The setup is: Youre at lunch with Brooke Shields.
Its fall in New York and you know you shouldnt, but Shields gives you that smile.
You know the one.
Fendi blazer and pants. Carolina Neve earrings. Bulgari bracelets and ring.
The one that launched a thousand billboards.
Okay, you decide.
You look at the menu.
Saint Laurent blazer. Ara Vartanian earrings. Prasi necklace. Tabayer ring. Fernando Jorge ring. Saint Laurent shoes.
This year Shields, 58, decided to focus those eyes on what she wanted them to see.
In January the acclaimed documentaryPretty Baby:Brooke Shieldsilluminatedthe triumphs and consequencesof her child stardom.
In September, she opened a solo show at Cafe Carlyle in Manhattan.
Shes also hosting a podcast calledNow What?
But more on that in a minute.
Shields andGlamoureditor in chief Samantha Barry have been friends since 2015.
Roland Mouret jumpsuit. Tabayer earrings. Alexis Bittar bracelet. Ritique ring.
Brooke Shields:At this point I literally have such a fucking attitude.
Samantha Barry:Yeah?
Brooke:That Ive never had in my life.
And its sort ofveryliberating.
I had a full-blown grand mal seizure on Thursday before the show.
Nobody knows about it.
Roland Mouret jumpsuit from Albright Fashion Library. Tabayer earrings. Alexis Bittar bracelet. Ritique ring. Jimmy Choo shoes.
Samantha:What happened?
I was waiting for an Uber.
Lets take our first sip.
Paco Rabanne coat from Albright Fashion Library. Alaia bodysuit. Fernando Jorge ring. Ara Vartanian earrings. Falke tights.
Oh my God, thats gorgeous.
Brooke:Its just mothers milk.
Samantha:Wait, go back to tell me what happened last Thursday.
So you drank some water.
Brooke:I drank all this water.
I leave my house.
Tibi shirt. Gabriella Hearst vest. Dior denim pants. Tabayer ring. Bulgari bracelet and necklace. Kieselstein-Cord belt. Jimmy Choo shoes.
And they kept asking me, Do you want coffee?
And I was like, No.
Are you all right?
I go, Yeah, great.
Then I walked to the cornerno reason at all.
Im like, Why am I out here?
I go in, two women come up to me; I dont know them.
Everything starts to go black.
Then my hands drop to my side and I go headfirst into the wall.
Samantha:Shut the fuck up.
Brooke:I start having a grand mal seizure.
Samantha:What does that mean?
Brooke:It means frothing at the mouth, totally blue, trying to swallow my tongue.
The next thing I remember, Ivm being loaded into an ambulance.
I have oxygen on.
Samantha:Oh my God, Brooke.
Brooke:And Bradley fucking Cooper is sitting next to me holding my hand.
Samantha:Shut up.
Brooke:I didnt have a sense of humor.
I couldnt really get any words out.
But I thought to myself, This is what death must be like.
Samantha:What happened?
Bradley Cooper, riding in the ambulance in the West Village to Mount Sinai?
Brooke:His assistant called Bradley and said, Brookes on the ground.
And he came, and somebody called the ambulance.
And then it was like, I walked in with Jesus.
Samantha:Oh my God, stop.
Samantha:This is just before the Carlyle?
Brooke:Thursday before the Carlyle.
And I kept saying to the doctor, Youve got to get me better.
And they had the EEGs and things; they thought my brain was seizing.
They had catheters; they had IVs.
And then they put me into ICU and thats where I got bronchitis.
Samantha:Wait, what did the doctor say though?
Brooke:Low sodium.
I had had too much water.
I flooded my system, and I drowned myself.
And then male doctors kept asking me if I was limiting my salt.
And I said, You know what?
Ive had it with male doctors.
I know youre all smartsmarter than I am in what you do.
But let me just tell you something: I lookyoungerwhen Im bloated.
If Im bloated, people think Ive had Botox.
So as a 58-year-old woman, Im not limiting my salt, okay?
