Lionel Richie, Laura Linney, and Drew Barrymore.
The actress, now 57, said it was “the right time in (her) life” to appear in a documentary.
Source: BFM TV
