Brooke Shields on Life at 58: ‘There Are So Many Moving Pieces’

College was a real wake-up call for you.

Yes. Because early on, this one professor was looking at me, saying, “Shields, what is your hypothesis on this?” And I’m like, “I don’t know.” That was such a revelation because no one had ever asked for my opinion. They didn’t need me to have an opinion in Hollywood; they just needed me to do what they said. But that professor got it, he saw it.

After I graduated, I just assumed I would go do another movie a year. I was like, “I’m smart. They’re going to love a smart actress.”

But when I returned it was like night and day — I wasn’t starting at zero, I was starting at negative 10. Up until then, my film career really hadn’t been about my acting. But after I finished college, I could not find film roles, and the Brooke doll was being sold! It was hard for the industry to understand what I was. Was I a model? Was I an actress? Was I this, was I that? It was a very difficult time for me.

Then came the sexual assault by a Hollywood executive. How did you cope?

I’m not naming the person, because then it will be about him. I want it to be on my terms. It’s a universal problem. It doesn’t matter who’s doing it, it’s still happening. I was shocked and then surprised, then fearful, then dissociated, going like, “OK, what can I do to get out of here? What needs to happen so that I can leave?” But the most crushing and embarrassing thing was that a part of me felt validated. My career was not in a great place, and it’s so sick, but my brain was telling me, “Oh, you’re cool,” because he picked me at that moment. It’s mind-blowing. You feel such shame.

It would be easier if the person had jumped out of the woods and had a hood over his face.

With the help of Andre Agassi, you “broke up” with your mother as manager. One friend said in Pretty Baby that it was going from one controlling relationship to another.

It was a transition that I needed. I wasn’t strong enough to separate from my mother on my own. I kept falling back in.

With Andre, it also felt good to feel smaller than another, because he was so famous and number 1 in the world. Everywhere we went, he had tons of bodyguards. I could sit back because it wasn’t my world. He was the first one out of the car when we arrived at events. It was a real kind of respite.

After the assault, I was mad and sad, like, “I cannot live without performing. I can’t. This is not fair. You can’t take this away from me.”

I needed to find ways to do it. I studied, studied, studied and took serious acting classes. And I replaced my mom with a real agent.

My mother kept calling it a divorce. And I was like, “Oh Mom, I’m still your daughter, but if I’m going to do this, I have to do this on my own. I’ll make my own mistakes.”

But that meant I didn’t need her, and then who was she if I didn’t need her? Empty nest to my mother was like death.

Photo by Ari + Louise

In the ’90s came Friends, Broadway gigs, Suddenly Susan — and a comedian was born.

Friends was really big. It was such a validation of my instincts because I was told not to do a [crazy] laugh in the scene. And then they screamed across the room, “Put it back in, Shields!” In that moment, I was like, “I have this, up here.” [Points at head.] All of those years doing Bob Hope USO specials! I knew better. Not about a lot of things, but about that. And that’s how I got Suddenly Susan.

And onstage, it all clicked in a way that was the best use of me. I had such a feeling of accomplishment every single night, like: “Yeah, I did that! And I did it again, and I found a new laugh! And I did it again, and they’re standing up for me!”

Whatever happened to the rules-obsessed child you were?

Yes, all my life I’ve been the conscientious one, asking, “What are the rules?” But I’ve learned to ask for forgiveness rather than permission. My husband tells me that all the time, and I’m like, you know what? That’s a new channel for me, and I like it.

I recently turned down a project, and it was hard for me because I don’t back out of things. But it was giving me such anxiety. There were other things I needed to do — get a foot operation, write a book, get my company off the ground.

I felt such relief saying no.

Photo by Ari + Louise

Brooke Shields Through the Years

1966
Modeling debut at 11 months is shot by the legendary photographer Francesco Scavullo.

1977
Cast in Pretty Baby at age 11, she’s dubbed “the next Lolita” by the media.

1980
Plays a shipwrecked beauty at 14 in coming-of-age film The Blue Lagoon.

1987
Graduates from Princeton with honors and a degree in Romance languages.

1996
Suddenly Susan debuts, and she wins a People’s Choice Award.

2003
Daughter Rowan is born after infertility struggles, followed by severe postpartum depression. Daughter Grier is born in 2006.

2024
Stars in Netflix rom-com Mother of the Bride.

2024
Expects to launch Beginning Is Now — a digital platform for beauty and wellness advice for women over 40.

How does your parenting compare with your own upbringing?

From the time my girls were little kids, I spoke to them as human beings and made my best effort to switch it back around. “What do you think about that, or how does that make you feel?” They’ve never felt judged by me, whereas I felt judged all the time.

My dad was tough because he didn’t acknowledge anything I did. We would take family photos, and he’d turn to me and go, “No, don’t pose.” And I’d be like, “I’m not!”

And then my mom would be, “Stand up straight, do this. No, no, do that, smile. Don’t do this.” It was always like that. And I wanted to be a good girl. And if I wasn’t a good girl, what would that mean? The worst thing she could say was, “I’m disappointed in you.” And I’m like, “Oh my God, I’ve done it now. …” That, I think, was a function of her alcoholism. There was an edge to it.

But I’m a safe zone for whatever the girls say, feel, think, do, even if it’s wrong.

The empty nest looms, right?

When we left Rowan at college a couple of years ago, our whole world shuddered. I didn’t expect that. And now with Grier’s departure this fall, you can already feel it in the household, the anticipation of it shattering our souls. We’re all dealing with it in different ways.

Grier’s trying to find ways to hate us so that it’s easier to leave and individuate. And Rowan just spent four months in Florence. And you find yourself not knowing who you are if you’re not predominantly Mom. You don’t realize how much of your life is occupied with … get them into preschool, get them into this, get them into that, do this, do that. It’s all about them. And then, all of a sudden, silence. Nothing. Who am I?

As you inch toward 60, what are your thoughts on aging and the camera?

You have to change the narrative. It’s an affront to people if Brooke Shields gets older. You can’t grow up, you cannot age. It’s disappointing to them that I don’t have the same face I had when I was 16.

But it’s been so liberating for me not to worry about it all the time. The pressure of being skinny is just so exhausting. I like food, and I like tequila! [Laughs.]

If I have a job to do, I know that I’m going to look better if I’m a little fitter. But I also look younger when I have extra weight. What was it Catherine Deneuve said? “At a certain age, you have to choose between your face and your ass.”

How is Beginning Is Now going?

It’s going! We’ll be creating a platform for women over 40 so they can age joyously and with confidence and vitality and say, “We don’t have one foot in the grave, people!”

But founding a company is not for the weak of heart. I’ve never experienced anything like it before. It’s hard to ask for money, especially from men who have already left their wives who are my age and are on to the younger model.

But I’m getting a kick out of wowing them with how much I know. And it’s very empowering because I’m not doing it in a snotty way. I’m just owning the power that I’ve learned I have.