Years after Brooke Shields starred in the film, she studied French Literature at Princeton University. Her 1987 senior thesis, written during her final year, was entitled "The Initiation: From Innocence to Experience: The Pre-Adolescent/Adolescent Journey in the Films of Louis Malle, Pretty Baby (1978) and Lacombe, Lucien (1974)," meaning she wrote about a film in which she starred.
The screenplay was based on the first-hand recollections of the operations of New Orleans' "Red Light" prostitution district published in the book "Storyville, New Orleans: Being an Authentic, Illustrated Account of the Notorious Red Light District" by Al Rose. The book contains many of photos of New Orleans prostitutes taken by E.J. Bellocq, the character played by Keith Carradine in the movie.
Labeled as "child porn" both by the cover of People magazine and popular gossip columnist of the time, Rona Barrett, the movie sparked complete outrage among audiences, even becoming banned in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Saskatchewan. Brooke Shields declared to People magazine at the time. "It's only a role. I'm not going to grow up and be a prostitute." When Vanity Fair asked her in 2018 if she regrets starring in the controversial flick, she said "It was the best creative project I've ever been associated with. The best group of people I've ever been blessed enough to work with." Director Louis Malle refuted the criticism, stating to People, "Anybody who calls it child pornography has not seen the damn thing ... nymphet and Lolita rub me the wrong way."
Brooke Shields wrote in her book 'There Was a Little Girl' that Susan Sarandon actually slapped her hard during a scene. "Before shooting the scene, Susan explained to Louis that she would be unable to fake the slap. She would have to actually slap me in order to act her most convincing. She literally said, 'I can't do this unless I actually slap her.' I remember thinking: Is this being a real actress, or does she really not like me? Oh, well, I'll show her she can do what she wants. She won't hurt me. It was in this scene that Louis's direction to me was simply to be 'defiant.' In any case, I decided to act as if I couldn't care less what she did. So I stood there and took repeated slaps across my left cheek without flinching. I remember feeling stubborn and resilient and that I was showing her how she couldn't affect me. This reacting was also telling and was equally appropriate for Violet and for Brooke. There was something hurtful yet empowering about standing up to her in this way and in response to her trying to rule how the scene went. It was perfect for the scene, so maybe Susan did this on purpose, but I'll never know," Shields wrote.