Brooke Shields agreed to take part in a doc about her life and profession not due to what it will say about her, however for what it may say via her — specifically, a dialogue in regards to the sexualization of younger women.

By now, the movie star bio-doc is well-trod territory, however Fairly Child: Brooke Shields, which premieres Jan. 20 on the Sundance Movie Competition, aspires to be greater than a profession retrospective. “I’m not concerned about famous-person issues. What I’m concerned about is how fame can amplify and supercharge relatable issues,” says director Lana Wilson, who most just lately directed the Taylor Swift Netflix doc Miss Americana. “[Brooke’s] life has been excessive and totally distinctive, however her expertise of being a lady in America is horrifyingly relatable.”

The doc, which someday after its Sundance debut shall be launched in two elements on Hulu, attracts its title from Louis Malle’s 1978 drama that, whereas critically acclaimed, was broadly criticized for that includes little one prostitution and a nude preteen Shields. The doc’s archival work consists of journal covers with headlines like, “I’m Shocked by the Little one Who Drives Males Loopy” (Shields was 9 on the time) and a parade of clips of male late evening hosts questioning a prepubescent Shields about her sexuality within the wake of Fairly Child. That is intercut with talking-head lecturers and sociologists who provide historic and cultural context in regards to the objectification of women.

“To me, that felt like a way more clever, fascinating solution to strategy a narrative — an individual, a journey — via the lens of the altering local weather and the place we’re right this moment,” Shields says.

In fact, Fairly Child, which counts Alexandra Wentworth and George Stephanopoulos as govt producers, does doc Shields’ life, from her relationship together with her mom, Teri Shields, to her friendship with Michael Jackson and a decades-spanning profession that features touchstones like 1980’s The Blue Lagoon, her iconic Calvin Klein advertisements and her later TV profession with the sitcom Immediately Susan. And, for the primary time, she chooses to debate a sexual assault by an unnamed Hollywood skilled in a resort room when she was in her 20s, after graduating from Princeton College, and experiencing a profession lull.

“It was fairly increasing to me to take a look at all of it, in its entirety, and be pleased with who I’m and the way I’ve advanced,” says Shields, who talked to THR forward of Fairly Child’s Park Metropolis premiere.

Why was now the precise time to make a documentary?

I’ve been approached a number of occasions, and it didn’t really feel like the precise entities for regardless of the purpose, and it additionally felt too quickly, in some ways. On all the opposite conditions, they both felt untimely or they felt like they have been coming at my story from the mistaken course. [This direction] took it out of the realm of simply biopic.

Do you know what you wished to relay to potential viewers heading into the doc?

In no way. I went in extraordinarily open. I’m not the director of it, I’m not the producer. I belief the inventive and the mental side of what that staff brings to it. I acquired out of their manner. I spent a unprecedented period of time simply speaking and sharing the intensive archives that I had unbelievably completed the method of digitizing. My mom saved all the things, so the fabric goes thus far again. I’ve been round since quarter-inch, Beta[max], reel to reel. I figured, reasonably than all of it disintegrating, I might undergo the expense and the method of digitizing it. So once they got here to me with a documentary, [I said] “I occur to have some supplies.” (Laughs.)

Did you level Lana and the staff in a sure course when it got here to the archival work?

I handed [Lana] the archives and walked away and mentioned, “Your narrative and your viewpoint is a big piece of this.” I’m a conduit to an even bigger dialog. If I am going in and say, “Present that interview!” then it’s all about me and my very own ego. At the start of the method, I stepped very far-off, ego-wise and emotionally. This was not going to be a retrospective of all of the [career] highlights. That is truly one thing greater. I wished at hand over the archives and say, “The story will evolve from you watching this and from the narrative that you just, as a director, are wanting to inform. It’s not for me to determine.”

You mentioned you see your self as a conduit to a bigger dialog. What’s that dialog?

