In Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields, the actress and model documents her life and career, from the brief marriage that she was born into in 1965, through her time as a little kid in commercials, her period as a controversial teen star, and through the present day. Directed by Lana Wilson (Ali Wentworth and George Stephanopoulos are among the executive producers), the two part, 140-minute documentary uses the extensive archival footage available of Shields, along with a new interview with the star, people like childhood friend Laura Linney and interviews with culture reporters and film historians, to tell Shields’ story.
Opening Shot: Mike Douglas asks a 13-year-old Brooke Shields how she feels about the fuss that’s being made over her. “I think it’s kinda fun,” she replies. She’s sitting with her mother Teri; Douglas then goes on to have the audience cheer about how pretty she is.
The Gist: The first episode of the two-part documentary takes viewers through Shields’ time as a child star, including the late-’70s-to-early-’80s time period when she was starring in films like Pretty Baby, The Blue Lagoon and Endless Love, where she was portrayed in roles that showed her in a sexual light well beyond her years. This also includes her series of Calvin Klein Jeans ads where the then 16-year-old Shields would say tag lines like “Nothing comes between me and my Calvins. Nothing.”
What Shields and the other people interviewed discuss is that, even during that more permissive time, her positioning in these sexy roles was considered controversial. And, as she mentions, most of the questioning was about her looks and about topics that seemed to be wildly inappropriate for a teenager. For her part, Shields discusses disassociating herself from her body during the filming of Endless Love, where director Franco Zeffirelli would twist her toe during the love scenes to get a reaction out of her.
Much of the first episode also examines her relationship with her mother/manager Teri. The two were very close, but as much as she’s seen in public as the worst example of a “momager,” Shields was more sanguine about Teri’s alcoholism, which would make her unpredictable and tough to deal with.
The first episode also examines her time at Princeton University, where she not only just wanted to be a regular college kid, but also wanted to become more independent from her mother, able to make her own decisions and voice her own desires. The second episode discusses her post-college career, including her turn on Friends, her tumultuous marriage to Andre Agassi, and a shocking (but not surprising) story about being a victim of sexual assault.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields certainly has the same intimate quality of celebrity documentaries like Dolly Parton: Here I Am or Demi Lovato: Simply Complicated.
Our Take: Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields is definitely not one of those documentaries where we follow the celebrity around during their every day life. There’s a scene at the beginning of the docuseries where Shields is feeding her dog, and an extended scene where she’s having dinner with her husband Chris Henchy and their daughters Rowan and Grier where she discusses her child star years with them. But, for the most part, this is more of the traditional talking-head-and-clips documentary. That format works, though, because of the fact that Shields is so open about all of the fascinating aspects of her life.
Yes, it’s fascinating to see some of the perspectives about her life, especially from Linney, whom we were surprised has known Shields since they were both kids. Some interview clips from Drew Barrymore show just how common the experience of being an overly-sexualized teenage star can be. But the most fascinating perspective is from Shields herself.
We know her now as this smart, funny and slightly nerdy personality. But 40 or so years ago, no one saw that side of her. She was either characterized as a teenage sexpot or a young adult prude, but nothing in between. When she talks about all of this, she doesn’t talk about it in the form of someone who was traumatized by it, but of someone who was more bemused by it, almost watching the circus go on from outside her body.
That sort of attitude is likely why she never suffered the fate of other child stars, including Barrymore. She never bought into the hype and always considered herself the silly, goofy creative person she’s always been, no matter how many times people told her how beautiful she was.
The other fascinating part of Shields’ interview for the documentary is how she considered her relationship with her mother. It would have been easy for her to blame Teri for putting her in those sexy roles when she was a teenager, but she felt her relationship with her mother was more intertwined with Teri’s drinking issues than anything else. Living with an alcoholic was traumatic enough for her without having to worry about whether her mother was exploiting her or not.
Shields is very matter-of-fact about that time period, even when she discusses how she was treated on sets like Endless Love. She doesn’t think it’s acceptable, and wishes she was able to have agency over her body and roles at the time, but it doesn’t appear to have left the same kind of damage her mother’s alcoholism did.
The second episode has a few shocking moments, like her truly horrible rape story and the more amusing story of Agassi destroying all of his tennis trophies after he saw her funny guest role on Friends. But that’s definitely more of a story of Shields taking control of her life and career, including professionally cutting loose her mother. It’s an affirmation that Shields, as intelligent as a superstar as we’ve had, was able to shape her life into what she wanted it to be.
But the first episode is where the more interesting information lies, if only because it shows what Shields had to overcome when she was an adult.
Sex and Skin: Given how the first ten years of her career went, there’s nothing but talk of sex. But it’s ironic that, when she wrote a couple of sentences in a book about being a virgin, her image turned from one extreme to another, without taking in the nuances of her as a living, breathing human being.
Parting Shot: The first episode ends with a montage of shots from Shields as an adult, from her graduation from Princeton to her appearances on Oprah talking about postpartum depression.
Sleeper Star: Linney’s perspectives on her friend’s struggles were particularly illustrative of the pressures Shields felt during her teenage years. The fact that she was able to overcome them and be “normal,” whatever that really means, is amazing to us. Also, we were loving anytime Shields’ friend and Suddenly Susan co-star Judd Nelson popped up for a talking head; he’s still a little bonkers, even into his 60s.
Most Pilot-y Line: In Part 2, Michael Jackson tells Oprah during an early-’90s interview that he’s dating Shields. Why on earth would he do that, especially when she was dating Dean Cain (to whom she lost her virginity) at the time? Shields is still incredulous about that.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Without Shields’ participation, Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields would feel lurid and probing. But Shields’ refreshing honesty and pragmatic attitude showed us that, despite a tumultuous childhood, she came out of it mostly ok.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.