“The Blue Lagoon” follows two young cousins-turned-lovers shipwrecked on a tropical island in the South Pacific.
Stars Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins reunited on Shields’ iHeartRadio podcast — and decided the 1980 film would not be made today.
“Never again will a movie be made like that,” Shields conceded on Tuesday’s episode of “Now What?” “It wouldn’t be allowed.”
“Animals were hurt in the movie. We were spearing fish and all kinds of crazy things. Children are naked running down a beach,” she shared.
The coming-of-age movie featured a lot of nudity — with Shields only 14 at the time of filming and Atkins just 18.
Shields, 57, and Atkins, 61, claim the production team wanted the pair to forge an off-screen relationship.
“They wanted so desperately for us to fall in love with each other,” the actress revealed.
Since Shields was so young playing Emmeline and hadn’t truly kissed anyone, she said she “didn’t react well to being forced into feeling anything.”
“Which was probably great for the film because that’s what it was all about. You have to admit the chemistry between us was just amazing,” Atkins responded.
“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,” he continued.
Shields admits she actually had a body double fill in for sex scenes — but Atkins didn’t.
He shared that he was raised in a conservative area, which made him feel strange about being naked in front of others.
“After that movie it was hard to keep my clothes on,” Atkins quipped.
“There were scenes where I was butt naked with you, if you remember, sliding down that slide and things like that. And that was a little awkward, but it was kind of funny for me because at this point in time I would just do it. But your reaction was [annoyed sounds],” Atkins recounted.
Atkins also recalled he and Shields being directed to tan nude before filming to avoid tan lines.
“We were wearing little strips of clothing, and my hair was taped on to my body to cover the boobs, which were very minimal anyway,” Shields remembered. “I don’t know what I was trying to cover. Remember the bumpy pads? They would stick these little flesh-colored things on my nipples because ‘nipple’ evidently was where they drew the line in this movie.”
Filming in the nude was more than just awkward — the actors said they suffered injuries from swarms of bugs, crabs, rats and horses.
“I was chafed up to no end,” Atkins added.