COVERSTORY  08.24

Brooke Shields

The Soul Inside Pretty Baby

Photography: Elliston Lutz
Hair: Thomas Hintermeier/Art Department
Make UP: Campbell Ritchie/Art Department
Styling: Caitlin Burke
Story by Diana Addison Lyle

Brooke Shields was world famous before she blew out her first birthday candle. At just 11 months old, her face was ubiquitously recognizable across the globe. By age 12, she was the lead actress in ‘Pretty Baby’ (1978), a film set in 1917 New Orleans wherein photographer, Ernest J. Bellocq, marries 12-year-old Violet (Brooke).

By the time Brooke crossed the threshold from childhood into adolescence, she was one of the ten most famous people on this planet with a staggering amount of camera voltage following her every move. Yet, despite being perpetually photographed, filmed and recorded, she maintained a colossal amount of dignity and poise in the face of unrelenting intrusiveness.

At just 14 years old, Brooke Shields became the youngest cover model on Vogue magazine. That same year, designer Calvin Klein capitalized on Brooke’s beauty and fame in his denim jeans commercials. He subsequently received one of the first major backlashes to the blatant sexualization of a teenage girl. The irony is that despite Brooke’s suggestive tagline, ‘You want to know what comes between me and my Calvin’s?’ she was one of the most chaste teenagers in the USA – becoming America’s virgin symbol for abstinence, and Nancy Reagan’s favorite young celebrity for a drug-free USA.

When interviewers cornered Brooke, she stood her ground with a calm resolve seldom ever encountered in someone so young. She refused to be steam-rolled, and politely suggested that it was time to move on to another question. She learned in her teenage years that when the captains of industries turned her into a commodity, they took away her voice, and she yearned to resurrect the voice that kept her rational faculties intact.

Despite Brooke’s box office successes in movies like ‘Pretty Baby’, ‘Blue Lagoon’ and ‘Endless Love’, it took the comedic route for her to naturally find her niche in a comfort zone wherein she beamed. With her self-deprecating humor fully charged, she went about downplaying her beauty in her 1997 hit comedy show, ‘Suddenly Susan’, for which she received a People’s Choice Award. She hammed up her railway-track braces as badges of honor, tripped over her own feet, and had a blast being regular, struggling Susan.

None of this is surprising when one hears Brooke’s closest childhood friends describe her as always laughing, and a bright, outward-looking child who was completely unaffected and disconnected from the camera. Brooke describes ‘Suddenly Susan’ as one of the happiest times in her professional life.

In this timely cover story, we are celebrating the recent Netflix May 2024 release of ‘Mother of the Bride’ in which Brooke sparkles as Lana, the mother of Emma (the bride). If you are looking for a wonderfully positive summer family movie shot in beautiful Phuket, Thailand, this is it, with Brooke in her element as mama Lana who is starting her own new, fulfilling chapter in life. I ask her about the whole ‘Mother of the Bride’ filming experience.

“We had the most delightful time all being together,” she says. “It was like going to summer camp, if you are one of those who likes summer camp, and it was wonderful to be in Phuket for over three months with terrific actors and comedians. We were all together in this beautiful environment wherein we spent all our free time together. Typically, on a movie location, everybody tends to go their separate ways at the end of the day’s shooting, but we stayed together with such a special camaraderie – much like if you were on tour with a theater production. We bonded with activities like pickleball, and it was all so unique and fun.”

For Brooke, particularly important in ‘Mother of the Bride’ is the uplifting message about a middle-aged woman’s right to new-found love, and she explains:

“From the perspective of the story line of the movie, it is about a woman in my age bracket who gets this second chance in life to find her own happiness. I was so happy that we could have a story line about that opportunity of having people vying for a mature woman because of her value. It mirrored what life looks like. I think in previous generations, society told us that attractiveness had an expiration date. We were programmed to believe that women of a certain age couldn’t be sexy. They’d done their duty by bearing children and raising them properly, and their mission in life was accomplished. This movie negates that outdated concept.”

Brooke Shields (Lana, Mother of the Bride) in Netflix’s ‘Mother of the Bride’

Somewhere in that little person was a mind that was able to dissect information and not let it destroy her. I seemed to be able to navigate those perfect storms

Brooke’s humor is immediately prevalent as she quips with an amusing inflection in her voice,

“Granted, not everyone looks like Benjamin Bratt!” (Benjamin is her love interest in the movie.)

