You arent either anymore.
This may be fiction, but, says Anderson, I could feel it in my body.
The script told her to yell at that director, Im 50!
Pamela Anderson inThe Last Showgirl.Roadside Attractions
and Love you, Pamela!
She left Hollywood and returned home to Canada.
She made a documentary,Pamela, a Love Story.She began appearing at events sans makeup.
I wanted to figure out, who am I?
I wanted to be myself.
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Those old, limited assumptions of Anderson ran deep.
Her agent passed onThe Last Showgirlwithout even telling her.
He thought it wasnt right for me.
He thought I couldnt do it, she says.
At that point, I was being offered nothing.
But also, Id kind of given up too, in a way.
But behind the scenes was a woman who had watched Andersons documentary and trulyseenher: directorGia Coppola.
And I just needed to find a way to get to her, Coppola says.
I saw a woman that was bursting at the seams of wanting to express herself creatively.
She just knew that Anderson could play Shelly.
It was considered out-of-date; actually,shewas considered out of date.
But Shelly loves dancing in Vegas.
It had been a kind of agency and visibility in the midst of single-parenting.
Until its taken away from her and she finds herself at a loss.
Obviously, there were similarities with Pamela and Shellys character traits, Coppola says.
It was this bubbly, bright spirit sometimes, in a way, to protect themselves.
He noticed the script on a pile marked pass and grabbed it.
When Anderson read it, I felt it, she says.
I had to do it.
I felt Shelly right away.
I knew it was right.
Finally, Coppola and Anderson connected.
Anderson recalls their first really funny Zoom meeting.
I was telling her, Are you sure you want me to do this?
I know I can do this.
And she goes, No, no.
Iwantyou to do this.
We just spent a lot of time with me selling her and her selling me.
And then by the end of it, we both realized, OK, were doing this.
But I just couldnt believe it.
Now, Anderson describes the film as a story about a woman whos been discounted and disregarded.
Shes fighting back in her own way, rethinking her choices in life.
I think its just representative of so many of us working against the odds to do what we love.
It was so wonderful to have all these women supporting women.
I ask about that shows impact on her and she says simply, I cant be my past.
I am so much more.
You cant have regrets, or you wouldnt be the person you are.
In response, Anderson joked on her Instagram: Dont call me Bey, followed by a kiss emoji.
When she looks back, Anderson sees herself as a woman who has performed her entire life.
I had never been on a plane before I came to LA, she says.
All this time Ive been acting.
I was playing, what is a model?
What is a wife?
I was acting the whole time.
I took a lot of time off to be with my family.
And the timing of this new career era feels right, in so many ways.
I was a 1000% focused on the film.
As we speak, she is fresh from the Academy Museum Gala a star-studded evening in LA.
At that gala, once again, she eschewed makeup a habit that first began almost unconsciously.
I thought, I dont want to sit in the makeup chair for three and a half hours.
I thought no one would notice.
Its just this little head, it doesnt matter.
And that way I could go to the Louvre and see all these things I wanted to see.
Then I went to the show, and I never expected that reaction.
It became this whole thing.
But I was doing it for me.
I wanted to be myself, for me.
At the TIFF premiere ofThe Last Showgirl, Francis Ford Coppola was in the audience.
To have Francis Ford Coppola give you a compliment, she marvels.
And hes an honest man.
Ive been getting ready my whole life for this film, Anderson told the audience.
And to do that with Pamela was an absolute gift.
She is a wonderful mother and was also a beautiful mother to me on this film.
Hes a wonderful artist and storyteller, she says of Ainouz.
Its a beautiful film.
I play the mother.
She has already shotThe Naked Gunreboot starring Liam Neeson, an experience that she calls hysterical fun.
This unexpected turn of things is still hard to take in.
I just cant believe it, she says.
Im just starting my career at 57.
Its taken me all this time to just be myself.
