Brooke Shields was simply 14 years previous when she starred within the extremely controversial film The Blue Lagoon.
Launched in 1980, the movie follows two cousins, Emmeline and Richard, who’re shipwrecked on a tropical island as youngsters. Many of the story is targeted on their teenage years, which reveals the 2 characters fall in love and conceive a baby.
The Blue Lagoon is taken into account extremely scandalous attributable to its scenes of kid nudity. Brooke spends a considerable amount of the film with simply her hair masking her breasts, and an grownup physique double was used when her character is uncovered.
In the meantime, her costar Christopher Atkins didn’t have a physique double as he’d simply turned 18. And when the 2 actors reunited on Brooke’s podcast Now What? With Brooke Shields this week, they mirrored on their filming expertise and admitted that The Blue Lagoon would by no means be made right this moment.
Along with the nudity and controversial content material, Christopher recalled hurting actual animals in some scenes, in addition to the lax well being and security throughout the shoot.
The film was filmed on an island that was on a coral reef, which meant that the water would infect and ulcerate any minimize or wound that the forged and crew had.
And since Brooke and Christopher wore so little clothes throughout filming and needed to climb bushes, they have been usually lined in accidents and bug bites. On the podcast, the celebrities even mentioned {that a} member of the crew ended up with “a inexperienced gap behind his calf for 3 months” attributable to a wound an infection.
Brooke additionally ended up coming down with pneumonia throughout the shoot, however she nonetheless filmed her character’s birthing scene whereas sick.
All of this has left Brooke and Christopher completely satisfied that The Blue Lagoon was an extremely distinctive expertise that might by no means be replicated.
“By no means once more will a film be made like that ever,” Brooke informed her costar. “I imply, it wouldn’t be allowed.”
“Oh gosh no,” Christopher agreed. “Animals have been harm within the film. We have been spearing fish and every kind of loopy issues. Youngsters are bare working down a seashore, couldn’t do this now.”
In actual fact, Christopher mentioned the nudity was so “necessary” to the film’s director, Randal Kleiser, that as quickly as he and Brooke arrived on the island they have been informed that they wanted to get an all-over tan.
“We have been by no means eased into it,” Brooke recalled. “We obtained there they usually immediately needed us to be tanned. Bear in mind, they arrange these little thatched areas in order that we may get tanned with out tan strains.”
“I do know, you have been proper subsequent to me and that was even stranger since you have been solely 14 on the time,” Christopher replied.
They then clarified that there was a makeshift wall separating them as they lay in a hut that had no ceiling in order that they may lay bare in personal whereas nonetheless being uncovered to the solar’s rays.
And though Brooke and Christopher couldn’t see one another whereas sunbathing within the nude, Brooke was left feeling uncomfortable when she needed to movie with Christopher whereas he was uncovered.
“There have been scenes the place I used to be butt bare with you, in case you bear in mind, sliding down that slide and issues like that,” Christopher mentioned. “And that was just a little awkward, however it was sort of humorous for me as a result of at this cut-off date I might simply do it. However your response was: ‘Ugh, oh god.’”
And Brooke admitted that she was pondering on the time: “Why do I’ve to have a look at this? I’d by no means seen one earlier than, I’m not going to start out now.”
In the meantime, she needed to put on nipple covers earlier than having her lengthy hair caught to her physique to cover her chest. “We have been sporting little strips of clothes, and my hair was taped to my physique to cowl my boobs, which have been very minimal anyway,” she mentioned.
“Bear in mind the bumpy pads?” Brooke went on. “They might stick these little flesh-colored issues on my nipples as a result of nipple, evidently, was the place they drew the road on this film.”
Brooke additionally recalled the film’s producers making an attempt to power a real-life romance between her and Christopher, which she discovered weird as their age hole on the time “was a world of distinction.”
“They needed us so desperately to fall in love with one another,” she mentioned. “I didn’t react nicely being pressured into feeling something. I hadn’t even kissed anyone by that age.”
And Christopher then dropped the bombshell that even Brooke’s mother had tried to make a romance occur between them. Previous to filming, she invited him to reside at their household house for a couple of days in order that they may get to know one another earlier than working collectively — however Christopher revealed on the podcast that she additionally had ulterior motives.
“She mainly needed you out of horses and into boys,” he informed Brooke, who was clearly shocked. “For the film’s sake, she needed us to be nearer collectively and be close to one another and be capable of have that, whether or not it’s the brother and sister or whether or not it’s the love story.”
“I’m positive she was pushing for extra of the boyfriend/ girlfriend relationship,” he added. “However on the identical time, you’re 14 — I’m caught between a rock and a tough place right here!”
Brooke admitted this was “a loopy place” for Christopher to have been put in, however she additionally mentioned that they had “superb” chemistry on-camera that was most likely attributable to their “innocence.”
Discussing the extra harmful points of filming the film, Christopher mentioned: “There have been lengthy hours and there was plenty of bodily stuff in that film. Climbing these coconut bushes, man, I used to be chafed as much as no finish. Working over the coral and stuff, all of the bug bites and coral cuts and all the opposite loopy issues. The fevers and the whole lot we had, individuals don’t know any of that stuff — it’s not simple.”
“The bugs have been loopy, the wild crabs have been loopy, the wild horses have been nuts, after which the infestation of rats,” Brooke agreed. “Individuals don’t know that The Blue Lagoon was on an island and that was on a coral reef.”
“Any sort of minimize you had and also you went within the water, bits of the coral would get into the minimize and it’d turn into utterly contaminated and ulcerated,” she went on. “Ray had a inexperienced gap behind his calf for like three months.”
“We have been just like the Wild West however it simply occurred to be on the water. And I bear in mind I obtained pneumonia,” Brooke continued. “Within the birthing scene, once I’m alleged to be having the newborn, I uncontrollably can’t breathe and have a coughing match and everybody’s like what a terrific performing selection, I’m like: ‘I can’t breathe!’”
Brooke beforehand admitted that attributable to her younger age she had felt disconnected from the truth of what she was doing whereas taking pictures The Blue Lagoon.
Writing in her 2014 memoir There Was A Little Woman: The Actual Story of My Mom and Me, the star defined: “It was a extremely fascinating disconnect. You type of desensitize your self to something sexual. In Blue Lagoon, I’m utilizing a glue gun, taping my hair, something I can, so my physique doesn’t present I’ve boobs. And I didn’t notice I used to be doing it, as a result of I used to be a child. I used to be in a cocoon with my mother.”