It’s a bigger dialog on the sexualization of younger ladies. Myself being on the eye of that storm on many alternative ranges all through the a long time. I’ve been part of the dialog — or perhaps not even part of the dialog, however a part of the main focus — and that narrative itself has modified over time, relying on exterior influences and the period. I’m now a mom of two younger ladies, and the dialog now we have round sexuality may be very totally different right this moment than it was. There was hardly any dialog about it, to me personally, after I was a toddler.

Your relationship along with your mom is a serious throughline in Fairly Child. Is that one thing you anticipated?

I had a sense that my mom can be on the middle of loads of the conversations. That didn’t shock me. [Shields’ mother died in 2012.] She has all the time been a really controversial determine in addition to a really central determine in my life. Having been so enmeshed with my mom and writing a e book about it and being consistently approached within the press, principally negatively, as a younger lady making an attempt to advocate for my mom, it was such a throughline to a lot of my life. And the throughline continues to my relationship with my women. I used to be glad that it wasn’t simply brushed over. However what I used to be so relieved by is that the complexity of it and the love via that complexity and thru the issue — the character of how fraught that have is beneath one of the best of circumstances — {that a} remark wasn’t made on it. It was offered authentically so that individuals may see it and really feel the best way they wished to really feel about it or use it as a automobile to grasp their very own relationship with their mom. I used to be relieved as a result of it wasn’t lowest widespread denominator.

What was behind your alternative to talk out about your expertise with sexual assault for the primary time?

I didn’t know if or when or if in any respect I used to be ever going to convey this up. It has taken me a few years of remedy to even be capable of discuss it. I undoubtedly have labored very laborious via it, and I’ve realized to course of it. And I’ve come to a spot, and we’ve come to a time in our society, the place we will discuss this stuff rather more brazenly. I had no concept I used to be going to say it. I believed, I’ve arrived at this place, and I really feel as a mom of two younger women that I hope that simply by even listening to my incident that I can add myself to changing into an advocate. As a result of that is one thing that does occur each day, and it shouldn’t be occurring. I felt that I had arrived at a spot the place I may discuss it. It’s taken me a very long time.

Is there something you hope these in energy in Hollywood take away out of your sharing your expertise?

I don’t actually assume it’s my job to attempt to have an effect on these in Hollywood. The place I used to be coming from, it was as a lady, as a mom, as somebody who has lived with the guilt of this for thus lengthy and had repeatedly tried to discover ways to course of it. I wished to share this story with different women and men who would possibly presumably be struggling or making an attempt to outlive this, hoping that no less than if I share the incident and the story then it helps others to work via no matter they should work via. I’m hoping to be that kind of an advocate.

Towards the tip of the doc, we see you along with your two daughters (ages 16 and 19) on the dinner desk speaking about Fairly Child and their ideas about what you went via as a toddler actor. A lot of your profession has been documented, argued over and relitigated, and this documentary little doubt will result in extra discussions.

These conversations — I’ve been on the middle of so a lot of them for thus many a long time. I’ve realized to take care of my fact and to ship it. I’ve been prepared my complete life, and I’ve had loads of observe. Let me again as much as the dialog on the dinner desk. That shocked me. That was not the plan. However the issues that my daughters mentioned, I’m unsure I might’ve had that stage of dialog had this documentary [not] come up. To listen to their perspective and have them interact with me as younger ladies and for them to speak about me as a toddler and me as a mom, and to be in that surroundings collectively was actually touching. This feels just like the time is correct for [this conversation].

I’m so excited to start out the brand new chapters in my life. And regardless of all of it, I like to be on this business. It’s a present to be enthusiastic about what I do. I’m probably not dreading any a part of it as a result of, to me, the story is a lot greater. The incident [assault] that may undoubtedly be targeted on is 5 minutes [in the film], however there’s a complete different hour and 45 minutes. I’m so pleased with my physique of labor and saying, “I achieved that and I saved studying and I saved rising.” I’m nonetheless right here.

Interview edited for size and readability.

A model of this story first appeared within the Jan. 18 difficulty of The truestarz journal. Click on right here to subscribe.