Pamela Anderson on Being Underestimated by Hollywood

Although she worked in Hollywood for decades, Pamela Anderson was never offered a major role like that of Shelley, the protagonist of “The Last Showgirl,” a struggling dancer about to lose the only job she’s ever known because of her age and the changing tastes of the Las Vegas tourist community.

“I underestimated myself, too,” Anderson said in an interview with Variety Toronto Film Festival. “And it happened at the right time. Everything happened at the right time.”

The right time for Anderson was a career-changing 2023 that saw her public persona as a sex symbol morph into something more multidimensional thanks to Ryan White’s 2023 Emmy-nominated documentary “Pamela, A Love Story” and her bestselling memoir “Love Pamela.”

“The stars really aligned,” Anderson added. “And now it’s also very surreal, like I’m going to wake up and nothing’s really happening, and then I’m going to be really angry because I feel so blessed and lucky to have this opportunity and this chance to kind of have this life that I thought I could have a long time ago, and things are interrupted, life is interrupted.”

The film, which had its world premiere at TIFF on September 6 to rave reviews, portrays the “Baywatch” icon in a way audiences have never seen before, without glamour, without recognition and with a full range of emotions. For director Gia Coppola, it was not an easy choice.

“I came across a picture of her. I guess you were promoting your documentary, and I had this feeling of, ‘What about her?’” Coppola recalls. “But I didn’t know much about you at the time. And then my other cousin, Matt Shire, said, ‘I know who your Shelly is. It’s Pamela. Watch her documentary.’ And I did, and I thought, ‘You’re absolutely right. No one else can be her. I have to go get her.’”

However, Anderson’s agent at the time rejected the idea.

“The project was turned down after an hour, and then I was able to find a way through Brandon (Lee), your son, to get the script to him,” Coppola added. (Anderson later signed with CAA.)

For the film’s screenwriter, Kate Gersten, the script, which was in the works for a long time, came to life in Anderson’s hands.

“I wrote it 11 years ago. I didn’t have Pamela in mind,” Gersten noted. “And then the first time I heard her read it, our first reading, she just said every line the way I had always imagined it in my head. I mean, every line was exactly the way I had always heard it.”

While “Last Showgirl” explores the world where older women are discarded in Las Vegas, it also shows how younger women — like the dancers played by Kiernan Shipka and Brenda Song — are also treated as disposable. It’s a paradigm reminiscent of Hollywood. Song has spoken about her experience as a child actress and how it differed from that of her co-star, Macaulay Culkin.

“We had very different experiences as child actors, and it was an interesting conversation that we had because I’ve been doing this since I was 3 years old and I still love it. There must be something wrong with me,” Song said with a laugh. “At the end of the day, it’s just a job. Like everyone in any job, everyone feels disposable. I think it’s just harder to accept because sometimes you’re like, ‘No, you don’t look good. You’re not big enough.’ … I never really realized until I was an adult how disposable and difficult it really is. Because my parents protected me from that because it wasn’t a career for them. And so I think as an adult, it’s harder for me to manage my emotions and control myself when it comes to rejection.”

Shipka, who grew up on a set (in her case, the critically acclaimed series “Mad Men”), admitted that it’s harder to deal with rejection today than it was back then.

“It’s more of a mental journey for an adult than a child,” Shipka said. “I mean, there’s definitely things that you internalize and have to deal with later. Not on skates, but it’s still nice to be able to find your way through a childlike joy and love for something.”

Ultimately, Anderson sees the upside in being underestimated.

“Having nothing to do is a good situation,” she said. “You can surprise everyone with a complete sentence. You’re a genius.”

THE Variety The Toronto Film Festival Studio is sponsored by J Crew and SharkNinja.