We’re talking about the coming-of-age survival drama”The Blue Lagoon“, which became an absolute mega hit in 1980. In Germany, for example, more than 2.6 million people poured into cinemas – one of the ten most successful films of the year. Never mind that the drama was almost unanimously torn by the critics, film critic legend Roger Ebert even spoke of the “silent movie of the year”.
In her own podcast “’ leading actress Brooke Shields now looked back extensively on the film. Because she had her former co-star Christopher Atkins as a guest. Both are convinced that “The Blue Lagoon” would no longer be possible today: “A movie like this will never be made again,” says Shields, adding, “That wouldn’t have been allowed.” And Atkins agrees there are a lot of things “you couldn’t do right now” that relate to nudity, safety and animal cruelty. But first things first: what is “The Blue Lagoon” about?
This is “The Blue Lagoon” with Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins.
After a shipwreck, the two children Emmeline and Richard Lestrange are stranded on an island. A few years later, they are there alone after a sailor who was initially with them dies. When Emmeline is 14 and Richard is 18, Cousin and Cousin slowly and initially very embarrassed get closer. They discover their sexuality together and eventually have a boy…
The age difference exists not only between the movie characters, but also between the stars. Brooke Shields was actually only 14 at the time of filming, her co-star Christopher Atkins being four years older. Despite this, she can be seen naked most of the time, even though the hair was always made to cover her nipples in front views and an (adult) doppelgänger was sometimes used.
Hollywood producers reportedly even wanted a real love story
Brooke Shields now shares how she felt uncomfortable filming, in part because she and Atkins were always naked. lIn the podcast, the stars also talk about the age difference, showing that it didn’t stop the movie producers from proposing a real relationship to promote the movie.“They really wanted us to fall in love with each other,” Shields recalls. That was out of the question for her. After all, they were “worlds apart” because of the four-year age difference and the fact that Atkins was already an adult. At that point she hadn’t even kissed anyone and now she would have to enter into a romantic relationship with an 18-year-old.
Atkins recalls that even Shield’s mother was coaxed into inviting him home for several days so that he and her daughter could get to know each other better.
Shooting despite illness
They’re not the only horror stories told by the two stars. The film was shot on an island and rules were ignored. Today, no environmentalist would allow this, they are both surebecause they just drove over corals or speared real fish.
According to their descriptions, the two stars pushed the physically demanding shoot to its limits. But even with illnesses such as fever, filming continued. Shields remembers that even pneumonia was used, so the episode scene was shot with real breathing difficulties.
“The Blue Lagoon”: streaming on Netflix!
Incidentally, despite all the experience, Atkins still got a guest role in the much more subdued and less problematic TV remake “Blue Lagoon: Lost in Love” from 2012. He was never able to build on the success of his debut film.
Brooke Shields, on the other hand, was known before The Blue Lagoon and became one of the biggest movie stars of the 1980s. Today, she can mainly be seen in TV roles. She was last in front of the camera for Netflix in the Christmas novel “A Castle For Christmas”, which was released in 2021. The Blue Lagoon is also available to stream on Netflix.