Brooke Shields broke down in tears as she recalled the moment she was forced to kiss a 27-year-old actor when she was just a child.
The actress was 11 years old when she was cast as a child prostitute in the 1978 film Pretty Baby and was made to give Keith Carradine a seductive kiss on the lips during one scene.
Brooke’s mother, Teri Shields, offered no help to her daughter and it was left to Keith to try and reassure her that it was “all make-believe”.
Now 57, Brooke admits she finds it difficult to think about the incident as an adult and said she wouldn’t have allowed the same thing to happen to her daughters – Rowan, 19, and Grier, 16.
In her upcoming documentary, also titled Pretty Baby, Brooke is overcome with emotion as she sits at her dining table with her two daughters as they discuss the 1978 film.
She said she doesn’t understand why her mother didn’t help her when filming the kissing scene and claims director Louis Malle snapped at her for making a repulsed face.
Her co-star Keith tried to reassure her, saying the kiss “doesn’t count. It’s pretended. It’s all make-believe”.
Rowan says she will never watch the movie and exclaims: “It’s child pornography,” before asking her mother: “Would you have let us [do that] at the age of 11?”
“No,” Brooke replies instinctively and her shoulders collapse.
Speaking about the scene in a new interview, Brooke said she found it difficult to speak to her daughters about the decision to make the film.
“That was … that was hard for me, to not justify my mom to them, but when they asked me, I thought, ‘Oh God, I have to admit this’,” she told The Times.
The actress added: “I mean, I could say, ‘Oh, it was the time back then,’ or ‘Oh, it was art.’ But I don’t know why she thought it was all right. I don’t know.”
