The Rich History Behind Pamela Anderson in The Last Showgirl

This story was originally published when The last showgirl premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. It is being re-released as the film will release nationwide on January 10.

After the world premiere of her new film The last showgirl, on Toronto International Film FestivalPamela Anderson was asked during an onstage question-and-answer session about how she prepared for the role of Shelley, a Vegas showgirl whose long run is coming to an end. “I think I’ve been preparing for this role my whole life,” said Anderson, wearing a black suit, which she accessorized with sunglasses (though she eventually ditched them).

She also admitted that this opportunity is rare for her. “For the first time, I read a good script, first of all,” she said with a laugh. Other materials, she joked, are not quite so “coherent”.

Really, The last showgirldirected by Gia Coppola, marks Anderson’s most significant film work to date, one for which she received strong reviews. The BBC called the 57-year-old actor “Revelation”. The film comes at a moment of cultural questioning of the previous one Baywatch the star’s career, which was more often than not used as a point or headline in the tabloids. Although Anderson’s Shelley is a new creation, the sense of history the audience brings to the actor playing her, whose rise to fame was inextricably linked to her physical appearance, is relevant to the story. Shelley demands that her passion for performing in the Vegas show, nudity and all, be taken seriously – just as Anderson has long advocated for herself.

Arguably Anderson’s biggest film before this point was the 1996 thriller barbed wirewhich ultimately became another point in the saga of her career. At the time, she was in the midst of her famous marriage to rocker Tommy Lee and miscarried during production. Roger Ebert, viewing a moviewrote: “Pamela Anderson Lee, while not a great actress, is a good sport.” Anderson would later say, “I don’t even know what that movie is about. I have no idea.”

The last few years have offered an opportunity for the public to question Anderson and the way the media has treated her. First came the 2022 Hulu miniseries Pam & Tommywho researched the aftermath of Anderson and Lee’s infamous sex tape and introduced Lily James as Pam. Although the show was nice to Anderson, she herself did not approve of it and called her out in an interview “salt in the wound”.

The following year, Anderson told her own story in a Netflix documentary Pamela, a love storydirected by Ryan White. There, she spoke candidly about her life, including her experiences with sexual abuse, and shared diary entries. The film also documented her rehearsals for the role of Roxie Hart Chicago on Broadway for an eight-week run in 2022. The Guardian evaluated her performance with: “Anderson may not show much talent for singing (her voice is feathery and soft, sometimes hard to hear even in an orchestra) or dancing (good enough), but she’s got what it takes: a frivolous self-awareness and an excellent grasp of winking camp.”

The last showgirlhowever, it is not a camp. Instead, it’s a gentle look at corners of Vegas that many might write off as wacky or cheesy. Kate Gersten’s script was inspired by her time watching showgirls Jubilee!“the last tit and feather show, as they call it,” as she described it during the Q&A. Gersten had the job of writing templates for the show that would take over some of them Jubileeperformances.

From there, Gersten envisioned Shelley, a woman who worked in production Le Razzle Dazzle for over 30 years, jumping on stage every night in wings and rhinestones. Shelley loves her job, acting like a mother in the room to some of the younger dancers (including Kiernan Shipka and Brenda Strong). But Shelley is also stuck in the past and clings to the idea of ​​what Le Razzle Dazzle she used to be: a phenomenon where girls for fun were celebrated and scattered all over the world. Now it is approaching to be replaced by a “dirty circus”, and in the final weeks of its run, Shelley finds himself in the act.

Anderson plays Shelley with a perfect sweetness that sometimes registers as naivety. Le Razzle Dazzle has been Shelley’s life for so long that she doesn’t understand how others experience it—including her estranged daughter (Billie Lourd), who is on the verge of graduating from college. However, Shelley is not a tragic figure. During one key scene, she tells a belittling casting director, telling him, “I’m 57 and I’m beautiful, son of a bitch.” The TIFF crowd applauded.

During the Q&A after the film, the rest of the cast was visibly emotional for Anderson. Jamie Lee Curtis, who plays Shelley’s tanned cocktail waitress friend, wept as she addressed her co-star. – I can’t – she said.

Lourd, daughter of the late actor Carrie Fisher and granddaughter of Golden Age Hollywood star Debbie Reynolds, explained that playing Shelley’s child was “cathartic” for her.

“I felt like Shelley was my grandma and I got to be my mom and I got to understand my mom on a deeper level than I ever had, and it was a wonderful experience,” she said. “To do that with Pamela was an absolute gift. She’s a wonderful mother in real life and a wonderful mother to me in this film.”

Parenting is a key part of the journey Anderson talks about Pamela, a love story— including a description of her miscarriage during barbed wire— making The last showgirl another full circle moment for her. It’s just another way the film allows Anderson, who is the mother of grown sons Brandon and Dylan Lee, to reveal aspects of herself that would otherwise be dismissed.

Onstage, Anderson noted that as she read the script, she thought, “I’m the only one who can do that.” Seeing it, you believe her.