Brooke Shields On 'Pretty Baby'

On the Nov. 25 Diane Rehm Show, Brooke Shields talks about her role in "Pretty Baby," the 1978 movie about a 12-year-old child prostitute at turn-of-the century New Orleans, and reaction to the film.

[killerqueen]

Maybe her being in denial has prevented her from going on a downward spiral, the way other child actors have. It's probably her defense mechanism...

[brontiq]

a grown woman still living in denial cause that's the only way to deal with memories of that "beautiful experience"

[Snobert]

She says she didn't feel exploited while making that movie, yet her facial expression and tone of voice suggests that she feels embarrassed discussing it.

[bummi]

the fact that she called the grooming “beautiful” makes me want to cry. that wasn’t beautiful. it was sick and twisted. her saying that just shows how much damage she took from it

[chevydude]

I thought this movie was sick when it came out, and I still do. Putting an 11 year old girl in this position is reprehensible. Saying "this doesn't count" doesn't mean he didn't do it. There's no way in the world I'd be kissing an 11 year old girl and calling it "art." It's child exploitation and pedophelia point blank. No decent mother would put their child in that position. It's just sick.

[rhiannonrhiannon]

She's in denial. Her childhood was exploited and she is dealing with it the way she can handle it. Shame on her mother for using her the way she did. That was child abuse.

[leahtv]

She didn't feel taken advantage of because she was being gaslit! "This doesn't Yes it does!

[muffdiver]

*"Ya know, that this doesn't count, right?"*
I suspect that could be a popular line among child molesters.

[jfree]

yeah i can see how she identified with a child prostitute. thats kinda what her mom did, sexualized an innocent so gross. no nice man kisses an 11 year old little girl.

[aurakatie]

This movie is fucking sick. I’m sorry Brooke

[annasamuelson]

"This doesn't count, " sounds like something a groomer would say 😬

[cokedupnormies]

She looks like she's about to cry while talking about it. She's lying, this is disgusting.

[xochil]

I wonder if Brooke would still think it's beautiful if one of her kids was acting in the movie!

[maskedmarvyl]

This movie was very disturbing, because it showed child prostitution casually as a fact of life in America, and around the world.

[missimpressed]

My childhood molesters told me “ it didn’t count”

[janawall]

I knew she'd say that.

"This doesn't count" - beautiful thing to say. What a pedophile thing to say

[Sält]

30 year old kissing an 11 year old?? where they do that at?? the price of fame

[WYGTYA]

You know what is disgusting me? That they romanticized the story, when the girl was freaking 11-12 years old. What kind of parents would let their kid play that kind of role? She wasn't even 15, no, wait, worse is she wasn't « legal », period.

[Sijdwnkzdkdk]

‘was that not just the most beautiful thing to say?’

no. no it wasn’t. it was the most disturbing thing to say. i feel so bad for her that she’s in her 50s and still believes she wasn’t being exploited:( i guess childhood scars last a lifetime

[zaraelizabeth]

Brooke Shields is smart, articulate and covering for her Mom and Louis Malle. I don't feel she's being entirely honest in her comments, or, to be more generous, maybe she really, truly believes what she says. I would like to correct her assumption that art means she wasn't exploited in that movie (or, that the movie, Pretty Baby, is not exploitative). Art can and Does exploit people, all the time. Just because something is "artistic" and creative and well done doesn't make it automatically non-exploitative. Now, on the one hand, the movie is honest in that it shows how children were used and abused in our past (and still happens today, but not legally). That is the honest part of the movie. What is so awful about the movie is that the character of Violet - which should be separated out from Brooke Shields, herself - is a character who doesn't much mind that she is being sold to the highest bidder - literally - for her virginity to be taken away, i.e. Raped. What child of 12 is going to not be terrified to be put up on an auction block, with hoards of men leering at her? Yet, the movie shows Violet as bland and quiet, not scared, not terrified, not trying to look bland, but Actually being Bland. Also, the lead up to the auctioning of Violet's virginity has Violet calmly getting dressed for the auction. She has no qualms, tells all the ladies she knows what to do - and it's clear she's Not frightened in the LEAST. She's not hiding anything, trying to put on a show - she's Fine with it all. Afterwards, when the ladies go to check on Violet, she is seen lying on the bed, face down. The viewer assumes the worst, and why not? This CHILD has just been Raped. It must have been a humiliating ordeal and also Agonizingly painful, and yet, how does Violet react? It's all a JOKE you see! She pops her head up and demands to know what took them so long to tend to her? She laughs and giggles. Yes, she bends over in pain, but that is the pretty much the ONLY reference to what must have been a night of Hideousness and Horror for Violet. (We do hear her screams during the Rape - which makes the morning after, with her jolly laughing, all the more Objectionable, as if a Rape is something that a 12 year old can just laugh about the next day). This is what is so Objectionable about that film. THIS is what makes that film really Damaging to the Culture, Regardless of what Brooke Shields felt or did not feel about her mother at that time - or today - over this movie. Pretty Baby is a film that Legitimizes the Sexual Exploitation of a Child, not Explicitly, but covertly, in a romantic gloss of pretty visuals. The movie Is well done and gorgeous to look at, with the period costumes, but it hides something very ugly at the heart of it. The message is clear: Violate a child (Violet is almost like the word Violate or Violent) and it's really OK, she will be Fine, she will Laugh it all off and look out for herself. Doubtless, Shields would Insist that Violet was just that very way. Well, I call BS. Brooke Shields is just not ready to accept what her mother and Louis Malle put her through, but this all goes well beyond Brooke Shields' personal exploitation by a mother who saw fit to let her pose for photos naked in a bathtub, oiled up, in makeup, at age 10. (What mother would allow this? Those were photos Brooke Shields, as an adult, tried to have blocked, unsuccessfully). No doubt her mother loved her, but love does not preclude being exploited, just as any given piece of art does not guarantee it will not be exploitative to the most vulnerable people: Children. This film is about how our culture makes a big show out of being concerned for children, yet also sends the message that it's Fine to use and abuse them. And it's not enough to say "it was a different time", as Brooke Shields has done, because the message that it's ok to use females is a Timeless one, Sad to Say. If the film had been HONEST about the True Nature of Violet's Abuse, it would have been a fine work of art. As it is, it is a Sham, in terms of what Violet went through.
 Finally, I really, honestly admire Brooke Shields for being so grounded and strong. However, I Don't admire her take on "Pretty Baby" the movie that brought her fame, even though I can understand her loyalty to her mother and Louis Malle. I just don't accept, however, that Her loyalty to Mom or Malle has to be the Final or Definitive Word. "Pretty Baby" may be a work of art, but it is Dishonest and, in that way, Extremely Exploitative.