I asked, “Have you felt that way?”
“I’ve felt it my whole life.”
It may come as a surprise to hear that a seasoned actress like Shields is yearning for acceptance. Turns out he’s fully human. “I was hearing Demi say, ‘We weren’t the ones who ever got the awards.’ Like, I got People’s Choice Awards, people like me.”
“So, you got the People’s Choice Award, but you wanted an Emmy, an Oscar?”
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“You just wanted to be part of the group, good kid,” Shields said. “That’s where the little insecure girl comes out.”
At this point in his six-decade career, the comedian has earned the right to laugh at himself.
Now 59, Shields said she feels 38. “I definitely feel a youthfulness that I didn’t feel when I was younger.”
She started modeling wearing diapers. Later, she turned heads wearing Calvin Klein jeans. Shields was expected to sell products and say her lines, all while looking good. He delivered.
But as she approaches 60, she’s found a cultural script she’s powerfully rejecting.
“By the time you get to 50, they’ve completely wiped you out,” he said. “You’re out to pasture. Society says, ‘Oh, if you’re not the hot bass at the bar, you’re an old lady.’ There’s this whole demo in the middle that just gets ignored.”
These are the women for whom Shields wrote her fourth book: “Brooke Shields is not allowed to grow old” (To be published on Tuesday by Fulleron). “When you’re somebody who’s known to look a certain way, just because you’re getting older, you kind of get frustrated,” he said. “I’ve seen people personally insult me that I dare to be 60!”
“And what do you say to them?”
“I just kind of feel bad for them,” Shields said. “And I’m part of the problem, because I was that symbol, you know, maybe inadvertently. But I didn’t intend to do that.”
Nearly 44 years after being named Face of the Decade, Shields hopes to be a voice for her generation – empowering women by sharing her personal and sometimes vulnerable experiences.
In her book, she reveals that a doctor performed a surgery on her that she did not consent to. “I was asked by my gynecologist if I was in pain, and I said yes.”
In the late 2000s, Shields went to a surgeon to help alleviate some of the pain in her labia. But after the operation, she says she discovered she had performed an additional procedure: an unwanted vaginal reconstruction. “He literally looked at me and said, like, ‘I teased you a little bit,'” Shields said. “And I was like, ‘What?’ And he was just bragging like he ‘gave a little bonus’ for me and I was so shocked I didn’t even know what to do.
“What did you say?”
“I didn’t say it, I didn’t say anything. Because it seemed like he wanted me to.” thank you To him,” Shields replied. “I didn’t say anything then, and it’s the first time I’ve ever said anything.”
This so-called bonus surgery has long-lasting side effects. The actress and model says sex can be painful.
“It was, you know, a long time ago. We didn’t know what we could fight or complain about. After all, I had a life and kids, and it was like, ‘Dear God, I don’t want that kind of attention,'” he said.
So, why is she speaking now? “Because I have daughters. And there’s no shame in that. And the conversations we have with them, the conversations I’ve never had, I think we’ll grow as women as much.”
Shields is also trying to grow in other ways. In May, she was elected president of the Actors’ Equity Association, the union representing 51,000 actors and stage managers nationwide. As a five-time Broadway star, he felt an obligation to give back to a community that had adopted him.
She has already taken her fight to Washington for more funding and tax policy changes. “It’s been a learning curve,” she said. “It’s a trial by fire. I’ve never been on the Hill and met with congressmen and senators. But you know, producers need to take care of the people who bleed for them on a daily basis. ”
In addition to being a union boss, Shields is now CEO. She founded beauty brand Commons after hearing concerns about aging women’s hair. “They’ve been ignored, and that’s just the truth,” he said. “They are not being marketed.”
Asked what the hardest part of being CEO is, Shields replied, “Raising the money. Keeping the money flowing, because you have to put it back into the company. And you know, there’s still no At least I’m not getting paid!” He laughed.
Don’t ask Brooke Shields if she’s ready to slow down. Age has brought wisdom, and it is just beginning.
“I’m, you know, about to turn 60,” she said. “I’m still here. I feel like I’m at the beginning of a new, really exciting phase. The more confident you are – isn’t it exciting – the more opportunity you have. And yet, You don’t get this opportunity without spending all the time to get here and reach that confidence.”
Read an excerpt: “Brooke Shields is not allowed to grow old”
Web Extras: Watch an extended interview with Brooke Shields
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Story by Michelle Castle. Editor: George Pozdrake.