“This idea that your daughter is starting a beautiful new chapter in her life by getting married, and that the mother of the bride gets to open her own happy chapter is wonderful. I was so honored to be a part of that positivity.”

In Brooke’s extensive career, she has more than proved her acting worth on Broadway in ‘Wonderful Town’, ‘Chicago’, ‘Cabaret’ and ‘Grease’, and her comedic chops in NBC’s television series ‘Suddenly Susan’ and ‘Lipstick Jungle’.

Strongly evident is the central role of humor in Brooke’s under-the-microscope life, and she endorses that emphatically.

“Humor is like oxygen,” she says passionately. “I have such an attachment to comedy because of how it allows all the dramatic moments to really resonate. If you have that lightness, it juxtaposes the really serious moments. If you think about it, even within the scope of tragedy, there are some truly funny moments. In a movie like ‘Mother of the Bride’ – humor is central to the movie’s value.”

I ask Brooke if humor abounded at home when she was a child.

“Oh, yes! I grew up with a great deal of humor. Both my mother and my father were very funny in very different ways, so my whole childhood, and the places wherein I found solace, centered around laughing.” It goes much deeper, given the complexity of her life and she explains.

“Comedy became my comforter – even in the lowest moments or the most uncomfortable situations. Humor is about finding levity in the darkest times. It’s not about making a joke at someone’s expense or about making fun at something that’s genuinely serious. Rather, it’s about humor giving us breathing space so that we can better face the heavy situation. I find it truly liberating and a healthy escape from taking oneself so seriously. Humor gives people permission to let it all out. It’s a great de-stressing mechanism.”

Given the pressures that Brooke faced as a child, as a teenager, and during her early adult life which included a high-profile marriage to tennis legend, Andre Agassi, she comments in her 2023 documentary entitled ‘Pretty Baby’ (Hulu) that she became an expert at compartmentalization from a young age.

I wonder if Brooke still views compartmentalizing as a useful coping skill in life, and she responds thoughtfully.

“I think that if we learn to tap into compartmentalizing strategically and knowledgably, and not use it to escape reality, it can really work for you. If one uses compartmentalization for avoidance purposes, then it starts to become dangerous.”

Brooke and husband Chris Henchy have two daughters, Rowan and Grier, who are now 21 and 18 years old. We share an in-depth chat on parenting in the 2020s, which seems appropriate given Brooke’s latest movie, and the fact that she always wanted to be a mom. The era in which she grew up is vastly different from today, and her parenting style is much different from her mother Terry, who was her steely career ‘momanger’. I ask Brooke if she feels that young people are being raised in a much healthier environment today.

The closest I ever came to a real identity in Hollywood was in comedy. In ‘Suddenly Susan’ and in ‘Lipstick’, I owned what was funny, and nobody could argue that with me

“Yes and no,” she answers carefully. “On the one hand, every young person now is emboldened to hold very strong opinions, and they are also told that they deserve the world. It’s a good thing to have opinions and to utilize that freedom of expression but there is a flip side, and it plays out in social media. The issue I have with social media is that it is often a distortion of the truth. It’s a carefully crafted piece of fiction that is put out there, and the audience doesn’t know that it’s a distortion on reality.”

“From the perspective of my children,” she continues, “they’ve grown up being seen and heard whereas my generation – definitely – were seen and NOT heard. My situation was slightly different because my mom and I talked about a lot of things together, but I also remember having this fear of not wanting to disappoint my mother. I’ve learned from that and have worked really hard at making sure that my daughters don’t feel that fear. They are not afraid to voice their opinions, and I encourage them to speak their minds – whether that’s hard for me to hear or not. The point is that it has nothing to do with me. It has everything to do with them and their level of comfort in being forthright.”

We discuss the pros and cons of the confidence-boosting techniques that parents and teachers employ with Gen Z’s. Brooke’s response is reliably rational.

“I’m not a proponent of every child getting a gold medal, because that doesn’t teach our kids about reality. But I do believe we are on the right track when it comes to giving our children the platform to express all their opinions. I never did that with my mother because it was taboo back then, and that’s not something I want in our family. It’s not healthy.”

“I’d say my concern about raising children in the 2020s,” she continues, “is that they have been given so many tools and choices, and not all of them are healthy. As parents, we’ll have to do a serious recalibration – particularly when pendulums have swung too far in a particular direction. I’m hoping that some moderation will happen and that we can swing back to a more moderate median on some key issues.”