Stop trying to make me a crazy actress or a female that doesnt know what the fuck theyre doing.
So they were just like, Eat potato chips every day.
Where are you in your athleticism?
I dont like going to the gym.
Thats where I am.
And I am tired of not feeling skinny enough.
Its boring and its a waste of my time.
Samantha:Lifes meant to be enjoyed.
Samantha:I like that.
Brooke:I dont think I could have gotten here earlier.
You really have to tread through it.
I wish I could say it was a lot earlier than recently.
But I had it in college too.
I graduated with honors, and journalists hated it.
They were so threatened.
Samantha:I read this piece from your graduation.
Some outlets went to campus asking the students, Do you know Brooke Shields?
They were like, We didnt expect her to be so…
Brooke:Normal.
Samantha:Yes, normal, or just diligent.
And I said, Well, Im not a victim.
I will never be.
The first semester at Princeton was miserable because [the kids] want to give me all my space.
And Im like, Oh my God.
I dont want space.
So I decided, You know what?
Im going to win them over.
One of my best friends from college, she has two daughters with her wife.
Our kids are the same age.
This friend has a very different life.
She is so brilliant.
Before she could answer, I said to her daughter, I forced her.
Samantha:Youre going to be my friend now.
Brooke:I go, I beat her down.
I said, She didnt want to like me.
Samantha:I know female friendship is super important to you.
We are a village.
You need a village.
you should probably ferret out the people who are going to be there when shit goes down.
And you have to fight for it.
You have to fight.
I went to college and I was so miserable.
I was so scared.
I was so lonely.
I so wanted to go home.
I thought I made a huge mistake.
I was like, Theres no reason why you should be normal.
Youve never been normal.
Why are you pretending to be normal?
Samantha:That was the first time you stopped being all consumed by other peoples opinion.
You started making your own path.
I didnt take a stab at prove myself.
I just tried to study my hardest.
I dont have that.
Samantha:But you wanted to go home.
Brooke:I wanted to go home.
I missed my mom.
Ive never lived without my mother.
I had never not had a call sheet.
You dont have to grow, right?
In college, I realized, Oh, I have opinions.
After college Shields decided to continue to pursue acting, but she struggled to be taken seriously.
Brooke:So, intellectually, college was my first freedom moment.
Then I went kind of dark.
I was like, Im clearly not good enough.
I clearly have never had talent.
I dont know why I thought I did.
What am I going to do about it?
So I was like, I know what Im going to do.
Im going to study.
I studied, I studied, I studied; I took acting classes with Sandra Seacat.
I did these things, and I was miserable.
I was sitting on a mat looking at a fucking green light finding my shadow side.
Everybody wants to find Brooke Shieldss shadow side.
They wanted to unleash this.
And it was dangerous.
You cant do that to people who are impressionable 20-year-olds.
Samantha:What age were you then?
Brooke:I was 22.
And I had to make money.
Samantha:You were the breadwinner for everybody.
you’re gonna wanna be good to your fans.
you’re gonna wanna give it all away.
Give it all away.
You talk about virginity.
Theyre scared little girls.
They look up to you.
Youre blah, blah, blah, and youre holding this burden.
Youre like, Okay, okay, okay, okay.
All the while, you have no fucking idea who you are.
I hadnt even lost my virginity because I never let myself go in any way.
In 1985, Shields publishedOn Your Own,a self-help book geared toward young women.
She revealed in it that she was still a virgin.
In thePretty Babydocumentary, she would reveal that she had sex for the first time at age 22.
In 1994, Shields was cast in the Broadway revival ofGrease,a pivotal role for her.
In 1996 the sitcomSuddenly Susanpremiered, starring Shields.
A year later she married the tennis player Andre Agassi, whom shed met in 1993.
It was the beginning of a dark period.
She and Agassi divorced in 1999.
Samantha:Youve had jobs since you were a baby.
Did you ever doubt youd have more work?
Brooke:All I knew was hard work, right?
So to me, hard work is associated with success.
I have no problem with that.
My instincts were trusted for the first time by people I respected.
