"They built these little tanning booths for Brooke and I to do nothing but lay down and tan all over"
About this Quote
It is Hollywood comfort disguised as behind-the-scenes trivia: a star reminiscing about a production that literally manufactured leisure so the camera could sell it back to us as “natural” beauty. Christopher Atkins’ line lands because it’s both casual and quietly damning. “They built” makes the luxury feel institutional, not indulgent; this wasn’t two actors sneaking sunshine, it was an engineered workflow. The “little tanning booths” are miniature factories, turning skin into a prop, a continuity problem to be solved with carpentry.
The phrasing also has that oddly innocent, almost boyish wonder that actors sometimes deploy when describing the surreal perks of a set. “For Brooke and I” (grammatically off, socially telling) underlines youth and proximity to fame: the sentence isn’t polished, it’s remembered. And “do nothing but lay down and tan all over” leans into the ridiculousness of it. The job, at least for a moment, is to be looked at, to be kept camera-ready, to become the aesthetic mood board of the film.
Context matters: Atkins and Brooke Shields were sold as sun-kissed icons in an era when “healthy” meant bronzed, and when a young woman’s body could be treated as an atmosphere, not a person. The booth is a metaphor for the industry’s soft coercion: nobody says “you must,” but the infrastructure appears, and the expectation arrives with it. What sounds like a perk is also a reminder that in show business, even relaxation can be stage-managed labor.
The phrasing also has that oddly innocent, almost boyish wonder that actors sometimes deploy when describing the surreal perks of a set. “For Brooke and I” (grammatically off, socially telling) underlines youth and proximity to fame: the sentence isn’t polished, it’s remembered. And “do nothing but lay down and tan all over” leans into the ridiculousness of it. The job, at least for a moment, is to be looked at, to be kept camera-ready, to become the aesthetic mood board of the film.
Context matters: Atkins and Brooke Shields were sold as sun-kissed icons in an era when “healthy” meant bronzed, and when a young woman’s body could be treated as an atmosphere, not a person. The booth is a metaphor for the industry’s soft coercion: nobody says “you must,” but the infrastructure appears, and the expectation arrives with it. What sounds like a perk is also a reminder that in show business, even relaxation can be stage-managed labor.
Quote Details
| Topic | Friendship |
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