Christopher Atkins says the sudden fame that followed The Blue Lagoon sent his life spinning so quickly that it eventually cost him one of Hollywood’s biggest roles.
Long before Kevin Bacon danced his way through Footloose, Christopher Atkins was one of Hollywood’s brightest young stars.
At just 18 years old, the newcomer landed the lead role opposite 14-year-old Brooke Shields in the controversial 1980 film The Blue Lagoon, despite having no acting experience.
While the movie turned him into an overnight sensation, Atkins now says he wasn’t prepared for everything that came with all the fame.
‘Changes your life’
Speaking during a Q&A at Fanboy Expo Knoxville in Tennessee, the 65-year-old reflected on how dramatically his life changed after the film’s release.
“I’d never done anything before. Never wanted to be an actor, only wanted to play baseball. That was my dream,” the star of Dallas told the audience, explaining that he had been modeling when he was repeatedly called back to audition for the film.
“I didn’t know what a camera looked like. I had no idea what a mark was, and I knew nothing. And I had to jump on an airplane and fly all the way to Fiji,” he reportedly said, adding that his “whole life changed” after the movie’s release.
“We were young, and so you’re constantly getting this notoriety,” he recalled, explaining that the success that followed came faster than he could have imagined.
“It changes your life, because all of a sudden, you’re nothing and then you’re on every single grocery store magazine,” said the father of two.
That sudden rise, Atkins suggested, also made it harder to keep his footing.
The role that slipped away
Looking back, Atkins said one of the biggest turning points in his career came just a few years after the movie with his co-superstar, when he was in line to star in 1984’s Footloose.
According to the actor, filmmakers wanted one final meeting before officially moving forward, but by then his drinking had started getting in the way.
“I was a mess back then. I was partying it up way too much, and they called me in,” Atkins recalled. “I said, ‘I can’t go in right now. I’ve been drinking and carrying on.’ And they said, ‘No, they need to see you.’”
Despite his condition, he went anyway but says the meeting didn’t unfold the way he had hoped.
“And I went in and I just blew that audition…I mean, it wasn’t even an audition – I had the part, but I was so messed up that they said, ‘Yeah, we’re going to have to pass on this guy,” he claimed.
The role ultimately went to Kevin Bacon, whose performance helped turn Footloose into one of the defining films of the 1980s.
Today, however, Atkins says that chapter is firmly behind him: “And I’m almost 40 years sober, so there you go.”
Brooke Shields said fame was ‘pure insanity’
Atkins’ reflections come as The Blue Lagoon has found itself back in the spotlight following a conversation with Brooke Shields on her podcast, Now What? With Brooke Shields.
“I was just 14 and he was 18, and back then we honestly had no idea how much the movie was going to change our lives. The years that followed were the only thing I could think of as pure insanity,” Shields told her guest.
“You look back on it, and people who come into Hollywood want to be actors. Their dream is to get that golden ticket. You know that that hit,” Atkins told 61-year-old Shields. “And how lucky were we that we had something that was so incredibly messy.”
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