Brooke is one of the few mega famous people whose life-long reputation is one of respect. She’s been a decades-long symbol of the responsible woman who’s conducted herself with dignity and integrity. Her academic grades earned her a coveted spot at Princeton University. Her maturity level as a child star far surpassed her chronological years, and I wonder if she was aware of it at the time.

“When I watched the final product of my 2023 documentary, ‘Pretty Baby’, she remembers, “I admit to giving myself more credit than I ever would have done in previous years. When I look back at all the interviews of me as a child, I am struck by the poise with which I conducted myself. I’m proud of the fact that even when I was eleven years old, I was able to push back at an interviewer and stand my ground by saying, ‘I think I have already answered that question and it seems that you don’t want my answer. Maybe we should go on to a different question.’”

Brooke goes on to say:

“Somewhere in that little person was a mind that was able to dissect information and not let it destroy her. I seemed to be able to navigate those perfect storms. I must give both my parents a lot of credit. Each of their lives was very different and they exposed me to very different situations. Each had a pro and a con. My mom had a great sense of humor, and she kept me away from Hollywood. My dad was very firm about conveying to me that we were not to acknowledge my fame or being an actress. I guess it was classic compartmentalization. I was told that all of that was never my real life. That turned out to be healthy because when it got taken away from me at various phases of my life, it wasn’t a calamity. My education was the priority, and I was able to transition over to Princeton University without missing a beat. That was something sacred to me. I knew that nobody could take my education away from me. I was shown these alternative paths and so Hollywood never had an opportunity to consume my whole identity. I could never be branded as that star child that never got an education. Despite the implicit message I received from Hollywood of ‘you have left us to go and get an education,’ I knew that it was vital for me. Hollywood wanted to own me and never have me question them. I chose to do what I knew was important for me and I wasn‘t going to be Svengali-ed by them.”

We discuss the all-important topic of finding one’s identity. Brooke has determinedly come into her own – truly solidifying her very strong identity.

“I think that sense of ownership is real now,” she explains, “because when I was a young woman, I had to behave and react to particular situations. I was never the initiator. I was never allowed the luxury of thinking, ‘is this what I want?’ Add to that the fact that I had a mother that I looked up to. She made all the decisions for me. I was often voiceless.”

(PHOTOS CLOCKWISE) Brooke Shields in Pretty Baby (1977), Brooke Shields, The Blue Lagoon (1980), Brooke Shields with father, Frank Shields and mother,Terri Shields © Nancy Barr / MediaPunch, Brooke Shields at Cannes Film Festival. 1980s USA Calvin Klein Magazine Advertisment

If we learn to tap into compartmentalizing strategically and knowledgably, and not use it to escape reality, it can really work. If one uses compartmentalization for avoidance purposes, then it starts to become dangerous

“I think the closest I ever came to a real identity in Hollywood was in comedy. In ‘Suddenly Susan’ and in ‘Lipstick’, I owned what was funny, and nobody could argue that with me. Those were my choices, whether you found them funny or not. I gained so much confidence in my comedy and in having opinions. If you look at other life choices, you get married and you have children. Then you are defined as ‘just a mom’. It takes a long time to separate yourself from all those relationships that have preceded you. I’m at a stage now where my children are off to college, and I have the freedom to indulge in getting to know myself. I’ve always had a sense of who I am, but it’s never felt like the freedom that it now is. There’s been a shift. I’m more selfish in a healthy way. I have more joy. I don’t take everything so seriously and I realize that most things don’t signal the end of the world. The things that I used to ascribe so much weight to – I have a more realistic perspective on. I’m way past the devastating reactionary phase of my younger days.”

The Mother’s Act of 2007 was passed by Congress. It came about after Brooke went public about the postpartum depression that she suffered after the birth of her first daughter, Rowan. She even wrote a book about it entitled, ‘Down Came the Rain’. She was instrumental in bringing to light a clinical condition filled with hidden shame that millions of women suffered worldwide. Until Brooke spoke up about the paralyzing condition, little was understood about it, and ignorance abounded. The significance of her proactive steps made history. She de-mystified postpartum and gave mothers permission to seek help. Looking back, she is proud of how she took her own devastating experience out of the darkness and helped others to find the light.

“When I went public about my own experience,” she explains, “the reaction I received confirmed to me how necessary it was to understand postpartum depression. I do recognize that my going public about it was a catalyst and a conduit to gaining better insight and doing something constructive with that insight.”

