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Opening up. Brooke Shields<\/strong> <\/a>looks back at her life in the documentary Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields<\/em> and, for the first time, discusses being sexually assaulted.<\/p>\n \u201cI did not know if or when or if at all I was ever going to bring this up,\u201d the model, 57, explained to The Hollywood Reporter<\/em><\/a> on Thursday, January 19. \u201cIt has taken me many years of therapy to even be able to talk about it. I definitely have worked very hard through it, and I\u2019ve learned to process it.\u201d<\/p>\n In the new movie \u2014 which premiered on Friday, January 20, at Sundance Film Festival \u2014 Shields recalled struggling to find film roles after her 1987 graduation from Princeton University<\/a>. She was excited to meet with an old friend about a possible project, and he invited her back to his hotel room in order to call a cab.<\/p>\n \u201cI just absolutely froze,\u201d the Blue Lagoon<\/em> star said in the documentary via Rolling Stone<\/em><\/a>. \u201cMy one \u2018no\u2019 should have been enough. And I just thought, \u2018Stay alive, and get out.\u2019 And I just shut it out. And god knows I knew how to be disassociated from my body. I\u2019d practiced that.\u201d<\/p>\n Shields continued: \u201cI wanted to erase the whole thing from my mind and body, and just keep on the path I was on. And the system had never once come to help me, you know? So, I just had to get stronger on my own.\u201d<\/p>\n The film, directed by Lana Wilson<\/strong> (who helmed Taylor Swift<\/strong><\/a>\u2018s Miss Americana<\/em> <\/a>doc) shows Shields processing her feelings<\/a>, from initially refusing a bodyguard who said the incident was rape to eventually writing her assailant a scathing letter.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve come to a place, and we\u2019ve come to a time in our society, where we can talk about these things much more openly,\u201d Shields told THR. \u201cI had no idea I was going to say it. I thought, I have arrived at this place, and I feel as a mother of two young girls that I hope that just by even hearing my incident that I can add myself to becoming an advocate. Because this is something that does happen every day, and it should not be happening. I felt that I had arrived at a place where I could talk about it. It\u2019s taken me a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n The New York native shares daughters Rowan<\/a>, 19, and Grier<\/a>, 16, with husband Chris Henchy<\/strong>. She has been married to the producer since 2001.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n