Shields, who was 15 at the time of filming, previously voiced her frustrations over feeling “forced” into a relationship.

Brooke Shields’* Blue Lagoon *costar recalls director’s wild attempts to push them into real-life romance

Shields, who was 15 at the time of filming, previously voiced her frustrations over feeling “forced” into a relationship.

By Shania Russell

Shania Russell

Shania Russell is a news writer at *, *with five years of experience. Her work has previously appeared in SlashFilm and Paste Magazine.

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July 14, 2026 2:35 p.m. ET

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Christopher Atkins and Brooke Shields in ‘The Blue Lagoon’. Credit:

- Christopher Atkins says *Blue Lagoon *director Randal Kleiser hoped he would “fall in love” with Brooke Shields.

- Atkins was 18, and Shields turned 15 while filming the controversial film about teen cousins who survive a shipwreck and fall in love on a remote island.

- Atkins said the filmmaker hoped a real romance between the pair “would show up on film.”

*The Blue Lagoon** *director Randal Kleiser went to great lengths to capture an authentic romance, according to star Christopher Atkins.

The cult classic film, about shipwrecked cousins who fall in love after being trapped alone on a tropical island, relies pretty heavily on the chemistry between its two leads, an 18-year-old Atkins and 15-year-old Brooke Shields. To give their spark an authentic feel, Atkins claims that Kleiser did his best to encourage a real-life romance between them.

“She was great. I can’t say enough good things about her,” Atkins said of Shields while recounting memories of the film on the *Media Path* podcast. “We kind of had a little romance in the beginning. And the director wanted us to have romance so it would show up on film.”

Atkins explained that he initially “lived on a ship” when they began filming on an island in Fiji. He claimed that Kleiser took it upon himself to plant the seeds of their romance — starting in Atkins’’ bedroom.

Christopher Atkins and Brooke Shields in ‘The Blue Lagoon’.

“He had put a picture of Brooke over my bunk on the boat,” Atkins shared. “So I would look at her every night before I went to sleep so I would fall in love, so it would show up on film.”

He added, “And yeah, we did have a little romance and everything on the island, but it was very innocent and sweet. And yes, of course, I was very protective of her.”

** has reached out to Kleiser and representatives for Shields for comment.

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Shields has previously spoken about *Blue Lagoon* as a tumultuous point in her career, identifying the film as a frustrating example of the way she was oversexualized and unprotected during her years as a child star. Addressing that aspect of the film during his podcast appearance, Atkins said that for the most part, being sexualized “didn’t bother” him — though it did affect his career going forward.

“I had to show my butt in every movie after that movie,” he shared. “That was just the way it goes. I can’t tell you how many love scenes I’ve done. And they always wanted me with curly hair, put the diaper back on and all that kind of stuff.”

Brooke Shields and Randal Kleiser.

Shields previously addressed the attempts at forging an off-camera relationship when she had Atkins on her* Now What?* podcast in 2022.

“They wanted us so desperately to fall in love with each other,” the supermodel recalled. “I did not react well to being forced into feeling anything. I hadn’t even kissed anybody by that age.”

Atkins argued that in the end, the chemistry between them was “just amazing.” He added, “There were a lot of great, great moments that went on there, and I think it was a lot of that innocence that came off in the film that made it work even more.”

Elsewhere in that conversation, Shields said that a movie like *Blue Lagoon *“wouldn’t be allowed” to be made these days, noting how they weren’t “eased into” the film, which required them to be naked in front of each other.

Brooke Shields in 2026.

John Nacion/Getty

The controversy surrounding the film featured heavily in the actress’ 2023 documentary, *Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields*. During a visit to *The* *Drew Barrymore Show* that same year, Shields shared that she received a call from Kleiser days after the doc arrived on Hulu — but declined to answer.

“I saw his name on my phone, and I was like, ‘Oh! Oh. What do I do?’ And I let it go to voicemail because I want to see what the tone is,” Shields said. “He wants to chat. I don’t know about what. I don’t feel like bringing any of it back up again. It’s not about that.”

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Of her general experience working on films as a child, Shields added, “It was about these males needing me to be in a certain category to serve their story, and it never was about me. It was never protective of me. It was fun and loving at times, but I was just there. I was a pawn.”

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