[WithSuddenly Susan] I looked forward to going to work every single day.
It started in 1998, and it was like two years total.
I was like, Wow, okay.
My mother was an addict.
My best friend was an addict.
It was like, Okay, Brooke, you might have to pay attention to this.
A little bit of a pattern here.
Samantha:Do you think its that youre a fixer?
I mean, you staged an intervention for your mom when you were 13.
Brooke:I think [addicts] are kind of brilliant people.
Im a really good codependent.
Samantha:Can you spot an addict now?
Brooke:Oh God.
I can spot a sober addict.
Then you meet Chris.
Brooke:Then I meet Chris.
He met me getting a divorce.
I had been diagnosed with CIN 3, cervical dysplasia, which is precancerous.
Next step is cancer.
I have to have this massive surgery.
My dad gets sick.
My best friend dies.
I was at this level, and he was unfazed.
When I was with Andre, I wanted to morph into his world.
It was freedom to me.
They got Brooke Shields.
Samantha:Do people rewatch it now?
Theres a nostalgia going on at the moment, right?
Youve gotThe Super Modelsout on Apple TV.
I love that show.
Samantha:Do your girls watch it?
Brooke:I made them watch it, but it didnt feel cool for them to watch it.
Samantha:Theres a nostalgia, retro vibe, though.
People are discovering things!
Brooke:But our show is never a hit enough to do a reboot.
Who wants a reboot, really?
Samantha:I dont know.
I dont know if I agree with that.
I love a reboot.
Brooke:I would do it tomorrow.
It is dated, though.
If I could play a version of Susan older maybe, but its a little reductive.
Suddenly Susanaired its final season in 2000.
Then, as Shields puts it, life became all about babies.
She was open about struggling with her fertility and spent years in IVF treatments.
Samantha:Do women still talk to you about postpartum [depression]?
What are the things that people come up to you on the street to talk about?
And then there are the women that just cry and thank me.
They go, I had it so bad and I didnt know.
And I felt like I was so wrong and my husband didnt understand and I felt so guilty.
And the tears, and its like, God, I feel for you.
Because they carry it with them, and you carry a lot of guilt about it.
Samantha:Have you and Rowan talked about it?
Brooke:Ive talked to her about it.
I said, Rowan, I need to tell you, I never didnt love you.
I was very sick.
And she goes, Mom…
I said, And I never wanted to hurt you.
She goes, Well, I made it this far.
She said, And Mom, I get it.
But women need to hear this.
They need to know, because its scary.
Samantha:People didnt talk about it back then.
Samantha:In recent years your girls have gone out into the world wearing your clothes.
Talk to me about that.
How does that feel?
Brooke:Well, now it makes me feel great because it wasnt my idea.
I never dreamt they would want to wear my clothes.
I just thought they would think Im old-fashioned and Im not cool.
It was red, and I did Lana Turner hair and red lips.
I felt so pretty.
Samantha:Well, you never get fazed by it.
You were like, Fuck you.
Brooke:Its not like youre not fazed.
Samantha:What matters to you now?
Brooke:Now Im at this place which I dont think I dreamt Id ever get to.
I am so proud.
Samantha:Youre the mom!
I want to be acomedian.
I want to be a comedic act.
I am a comedic actress.
It is where Im happy.
I like being up there as a character.
I enjoy it and I trust my instincts.
But theres the dichotomy in that in all the other metrics, youre being discounted.
Brooke:People cant handle it.
Youre being put out to pasture, and its ironic, and its wrong and not fair.
We were the Amazons!
Samantha:Whats beauty to you?
Whats your take on surgery?
Listen, Ive seen it give women such confidence.
But I think its easy to go down the slope of overdoing it.
But Ill get Fraxels, and peels, and whatever the newest thing is, and Ill try it.
I just dont want to not look like myself.
In some cultures were the wise women who decide who the chiefs are, who are revered.
Here people areI mean, look around this room.
Theres more and more plastic surgery than ever.
Because theyre chasing youth.
I dont want to chase youth.
I want to chase now.
