In
Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields
, a documentary premiering at the Sundance Film Festival in the United States, American actress Brooke Shields reveals that she was raped early in her Hollywood career.
The former supermodel has kept the identity of her attacker a secret, but said she tracked down the man - whom she knew - shortly after graduating from college, believing he had acted of a work meeting to discuss its participation in a casting for a new film.
The man took her back to her hotel, saying he wanted to call a taxi for her from her room.
He instead went to the bathroom before emerging naked and raping her, she said.
“I was just completely petrified”
"It was like a fight... I was afraid of being suffocated or something like that"
, testifies the actress in the documentary.
"I didn't struggle much.
I did not do it.
I was just completely petrified.
I thought my
"no"
should have sufficed.
And I was just like,
"Just stay alive and go."
After the assault, Brooke Shields recalls phoning a friend who worked in security, Gavin de Becker, who told her,
"It's rape
," to which she replied,
"I'm not ready .
to believe it”
.
Until now, the actress had never spoken publicly about her attack.
This revelation, which echoes the #MeToo wave, is one of many poignant moments in the film, which will be released on the Hulu streaming platform in two parts.
The first part is devoted to the intense sexualization that Brooke Shields was subjected to at a very young age, notably during a naked photo shoot at the age of 10, as well as after her appearance at 11 in the film.
Pretty Baby
in which she played a child prostitute.
The actress, who is now 57, said it was
"the right time in
(her)
life"
to appear in a documentary.