Brooke Shields Opens Up About Interview With Barbara Walters: 'I Was Taken Advantage Of'
The controversial sit-down took place in 1981.
Brooke Shields is speaking out about how she feels concerning a few interviews she did when she was a young girl.
The actress and model recently reflected on a sit-down between herself and Barbara Walters, where she remembers being scrutinized about her body, among other things.
Recalling "the fiasco" on Tuesday’s episode of The Drew Barrymore Show, the now 57-year-old said she felt the legendary broadcaster was aiming for a “negative soundbite” during their controversial 1981 exchange, which took place on the heels of Shields’ famous Calvin Klein jeans campaign.
"She asked me what my measurements were and asked me to stand up," the Endless Love actress, who was 15 at the time, told host, Drew Barrymore. "And I stand up, and she was like comparing herself to this little girl. And I thought, 'This isn’t right. I don’t understand what this is.'"
Shields continued, explaining how she reacted to the unpleasant situation back then. "But I just behaved and just smiled," she said, acknowledging that she "felt so taken advantage of in so many ways."
The encounter was so uncomfortable, in fact, that the actress once referred to the interview with Walters as "practically criminal" and "not journalism."
"But then you learn to say no," she noted, bringing up another unsettling sit-down she did when she was even younger—around "10 or something."
In turn, Barrymore shared her own not-so-nice Walters story, prefacing it, however, with the disclosure that she loves and admires the The View creator. Still, the Charlie's Angels actress did not appreciate when the television personality, 93, would ask what she felt were invasive questions.
"She was like, ‘Talk to me about the drugs and alcohol, talk to me about your mother, talk to me about bisexuality, talk to me about everything,'" Barrymore commented. "And I kept saying, ‘You know, Barbara, I’m really doing well,’ and it was five, six, seven times over."
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