TMC
05-07-2020, 03:35 AM
https://lebeauleblog.com/2020/05/04/brooke-shields-brave-new-brooke/
Brooke Shields became a celebrity at a young age as a model for Jordache jeans. Her early movie roles played up her image as a Reagan-era Lolita. She was not taken seriously as an actress until much later in her career. Shields’ revival began on television. Her guest spot on Friends lead to Shields starring in her own sitcom, Suddenly Susan. That helped wipe away memories of The Blue Lagoon.
Looking to break away from sitcoms, Shields branched out into film roles. That included a part in director James Toback’s racially-themed drama, Black and White. Toback interviewed Shields for the cover story of the October 1999 issue of Movieline magazine.
When I was putting together the cast for my film Black and White, a cinematic excursion into the hip-hop phenomenon and the new ways in which white and black kids are mixing, most of the roles fell into place fairly quickly with people ranging from Ben Stiller and Robert Downey Jr. to Mike Tyson and several members of the Wu-Tang Clan. The one essential character that remained uncast was the wife of the gay character Robert played, a video journalist who is making, within the film, a documentary on white prep school teens who long to become part of the hip-hop world. When I learned that Brooke Shields’s agent had called to say Brooke was interested in joining the cast, I was surprised and intrigued.
Brooke Shields’s entire career has been the quintessence of wholesome American life and she is now at the center of that most centrist of American entertainment forums, the TV sitcom. My own directorial work, comprising eight films from Fingers to Two Girls and a Guy, seemed, to paraphrase Henry Miller, “a gob of spit in the face of” everything Brooke Shields appeared to represent. Obviously I had to meet with her.
I was immediately charmed by Brooke’s intelligence, good humor and innate decency, and I soon decided this was one of those odd conjunctions from which fruitful collaborations so often arise. I was not disappointed. Brooke improvised her way into the creation of an original, complex character, and her performance in the film is astonishing. When we were shooting, one scene in particular brought home to me how good she really was.
This was the set-up: As Brooke’s character was filming with her Minicam, Robert’s character had come on to Mike Tyson, and Mike had choked him and knocked him to the floor. My direction to Brooke was to respond as she wished. What she did was approach Mike tentatively, then more confidently. Mike said to her, “I’ve been in the penitentiary. They say I raped someone. I don’t need no white bitch causing me trouble.” Instead of being intimidated, Brooke looked him in the eyes seductively and told him he was beautiful. The whole scene was such a remarkable piece of improvisation that I decided to begin my interview with Brooke by asking her what she was thinking while she was doing it.
Brooke Shields became a celebrity at a young age as a model for Jordache jeans. Her early movie roles played up her image as a Reagan-era Lolita. She was not taken seriously as an actress until much later in her career. Shields’ revival began on television. Her guest spot on Friends lead to Shields starring in her own sitcom, Suddenly Susan. That helped wipe away memories of The Blue Lagoon.
Looking to break away from sitcoms, Shields branched out into film roles. That included a part in director James Toback’s racially-themed drama, Black and White. Toback interviewed Shields for the cover story of the October 1999 issue of Movieline magazine.
When I was putting together the cast for my film Black and White, a cinematic excursion into the hip-hop phenomenon and the new ways in which white and black kids are mixing, most of the roles fell into place fairly quickly with people ranging from Ben Stiller and Robert Downey Jr. to Mike Tyson and several members of the Wu-Tang Clan. The one essential character that remained uncast was the wife of the gay character Robert played, a video journalist who is making, within the film, a documentary on white prep school teens who long to become part of the hip-hop world. When I learned that Brooke Shields’s agent had called to say Brooke was interested in joining the cast, I was surprised and intrigued.
Brooke Shields’s entire career has been the quintessence of wholesome American life and she is now at the center of that most centrist of American entertainment forums, the TV sitcom. My own directorial work, comprising eight films from Fingers to Two Girls and a Guy, seemed, to paraphrase Henry Miller, “a gob of spit in the face of” everything Brooke Shields appeared to represent. Obviously I had to meet with her.
I was immediately charmed by Brooke’s intelligence, good humor and innate decency, and I soon decided this was one of those odd conjunctions from which fruitful collaborations so often arise. I was not disappointed. Brooke improvised her way into the creation of an original, complex character, and her performance in the film is astonishing. When we were shooting, one scene in particular brought home to me how good she really was.
This was the set-up: As Brooke’s character was filming with her Minicam, Robert’s character had come on to Mike Tyson, and Mike had choked him and knocked him to the floor. My direction to Brooke was to respond as she wished. What she did was approach Mike tentatively, then more confidently. Mike said to her, “I’ve been in the penitentiary. They say I raped someone. I don’t need no white bitch causing me trouble.” Instead of being intimidated, Brooke looked him in the eyes seductively and told him he was beautiful. The whole scene was such a remarkable piece of improvisation that I decided to begin my interview with Brooke by asking her what she was thinking while she was doing it.