I had a remarkable frank interview with Brooke Shields where she said: “I learned after my recent debilitating femur injury. That evidently I needed to build my confidence in myself.”
Every Sunday, Brooke Shields spends time with her family but also makes sure to get in some solo time. That way, the model and actress, 56, feels rejuvenated, ready for the fresh start that Mondays bring. “I happen to love Mondays…. Every time I wake up, I’m excited to have a new beginning, and I mean that seriously,” she says. She gets up earlier than everyone else, makes a protein shake and a cup of PG Tips tea, and then reads a book or the newspaper until the others wake up. Shields lives with her husband, Chris Henchy, and daughters, Rowan, 18, and Grier, 15, in New York City, although right now they’re in the Hamptons for the summer.
Shields was born in New York City and started modelling before her first birthday. At 12, she co-starred in the movie Pretty Baby, playing the daughter of Susan Sarandon’s character. In 1980, at age 14, she became the youngest model to appear on the cover of Vogue. Her biggest break, though, was later that year, when she starred in a Calvin Klein jean commercial, saying, “You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.” Shields has starred in movies like The Blue Lagoon and Endless Love and TV shows including Lipstick Jungle and Jane the Virgin.
In recent years, Shields has also become an avid art collector. She has a policy of not buying works that cost over $7,000, in part as an effort to support young artists. She’s also a board member of the New York Academy of Art. She says the pandemic hasn’t really changed her view of the art world or collecting, but she has spent time rearranging the paintings in her home and learning more about them. Here, she speaks to WSJ. about her summer art project and a devastating femur injury she got earlier this year when she flew off a balance board at a New York City gym.
When it comes to sleep, are you one of those “four hours a night is all I need” people, or do you need a minimum number of hours to recharge?
As I’ve gotten older, I actually feel like I need more sleep. I know it’s supposed to be the opposite. I could probably get away with six hours, but if I had the opportunity for more, I would definitely take it. But it would just mean going to bed earlier because I don’t like waking up late.
Are your protein shakes your go-to breakfast? What do you put in them?
I always put fruit and some type of protein powder, but if I’m not going to do a shake, if I’m actually going to have breakfast, I love really grainy cereals with berries and bananas. And then I use almond milk. In the protein shakes, I also use almond milk. I have a big juicer at home in New York, and that’s when I make my celery juice. I drink eight ounces of that every morning. If you get organic [celery], it’s sweet. It doesn’t taste bitter. My husband gave me a professional grade juicer, as if I was going to open a store. And it’s a big, big production, but I can make four days’ worth of juice [at once]. I notice my skin and my digestion and everything just feels better when I drink celery juice.
What’s your beauty routine like?
My beauty routine is rather simple insofar as about once a week I try to do one of the gazillion masks that I seem to have in my cabinet.
You post some great selfies in those.
Oh, they just make me laugh, those masks. I get a lot of stuff sent to me or I’ll read something, and I have yet to find the mask that I really love.
Really, cleaning my face and moisturising my face is just the most important thing for me. It’s gotten simpler as I’ve gotten older. But I’ve added vitamin C serum to my routine, and I’ve added eye cream.
Is there anything unusual about your beauty routine?
I just started dry-brushing before showers and putting on a product in the shower, sort of like a milky oil. I’ve noticed that it’s really helped the texture of my skin because I can get pretty dry. Even though I wear sunblock every day, I’m very susceptible to… the sun, even though I’m wearing [SPF] 40 and above.
What about exercise? I know that you recently had this horrible femur injury. Are you still recovering from it?
I’m still recovering. I’m working on strength now and trying to get limber again, doing a lot of stretching. I’ll usually take a Pilates class or a spin class at 8:30 in the morning; sometimes there are stretch classes in the morning, and I like to do that, because once 9:30 happens, I’m then completely on Zoom or working or tied to my desk.
What kind of art projects are you working on?
During Covid I became really interested in Shibori and the Japanese indigo dyes. And it’s a big process; it’s as if it’s a live substance because the ink does not last. It lasts about a week. And there are all these intricate ways of sewing and tying and rubber-banding and folding. And there are all these different ways that you can make textiles. I want to do a bunch of tablecloths, which is going to be a huge undertaking. I don’t know exactly how I’m going to do it because I don’t have a vat that’s big enough. So, we’ll see, you know, how detailed it gets.
What have you been reading lately?
I was so lucky. I can’t believe my luck, but I got an advance uncorrected proof of Amor Towles’ newest novel. He wrote A Gentleman in Moscow, which is my favourite book. And I am about 30 pages from the end and it’s over 500 pages. I’ve been getting up extra early and sitting on my porch and just stealing that time before my day starts. It’s easier to do so in the summer…. I do a lot less of it once my kids start back at school and once we’re back home.
The way my life is constructed—for instance, during Covid, I did a movie for Netflix in Scotland for two and a half months [the upcoming A Castle for Christmas]. Whenever I do a film or a project, it’s so intense that then the time off becomes regulated by Zoom calls and pitches and scripts and getting the next project up and running.
What is it like to film in Scotland during the pandemic?
We were in such a bubble. It was so reminiscent of movies that I did when I was younger because, you know, whether it was Blue Lagoon where you’re just living on this island with these people, [filming] was our primary focus. I got to live in the carriage house of another castle. So, I was taking baths in the morning at 5:30 with my tea and pretending I was in Outlander and just daydreaming my way through. They had to teach us how to knit and I had to learn how to train this dog and we rode horses and danced and sang Scottish songs. It was just fun.
You’ve long been a mental health advocate. What do you think of how mainstream the conversation around mental health has become?
I think it is so necessary. I’m sad that it took this long. With what we’re seeing in the news during the Olympics and we’re seeing these young people not be afraid and take a stand, we’re lifting the shame and the taboo of it. That’s what’s needed, especially for our young people.
Are there any movie reboots you want to do or any of your roles you want to reprise?
That would be: [Laughs] No and no. If I had to, the only thing that I would do again would be Lipstick Jungle to come back, just because it was so much fun. We were in the city and the clothes were so great. There was so much more for us to do.
What’s one piece of advice you’ve gotten that’s guided you?
Never give up. If you fall, you get up and you start again. You don’t stay down. You pick yourself right back up. No matter how hard or scary it is, you move forward.
In a clip where you’re talking about your injury, you said that it was a blessing in some ways because you learned how much of a fighter you are, which sounds related.
It’s hard. Everybody wants to find a meaning to things: Why did this happen and what lesson might we be learning? Truth be told, shit happens. It just happens. Freak accidents happen. Mistakes happen. I was completely by myself in the hospital because of Covid, and I was in the hospital for a month. And, you know, I didn’t need to find spirituality. I didn’t need to slow down. I didn’t need to learn anything like that. But evidently, I needed to build my confidence in myself.
It made me really want to share that message with people, because it’s so easy and it’s such a shame to give up, first and foremost on yourself. I almost became more emotionally ambitious, and I became much more aware of how I wanted to spend my days. When you take something like your body, which we just take for granted, how much it does for us, then to all of a sudden be not able to even walk or stand, you realise how lucky you are.
