How ’90s Icon Pamela Anderson Became an Awards Season Darling
Job auditions, especially those in show business, can be a very tough experience, but the one seen in ‘The Last Showgirl’ is particularly harsh. During an audition Pamela Anderson’s character Shelly Gardner is told “What you sold in the past was young and sexy. You aren’t either anymore.”
The script told her to yell at that director, “I’m 50!” But in that moment, Anderson decided to insert her real age into the line: “I’m 57 and I’m beautiful, you son of a b**ch!”
And being 57 years old is not the only thing Shelly and Pamela Anderson have in common. When the film had its world premiere at the recent Toronto International Film Festival, the former “Baywatch” star alluded to some parallels in her story as well. “I’ve been getting ready my whole life for this film,“ she said in a post-screening q&a, referring to her to her own career path, from being a world famous sex symbol reduced to her looks in the 90s to someone who was hardly booking any acting jobs in recent years.
Frustrated by the way the media and the industry had treated her over the years (the 2022 miniseries “Pam & Tommy” about her tumultuous marriage to musician Tommy Lee was done without consulting her, for example), Anderson had more and more retreated from the limelight. She moved from Hollywood back to her native Canada, and when she did make public appearances, she deliberately showed up without make-up on her face. And in 2023, she used her autobiography and coinciding Netflix documentary “Pamela, A Love Story” to show the world a different side of herself – and, for once, her own truth.
It was this documentary that caught director, Gia Coppola’s eyes. The granddaughter of Francis Ford Coppola, had been looking for the ideal actress to portray the titular showgirl in her latest script. She found her in Anderson, not just because she saw someone who had been underestimated and misjudged during a long career in the entertainment industry.
But also, because, as she puts it, she saw someone in ‘Pamela, A Love Story’ who was a passionate and creative artist, vulnerable and fearless at the same time.
As Shelly in ‘The Last Showgirl’, Anderson has been a performer of the ensemble of Le Razzle Dazzle for three decades, an old-fashioned dance revue full of skimpy costumes and massive headpieces, adorned with plenty of rhinestones and feathers. Through the work at this show in a mid-size casino resort on the Strip in Las Vegas, she was able to bring up her daughter. When Eddie (Dave Bautista), the producer of Le Razzle Dazzle, announces the show’s closure, Shelly’s existence is put at risk. “I never felt something so strongly about something as this film,“ said Anderson during the film’s recent press conference. “It was the greatest pleasure to dive in head-first into this story with all these wonderful characters that were written so thoughtfully.”
It would not have taken much for Anderson to miss out on this extraordinary part, though. Her agent at the time passed on the script, without even showing it to the actress. It was only by chance that her eldest son Brandon Thomas Lee, who was an executive producer on her documentary (and now on “The Last Showgirl”), discovered it on the agent’s desk and realized what an opportunity this film could mean to his mother.
Taking on her first leading role since ‘Barb Wire’ in 1996 and delivering one of the rawest and moving performances of the past year has now not only reignited Anderson’s passion for acting. It also helped set her up for the most unexpected comeback in a long time, landing her nominations for the Golden Globe and the Screen Actors Guild Award and leading to new projects right away. She has already finished working on a remake of ‘The Naked Gun’ with Liam Neeson and ‘Rosebush Pruining’ by Brazilian arthouse director Karim Aïnouz.
But the best thing, she said about her comeback, are the reactions she is getting from people loving the film. “A lot of people do come up to me and say: you know, you’re right. Never give up on your dreams. And if this dream doesn’t work out, you just change your outfit and become somebody else.”
Words – Patrick Heidmann
IN CINEMAS FEB 28th