Brooke Shields dredges up 2005 feud with Tom Cruise in new documentary, Pretty Baby

Brooke Shields has addressed her past feud with Tom Cruise after the actor weighed in on one of her biggest health struggles.

Brooke Shields addresses Tom Cruise feud in new documentary, Pretty Baby. Picture: Supplied.

Brooke Shields’ documentary, Pretty Baby, has dredged up a public disagreement between the actress and Tom Cruise.

The film, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival this weekend and is named after Shields’ famously controversial film Pretty Baby, revisits painful parts of the star’s past, including a sexual assault, which she first recounted to The Hollywood Reporter.

Brooke Shields attends the premiere of her documentary at Sundance Film Festival. Picture: Amy Sussman/Getty Images.

Another incident explored in the documentary is Shields’ Postpartum depression, which ultimately led her to take antidepressants, prompting criticism from Tom Cruise.

At the time, Shields had just released her new book, Down Came the Rain: My Journey Through Postpartum Depression, while Cruise was doing press for his 2005 movie War of the Worlds. In a conversation with Matt Lauer on The Today Show, Cruise discussed his problems with psychiatric drugs.

Cruise openly condemned the use of psychiatric drugs shortly after Shields’ revealed she was prescribed antidepressants. Picture: Mark Thompson/Getty Images.

The actress was quick to respond in a biting op-ed for The New York Times. Picture: Getty Images.

Cruise, who co-starred with Shields in the 1981 film Endless Love, described psychiatric drugs as “dangerous,” adding that his view was independent of the Church of Scientology’s choice not to use ”mind-altering psychotropic drugs.”

“I’ve never agreed with psychiatry, ever. Before I was a Scientologist, I never agreed with psychiatry and then when I started studying the history of psychiatry, I started realising more and more why I didn’t agree with psychiatry,” the actor told Lauer.

Shields hit back at the Mission Impossible star in an op-ed for The New York Times.

Brooke Shields pictured in 2005.

In the article, Shields addressed his interview, writing in part, “I WAS hoping it wouldn’t come to this, but after Tom Cruise’s interview with Matt Lauer on the NBC show Today last week, I feel compelled to speak not just for myself but also for the hundreds of thousands of women who have suffered from post-partum depression.

“While Mr. Cruise says that Mr. Lauer and I do not ‘understand the history of psychiatry,’ I’m going to take a wild guess and say that Mr. Cruise has never suffered from post-partum depression.”

She added, “Comments like those made by Tom Cruise are a disservice to mothers everywhere. To suggest that I was wrong to take drugs to deal with my depression, and that instead I should have taken vitamins and exercised shows an utter lack of understanding about post-partum depression and childbirth in general. If any good can come of Mr. Cruise‘s ridiculous rant, let’s hope that it gives much-needed attention to a serious disease.”

Tom Cruise and then-wife Katie Holmes, pictured in 2005. Picture: Kevin Winter/Getty Images.

Although Shields later told Jay Leno on The Tonight Show that Cruise apologised, the incident was addressed in the documentary.

During one scene of the documentary, the camera zooms in on the headline of her op-ed, “What Tom Cruise Doesn’t Know About Estrogen”.

Elsewhere in the documentary, actor Judd Nelson repeats a quote from Shields at the time that “Tom Cruise should stick to fighting aliens,” writes Variety.

Representatives for Shields and Cruise did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

This article originally appeared on Fox News and has been reproduced here with permission

Originally published as Brooke Shields dredges up 2005 feud with Tom Cruise in new documentary, Pretty Baby