When Hollywood gives you a second chance, you take it. But Pamela Anderson’s second chance almost didn’t come.
Her acclaimed role in Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl (2024), which earned Anderson a Golden Globe nomination, was initially turned down by her agent. The film only found its way to her thanks to her eldest son, Brandon Lee, who tracked down the producer, got hold of the script and showed it to his mother while she was tending to her garden. Anderson read it, immediately said yes, then fired her agent.
That role, often described as life imitating art, proved life-changing. Stepping into the role of Shelly Gardner, an ageing Las Vegas showgirl in an industry obsessed with youth and beauty, Anderson delivers a performance that’s both raw and resonant. Perhaps no one could have played this part better.
Anderson’s career renaissance has been fuelled in no small part by her sons, Brandon and Dylan Lee, who are fierce champions of their mother. Brandon, an actor, producer and model, produced the 2023 documentary Pamela: A Love Story, which helped her tell her story in her own words. The film was released alongside her memoir, Pamela, both projects serving as a response to the unauthorised Hulu series Pam & Tommy.
“By making my own documentary I felt a little more understood,” says the 58-year-old Canadian. “It wasn’t the most important thing to do in life, but it does feel better when people have true information and you’re in control of the narrative of your life.
“Unfortunately for me, my personal life has overshadowed a lot of my career. I feel I have to be grateful now that I’m doing films again.”
Speaking from her home in Vancouver Island, Anderson is busier than ever. She made five films last year alone and returned to stage in a revival of Tennessee Williams’ play Camino Real. Next, she heads to Niagara Falls to begin filming a romantic musical thriller, Queen of the Falls, with Guy Pearce.
Most excitingly, she will embark on an Australian speaking tour with wellbeing company Wanderlust True North in April. Her talks will take audiences on a tell-all journey through her life; more importantly, she will share the stories behind reclaiming her place in the spotlight and lift the veil on the tabloid hype that dominated our perception of her for decades.
“I’ve had this wild experience of going through so many chapters and interesting twists in my life, and now I have a whole new life in front of me,” she says, referring to her unexpected comeback. “I am all about embracing my age and loving myself.”
Anderson now lives not far from where she grew up in British Columbia (she says she feels most at home in her sprawling garden), a world away from the bright lights of Hollywood. Here she can delve into new scripts, work on character development, binge on classic movies and plot her next adventure.
While her home is a place of refuge, it’s also a reminder of where her whole journey began. After being discovered in the crowd at an American football game in Vancouver in 1989 as a 22-year-old, she quickly entered the Playboy world and landed her first centrefold. Television fame followed via the sitcom Home Improvement in the early ’90s, before Anderson became a global icon as lifeguard C. J. Parker on Baywatch from 1992 to 1997. She also made her film debut during this time in 1996’s Barb Wire.
In 1995, intimate videos of Anderson with her then-husband, Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee, were stolen from their home and later distributed online. Though she sued the company responsible, a then-pregnant Anderson dropped the case as she was worried about the stress on her unborn baby (Anderson and Lee divorced in 1998).
In the years since, raising her sons – Brandon is now 29 and Dylan 28 – has been Anderson’s greatest role. Ever the protective mother, she sent the boys to a boarding school on Vancouver Island for five years to keep them away from Hollywood and the tabloids. Watching her sons grow into fine young men remains her proudest achievement.
Her entrepreneurial spirit is shared with them, too. “The boys work with me on my skincare brand,” she says, referring to her business, Sonsie. “They’re trying to empower me to share my message in all different ways. It’s really exciting to have that kind of relationship with my kids now that they’re older, but they’re the reason I get to have this next chapter and share it with the world.”
Anderson believes mothers have a unique responsibility to their sons. “It’s important to support our sons in a world that’s not really helping young men right now. I want them to be successful at raising their own children, creating their own home and live a good life – one where they feel good about themselves.” Brandon, she adds, is preparing to get married this year.
Sonsie has also allowed Anderson to move past the beauty standards that have swallowed her whole since her 20s, to embrace a new version of herself as she lets go of the expectations that came with being Pamela Anderson. She’s dropped the peroxide-blonde bombshell look of her Baywatch era and turned her back on wearing heavy make-up in 2019, something that wasn’t noticed until her bare-faced appearance at Paris Fashion Week in 2023. It’s reached the stage where this stripped-back, authentic version of Anderson is what we’ve come to expect.
She feels comfortable now in ways she couldn’t have imagined at the height of her ’90s fame, with demure gowns, lab-grown diamonds and coiffed hair-dos all part of her sartorial repertoire. She’s also learnt to be kinder to herself, and to appreciate what she sees in the mirror, noting that it’s the same thing you’ll see in her Instagram feed, something she describes as “so unique”.
Reflecting on her life, Anderson has no regrets. “I am happy that life has happened this way for me, because I was able to learn from so many experiences and bring that into my work,” she says. “You can always turn the page on things that happen in life, and I got a chance to fertilise my own garden and create a new life for myself.”
And she’s not taking a minute of her career revival for granted. “This is my second chance in this industry and I’ve done it my way. When I was younger, people thought of me in a certain way, but I didn’t know what I was doing. Yes, I was interested in plays and great movies, but I was so distracted and trying to do the best in that world with what I knew at that point. I’m really fortunate that I get this opportunity to give it another shot. At my age, I feel like I have kind of cracked.”
And this time, she’s doing it on her own terms. “I don’t have a relationship that’s distracting me or taking up my time, but I have a responsibility to myself,” she says. “When you’re an artist, you don’t always feel that people really believe in you. You have to believe in yourself. It’s a process that sounds so simple, but it’s not easy.”
Wanderlust presents In Conversation with Pamela Anderson in Sydney on April 16 and Melbourne on April 17.
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