Brooke Shields wants to teach her daughters humility and confidence — but not too much of either.
The best life lesson she could teach her teens Rowan Francis and Grier Hammond would be to "have confidence in who they are" while walking the fine line between being overly humble or too arrogant, the actress, model and mom told TODAY's Savannah Guthrie in a candid Six Minute Marathon on Tuesday.
"Humility can be a little bit of a dangerous thing, only because it makes you smaller," Shields, 55, said in the exclusive TODAY Digital interview. "Walk into a room humble, it means you're smaller. but if you can walk into a room confident as to who you are, but not to be arrogant, meaning to being higher than or better than anybody else, so that's the kind of conversation I try to have. ... Be polite, be kind, but arrogance — we have no room for that."
Shields said that her daughters have also taught her plenty — especially about social media.
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"They're like, 'Mom, don't read the comments,'" Shields said, adding that she doesn't even search herself on Google. "I was like, 'Oh.' And, you know, my husband will read the comments, he doesn't even have Instagram! And he's like 'You know, you're going to get in trouble for (posting) that,' or 'That's happened, that's negative,' and it's like, what idiot reads the comments?"
Shields added that overall, she has learned that she really wants to "stop the noise" and take more time for herself.
"I need fewer social engagements, I need fewer people around, I need less," Shields explained. "I really want to stop the noise that I've allowed in my life for decades. And the revving up and the constant motion and (even) just getting ready, it's like doing the hair and the make-up and the thing and the production and the stuff and it's all just anxiety. It's unnecessary. There's so many unnecessary things that, as people, I don't want to spend my time doing for this next part of my life."
She said that if she were ever gifted a day off, knowing that her daughters and work would be fine without her, she would bring herself right to the beach.
"I would be on a beautiful beach somewhere, with a fabuluos book and a bottle of tequila," Shields said.
"Oh, can I come with you?" Savannah joked.
"Yes!" Shields responded. "...If I knew my kids were fine and my work, whatever that means right now, is fine, I think I would just read all day, and you know, I'd have it and I would just sort of sip my tequila and, I don't know, be peaceful."