\n<\/p>\n
Brooke Shields has a new office. It\u2019s empty, and she hasn\u2019t figured out how she wants to furnish it, or even how often she\u2019ll be there, but it\u2019s a sign of her new and unexpected status, as president of Actors\u2019 Equity Association<\/a>, the labor union representing theater actors and stage managers in the United States.<\/p>\n Shields\u2019s candidacy was a surprise, even to herself. But when Kate Shindle<\/a>, who had led the union for nine years<\/a>, announced in April that she was stepping down<\/a>, Shields\u2019s music director suggested she consider the opening, and soon enough, she had tossed her hat in the ring, and in May she won<\/a> the vote by members, defeating two more-seasoned labor activists. She\u2019s already led her first meeting of the union\u2019s council, and came away realizing she has a lot to learn, starting with parliamentary procedure.<\/p>\n Shields, of course, is one of those people who has been famous for so long, and in so many ways, that even she can\u2019t remember a different time. She was a childhood model, a preteen movie star, a sex object and an icon of beauty, all before she went off to college (Princeton, thank you very much). In the years since, she has acted onscreen and onstage, has written books, has spoken widely, particularly about depression<\/a>, and has become a symbol and a subject<\/a> for an evolving discussion about how women and girls have been sexualized by the entertainment and fashion industries.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n She has had five roles on Broadway, each time replacing a principal in an already-running show (\u201cGrease,\u201d \u201cChicago,\u201d \u201cCabaret,\u201d \u201cWonderful Town\u201d and \u201cThe Addams Family\u201d). She has also performed occasionally at regional theaters (\u201cThe Exorcist\u201d at the Geffen in Los Angeles, for example) and Off Broadway (in the star vehicles \u201cLove Letters,\u201d \u201cThe Vagina Monologues,\u201d and \u201cLove, Loss, and What I Wore,\u201d among others).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Now, at 59, she is thinking a lot about middle age. She is recovering from a foot surgery that attracted attention<\/a> when she wore Crocs (yellow, matching her dress) to the Tony Awards. She has just started a new beauty business<\/a>, Commence<\/a>, with hair-care products developed for women over 40; she is writing another book, also aging-focused; and she is seeking new ways to harness the celebrity she can never shed. That\u2019s where Equity comes in \u2014 she says actors and stage managers were extraordinarily supportive of her when she needed to jump quickly into an unfamiliar show. Now she wants to give back.<\/p>\n Over lunch at B\u2019artusi, an Italian restaurant in the West Village, she talked about her time in theater, and her crash course as a labor leader. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.<\/p>\n How\u2019s the foot?<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s both feet. It\u2019s going to be OK. This is my sixth surgery. I really blew my feet out on Broadway, from dancing in shows \u2014 being thrown in, with no training and raked stages and jamming my feet into the shoes and abusing them. I\u2019m sure it\u2019s hereditary too \u2014 it\u2019s probably one more thing I can blame my mother for.<\/p>\n You just started a company, you\u2019re acting, and the Equity presidency doesn\u2019t pay. Why add this position to the mix?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n There\u2019s something that I grapple with and have struggled with my entire life: being a public persona. You have this thing you have to live with, and it\u2019s constant. So how do I turn it into something I don\u2019t resent? How do I use Brooke Shields \u2014 that thing that is separate from me, that\u2019s a job, and is a commodity of some sort \u2014 to make a difference for a community that\u2019s given nothing but love and acceptance to me when it was not cool to cast somebody who had zero Broadway training? My experience with Broadway, and regional theater, and Off Broadway, is this welcoming community. Those are the people that had my back.<\/p>\n Union activism is new for you.<\/strong><\/p>\n This is going to be a huge learning curve for me. My first time chairing a meeting was something out of Monty Python. I hadn\u2019t learned the vernacular. Robert\u2019s Rules<\/a>? I\u2019ll get to know them! But if that\u2019s my weakest place, then I\u2019m OK, \u2019cause I can learn it, or someone who can do it better can do it and I can sit right by them.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t like conflict?<\/strong><\/p>\n That\u2019s going to be hard for me. In this stage of my life, I\u2019m letting go of the tug of war rope. I don\u2019t like to fight; I like to discuss.<\/p>\n But you\u2019ve taken a job where you\u2019re going to have to ask producers for things they don\u2019t want to give. It\u2019s adversarial.<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019m ready. I\u2019ve had to do it in my company \u2014 letting people go, saying no. That\u2019s a skill to practice and learn.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The union just announced a strike against developmental work, saying negotiations were not making progress. What\u2019s the issue?<\/strong><\/p>\n People aren\u2019t being compensated fairly.<\/p>\n Also, Disney\u2019s theme park performers just voted to unionize with Equity.<\/strong><\/p>\n We have to figure out what they want in their contracts, and then we have to put forward people who can be good in that negotiation.<\/p>\n What\u2019s your sense of how theater is doing?<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s not fully recovered, obviously, from the pandemic. But it\u2019s really great to see how many new shows there were. There\u2019s something for everybody. You can have a \u201cMerrily\u201d and a \u201cStereophonic\u201d and an \u201cIllinoise\u201d and \u201cAppropriate\u201d and \u201cMother Play.\u201d It\u2019s refreshing that it\u2019s not one note.<\/p>\n Something I often hear from readers is that they wonder why there can\u2019t be more streaming of staged shows.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n That\u2019s a tricky one. The part of theater that\u2019s theater is being in person. There\u2019s a different performance every night.<\/p>\n What\u2019s the first show you remember seeing?<\/strong><\/p>\n My mom took me to \u201cThe Fantasticks\u201d and then Mummenschanz. Those were the big ones. And then it was \u201cJesus Christ Superstar.\u201d I was 9 when I saw \u201cGrease\u201d on Broadway and during the preshow there was a hula hoop contest and the winner of the hula hoop contest would get to meet the cast. By the grace of something, I ended up winning it. And my mom, from that day on, whenever I had a moment of doubt, she would say, \u201cRemember the hula hoop.\u201d<\/p>\n And when was the first time you performed onstage?<\/strong><\/p>\n I was in one scene in \u201cAfter the Fall\u201d [a 1974 teleplay]. I walk on, I go sit on Christopher Plummer\u2019s lap, and then I walk off. I was like 8.<\/p>\n You were always doing film and commercial work. Did you do theater at college?<\/strong><\/p>\n I did every Triangle Show [The Princeton Triangle Club is a musical comedy troupe] in college. I tried out for the dance company, and I didn\u2019t get in my freshman year. That summer I took four or five dance classes a day. I went back and got into the dance company.<\/p>\n Are you going to continue to act while leading the union?<\/strong><\/p>\n As long as I\u2019m wanted. I\u2019ve got a couple of things right now that I\u2019m working on. Netflix did really well with the last movie<\/a> that I did. I have a show in development. What would be ideal is to be on a show here in New York because then I could do it all. And never sleep.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n What do you want your legacy to be?<\/strong><\/p>\n I hope I\u2019m able to carry through many of the little changes that can make a bigger difference, and that I leave the association feeling kinder and more inclusive and not angry or fractured.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n