Brooke Shields revealed that she was a victim

In a new documentary about her life, which premiered Friday night at the Sundance Film Festival, American actress Brooke Shields claims she was a victim of sexual assault.

She did not name the man she said raped her, but she did describe the circumstances.

It happened shortly after her college graduation, with someone she knew professionally, and they met for dinner to talk about work. The attack occurred when she accompanied him to his hotel room to get a taxi.

"I didn't resist so much, I just froze." "I thought my one 'no' should be enough," she said in the film.

When she later told her friend, security expert Gavin de Becker, about what had happened, he told her it was rape, and she stated that she wasn't ready to believe it at the moment.

It's just one of many revelations in "Pretty Baby," which tells the story of Brooke Shields' life, including her rise to fame, her complicated relationship with her alcoholic mother Terri Shields, and how the media exploited her sexualization as a young person, while also criticizing her and making her feel ashamed.

The documentary will air later this year on the Hulu streaming platform.

Lana Wilson's film borrowed its title from Louis Malle's 1978 drama Pretty Baby, about a teenage prostitute played by then-11-year-old Brooke Shields. She kisses actor Keith Carradine, who was 29 at the time, and also appears naked in the film.

It wasn't the first or last time she was represented sexually in the media.

She shot the film "Blue Lagoon" when she was 15, and then "Endless Love" when she was 16. Both flicks had sex and nudity. The Calvin Klein commercials followed.

Brooke Shields has previously declined requests to make films. She felt for the first time, at the age of 57, with a child in college and a good sense of where she is in life after years of therapy, that now was a good moment.

The first half of the film is devoted to Brooke Shields' severe sexualization at a young age, such as a topless photo shoot at the age of ten and her performance in the film "Pretty Baby" at the age of eleven, in which she played a child prostitute.

In the film, a young Brooke Shields appears on television shows where guys much older than her ask her about sensuality in relation to her roles.

She attended Princeton University as an adolescent after achieving international recognition. She had a tough time finding roles after completing her diploma, which led to an uncomfortable encounter with her rapist.

The documentary, which received a standing ovation at Sundance, also explores the media's fascination with her virginity, her mother's alcoholism, and her first marriage to tennis player Andre Agassi.

"My personal message is endurance and not allowing yourself to become a victim in the eyes of one society, or one industry," she told AFP before the premiere of the film in the US state of Utah, where the Sundance festival is held.

"I am proud of the way I continued to learn, grow, work and love what I do", she added.

Post by Bryan C.