Brooke is quick to bring humor into the discussion by comedically knocking herself off the credit platform with the reminder that she didn’t provide the scientific breakthrough.

“I will never say that I single-handedly moved the mountain because I didn’t. What I am proud about is that I had the courage to tell my story. I was able to supersede the debilitating concept of fear, shame and embarrassment about my own condition. By doing that, it opened up the dialogue so that other people could tell their stories. I always hesitate to take credit for anything. Many professionals had been doing extensive research on the topic, and they had shared their knowledge, but they didn’t get the attention they should have gotten. What I did was use my public figure platform to open up the conversation.”

Brooke’s younger daughter, Grier, recently made the decision to pursue a modeling career, and I ask Brooke how she felt about her child going in a direction that she knows is complex.

“The hardest thing is not making your children’s decisions about you,” she says. “It’s about them. I was a young female in an industry where I was objectified, and so I’ve had substantial experience on the pros and the cons. What I do know is that I have no desire to be my daughter’s manager like my mother was for me. I was clear about not giving up my life like my mom did to provide me with the protection she determined I needed. Here’s what I also realized, and this is important: I don’t know the modeling industry. I never considered myself a professional model. Yeah, I did Calvin Klein campaigns as a teenager, but I never walked in fashion shows. I don’t know the ins and the outs of the industry. I have great respect for the super models of our era, but I wasn’t a part of that world. What I’ve done for Grier is get her an agent – so that they can protect her.”

“I also realize as a parent that you cannot protect your children from everything, and that life is about going through the pain. Getting hurt is part of life. You spend the first 20 years of your children’s lives trying to keep them out of harm’s way. After that, if they fall down and skin their knees, hopefully they’ll learn a valuable lesson. When my girls were little kids, I never dramatized their falls. If they tripped on something, I reacted positively by saying, ‘that was a smart fall. Let’s get up.’ That way you keep their fear at bay, and they learn to pick themselves up without a fuss being made. Fast forward to my daughter and modeling, I try to be sensible. She’s still going to college. That’s four years, and she has summers and plenty of time to figure out what works for her.”

I was able to transition over to Princeton University without missing a beat. That was something sacred to me. I knew that nobody could take my education away from me. Despite the implicit message I received from Hollywood of ‘you have left us to go and get an education,’ I wasn‘t going to be Svengali-ed by them

We touch on the interesting topic of ‘nepo’ babies. It’s a term derived from ‘nepotistic’ and refers to children with famous parents who pull strings to open doors for them.

“People are quick to say, ‘oh, so-in-so got the job because of who her mom is, or, he got chosen because he’s a famous director’s son’. I say, name one lawyer or doctor who didn’t encourage their kid by making one phone call for them. As a parent, that’s what you do for your kid. You help them when you can. However, if your kid doesn’t have any talent, he’s never going to make it. One of my daughters has worked at ‘Good Morning America’ for the last three years. She’s a communication major and even if I put a call in to someone to open a door, I make it clear to her that the rest is up to her. She has to prove her worth by working harder than everyone else. It means going to work earlier and going above and beyond.”

Brooke has just unveiled her new hair brand company, ‘Commence’ for powerful, clean hair support. www.shopcommence.com

“I’m extremely excited about it,” she says enthusiastically. “It’s my first experience being a Founder and CEO. It all germinated during Covid as an online experience where I was a community advocate for women over 40.”

We end by chatting about the basic things that make us content. When it comes to food, Brooke says,

“My favorite food dish is total comfort food. If I’m going to indulge, it’s going to be really, really delicious spaghetti with a flavorful basil sauce.”

Her family’s favorite relaxation past-time?

“Laughing together,” she says unhesitatingly. “It’s even more special when that laughter is accompanied by traveling together. My dream is to explore more countries with my family.”

It seems appropriate, given Brooke’s extensive life experience, to ask her what the secret is to finding contentment and peace. Her answer is filled with unwavering certainty:

“Stopping myself every time I take myself out of the place I’m in right now! It’s about not looking back or looking too far forward and worrying about the future – to the point where your head starts to spin. I’m learning to stop that and come back to the center. I consciously take a deep breath and imbibe all the blessings I have NOW – not the things that I don’t have or the things I could lose.”

Brooke Shields – the grownup child star has transitioned into a wisdom-infused adult. What has not changed is the constancy of a deep soul that is complemented by a sharp intellect – responsibly utilized.