Annie Walton Doyle
Brooke Shields says that she was asked to do some uncomfortable things when filming Blue Lagoon.
You may know Shields, 58, from her roles in Suddenly Susan, Lipstick Jungle, and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
But you may also have forgotten the slightly creepy path Shields took to fame.
Modelling since she was a toddler, she first hit the big time with a role in Louis Malle’s film Pretty Baby.
The movie was massively controversial at the time, particularly because of the onscreen nudity scenes of eleven-year-old Shields.
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However, it was her next blockbuster that really catapulted Shields to a household name.
1980’s The Blue Lagoon starred a fourteen-year-old Shields as a romantic lead alongside eighteen-year-old Christopher Atkins.
The pair play two shipwrecked cousins who grow up and explore their s**ualities on a desert island, eventually falling in love and having a baby.
The film was particularly divisive because of Shields’ nude scenes.
Although the production used a body double for Shields, they were still depicting a naked teenager in the audience’s eyes.
Plus, according to Buzzfeed, Shields did some of her own t**less scenes, with hair covering her chest to protect her modesty.
But now a podcast interview with Shields has taken the internet by storm.
In it, the Endless Love star reveals the most uncomfortable aspects she experienced when making the problematic film…
On an episode of the podcast, Now What? With Brooke Shields, the actress reunites with Atkins to talk about the making of The Blue Lagoon.
“Never again will a movie be made like that ever. I mean, it wouldn’t be allowed,” Shields says.
Atkins replies: “Oh gosh no. Animals were hurt in the movie. We were spearing fish and all kinds of crazy things. Children are naked running down a beach, couldn’t do that now.”
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“We were never eased into it. We got there and they instantly wanted us to be tanned. Remember, they set up those little thatched areas so that we could get tanned without tan lines,” Shields continues.
Atkins goes on: “There were scenes where I was butt naked with you, if you remember, sliding down that slide and things like that. And that was a little awkward, but it was kind of funny for me because at this point in time I would just do it. But your reaction was: ‘Ugh, oh god’.”
Shields then reveals: “They wanted us so desperately to fall in love with each other. I did not react well being forced into feeling anything. I hadn’t even kissed anybody by that age.”
The pair also talk about the alleged lack of safeguarding on set.
“There were long hours and there was a lot of physical stuff in that movie. Climbing those coconut trees, man, I was chafed up to no end. Running over the coral and stuff, all the bug bites and coral cuts and all the other crazy things. The fevers and everything we had, people don’t know any of that stuff – it’s not easy,” Atkins claims.
While Shields adds: “Any kind of cut you had and you went in the water, bits of the coral would get into the cut and it’d become completely infected and ulcerated. We were like the Wild West but it just happened to be on the water.
“And I remember I got pneumonia… In the birthing scene, when I’m supposed to be having the baby, I uncontrollably can’t breathe and have a coughing fit and everyone’s like what a great acting choice, I’m like: ‘I can’t breathe!'”
Watch a trailer for the controversial film below …
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