The documentary Pretty Baby is based on Brooke Shields‘ life as a young actress whose sexuality was always put at the forefront of any movie or commercial shoot she was part of.

In an exclusive interview with uInterview at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, director Lana Wilson explained how she got inspired to make the documentary in the first place.

“When I started looking at all the archival material, I realized that over time when there was so much pressure on Brooke to stay a beautiful object and a model, and the culture really wanted her to shut up and just be a pretty face, she was determined to do something else,” she revealed. “And the story I saw was one of Brooke gaining agency over her life and becoming a woman who owns her identity and voice.”

Wilson went on to discuss the story’s relevance today.

“She had this level of fame that is very different than today because there were less globally famous people than now there are a lot of people who are famous on social media but you and I might not know their names or recognize them,” she commented. “Brooke Shields is one of the very few people who could go pretty much anywhere on earth and be recognized, so that’s changed. But I do think questions around the representation of girls and women are really interesting to look at right now with social media because we’ve seen how social media and posting images of yourself affects mental health in ways that are sometimes good but that are often, for teenage girls, really negative.”

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