This week, Brooke was one of a few celebrities to fill in for Kelly on her talk show in the American Idol star’s recent absence. As a guest host, Brooke spoke to actor Eiza González, and the conversation — while generally well received — featured one awkward moment that had viewers stirring in comment sections online.
As the two sat down, Eiza gestured to her outfit, which consisted of a turtleneck and a blue tulle skirt. “By the way, I wore this for you,” she said before asking Brooke, “What does it look like?”
After slightly hesitating, Brooke answered. “My…outfit in Blue Lagoon,” she guessed. Eiza excitedly confirmed, smoothing down her skirt and saying, “Yes! It’s like a Blue Lagoon-inspired look for you.”
“Oh my gosh, that was a lot more covered than I was,” Brooke said as she pointed to Eiza’s outfit. Eiza nodded, saying, “I couldn’t live up to the hair, so I was like, ‘Well, I’ll use fake tulle as hair.’”
“And that hair was…taped to my body, by the way,” Brooke shared, to Eiza’s surprise. “Yeah, they had to tape it to my boobs, because if the wind blew, it was like, woo!” The two laughed as Brooke said, “There wasn’t much! There wasn’t much there.”
If you aren’t familiar with the 1980 film The Blue Lagoon, you might not know the many controversies surrounding the movie and Brooke’s experience as its lead star. In addition to its controversial plot about two young cousins falling in love, the film has been widely criticized for its excessive nudity — particularly because Brooke was only 14 years old at the time.
Of course, this film wasn’t the only controversial experience in Brooke’s earlier career. At just 11 years old, she starred in the 1978 film Pretty Baby, playing a child prostitute. Like The Blue Lagoon, the film featured several nude scenes and was banned in a number of locations upon release.
In the two-part documentary, Brooke talks about her experiences making movies, including Pretty Baby and The Blue Lagoon, and it’s pretty clear that she doesn’t recall them all that fondly. In light of this, when Eiza wore her new look on The Kelly Clarkson Show, viewers had a lot to say.
“I feel that’s quite insensitive of her picking that outfit,” one person wrote. Another added, “’I’m dressed as you when you were exploited’ is a choice.”
One person highlighted Brooke’s perspective, commenting, “I wore this for yoooou just a lil something that symbolizes your trauma 😜.” “The way I would never bring up blue lagoon to that woman,” someone else said. “You can see it I her eyes the trauma flashback just came over her 😭,” a third person added.
Others, however, were more diplomatic toward Eiza. One person said, “I know her intentions were good, but that probably reminded [Brooke] of all her child acting drama.” Someone else agreed, adding, “I would feel too bad to do it.” Another user suggested that Eiza may simply be unaware, saying, “I never knew how she felt about that movie, maybe she didn’t either. I don’t believe she would do that intentionally if she had known.”
You can watch Eiza and Brooke’s full interview here. LMK your thoughts in the comments.
