As noted by Buzzfeed News, star Brooke Shields is well-known for having a long-standing career as an actor and model. However, back in 1980, when Shields was just 14 years old, she starred in the film, The Blue Lagoon. The movie follows cousins Emmeline (played by Shields) and Richard (played by Christopher Atkins), who are shipwrecked on an island and later fall in love.
Due to its incestuous storyline and depiction of child nudity (a body double was used for scenes where Shields was fully nude), the film is considered highly controversial. More recently, Shields and Atkins reunited on the Sahara star's podcast Now What? With Brooke Shields where the former costars, revealed some of the questionable practices that occurred while filming Blue Lagoon.
"Never again will a movie be made like that ever," Shields said to her former costar before adding, "I mean, it wouldn't be allowed."
"Oh gosh no," Atkins responded. "Animals were hurt in the movie. We were spearing fish and all kinds of crazy things. Children are naked running down a beach, couldn't do that now."
Atkins additionally noted that nudity was so "important" to Blue Lagoon's director Randal Kleiser that he and Shields were told they needed to get a full body tan once they got to the film's island location.
Shields said, "We were never eased into it. We got there and they instantly wanted us to be tanned. Remember, they set up those little thatched areas so that we could get tanned without tan lines."
Atkins similarly noted that the experience was "even stranger" because of the pair's age difference (at 18, Atkins was four years older than Shields, considered a legal adult during the time of filming). The two noted that to achieve the director's desired tan, they were sent to lay naked in a roofless hut with only a makeshift wall separating them. The actors also recalled that even though the pair couldn't see each other while sunbathing nude, Shields would later feel uncomfortable when she had to film scenes where Atkins wasn't clothed.
Atkins said, "There were scenes where I was butt naked with you, if you remember, sliding down that slide and things like that. And that was a little awkward, but it was kind of funny for me because at this point in time I would just do it. But your reaction was: 'Ugh, oh god.'"
Shield agreed and said that during those scenes, she would think, "Why do I have to look at this? I'd never seen one before, I'm not going to start now."
The model also discussed her minimal wardrobe on set, saying, "We were wearing little strips of clothing, and my hair was taped to my body to cover my boobs, which were very minimal anyway."
She continued, "Remember the bumpy pads? They would stick these little flesh-colored things on my nipples because nipple, evidently, was where they drew the line in this movie."
The Director of Blue Lagoon Allegedly Tried to Push Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins Into a Real-life Romance
If that wasn't strange enough, Shields' also recalled that the movie's producer tried to "force" a real-life romance between her and Atkins despite the fact that she was a minor at the time.
"They wanted us so desperately to fall in love with each other," she said. "I did not react well being forced into feeling anything. I hadn't even kissed anybody by that age."
In addition to these uncomfortable experiences, the pair also revealed that animals were injured during filming and that the health and safety protocols for the movie were extremely lax.
Atkins said, "There were long hours and there was a lot of physical stuff in that movie. Climbing those coconut trees, man, I was chafed up to no end. Running over the coral and stuff, all the bug bites and coral cuts and all the other crazy things. The fevers and everything we had, people don't know any of that stuff — it's not easy."
Shields agreed, stating, "Any kind of cut you had and you went in the water, bits of the coral would get into the cut and it'd become completely infected and ulcerated."
She also revealed that she became seriously ill during filming, saying, "We were like the Wild West but it just happened to be on the water. And I remember I got pneumonia... In the birthing scene, when I'm supposed to be having the baby, I uncontrollably can't breathe and have a coughing fit and everyone's like what a great acting choice, I'm like: 'I can't breathe!'"