Pamela Anderson finally feels like an actress, more than 30 years after Baywatch
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Pamela Anderson says playing a fading showgirl in the film The Last Showgirl made her feel like a real actress for the first time.
PHOTO: AFP
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PARIS – After winning rave reviews for her turn in the film The Last Showgirl, Canadian-American actress Pamela Anderson is now dreaming of doing theatre, as the 1990s glamour model seeks to reinvent herself again.
The 57-year-old one-time Playboy pin-up, who shot to global fame as lifeguard CJ Parker in American TV series Baywatch (1989 to 2001), told AFP that playing a fading showgirl in American director Gia Coppola’s recently released film had made her feel like a real actress for the first time. The Last Showgirl opens in Singapore at The Projector on March 13.
“This (role) came to me as a surprise, when I thought it was the end of my career as an actress,” Anderson said during a trip to Paris.
“Now I feel like an actress. But I didn’t really know if I was before. I was just doing the best I could.”
The New York Times said Anderson was “dazzling” in the role, while Britain’s The Guardian said it had “single-handedly rewritten the way she is viewed as an actor”.
Coppola, granddaughter of The Godfather (1972 to 1990) director Francis Ford Coppola, pursued Anderson for the role in The Last Showgirl after watching a Netflix documentary about the actress’ life, Pamela: A Love Story (2023).
Anderson’s late-career bloom echoes the success of another 1990s icon, American actress Demi Moore, who also challenged the entertainment industry’s treatment of older women with her brilliant performance in Oscar-nominated film The Substance (2024).
The public endorsements of Anderson’s showgirl portrayal – including a Golden Globe nomination – have given her the confidence to reveal new ambitions and challenge the perceptions forged by her early career in a swimsuit.
“I think being part of pop culture can be a little bit of a curse because you become famous for one thing,” Anderson said. “But I’ve always loved cinema. I’ve always loved theatre. I hope to do a (late playwright) Tennessee Williams play one day. I would love that. Why can’t you imagine it? You’ve just gotta keep surprising people. That’s my goal.”
‘Wasn’t boring’
Anderson’s personal life has had as many turns as her career, but she said she is now at peace with her “messy” trajectory.
She has been married at least six times – twice to the same man – and one union, with movie mogul Jon Peters, lasted just 12 days.
“I have appreciation for my wild and messy life because I have so much to draw from,” she told AFP. “And it definitely wasn’t boring. Hard at times, and silly at times, ridiculous at times.
“But that’s the way you’re supposed to live.”
Pamela Anderson shot to global fame as lifeguard CJ Parker in American television series Baywatch (1989 to 2001).
PHOTO: AFP
She is back living on Vancouver Island in her native Canada, where she grew up, making pickles and working on recipes for her new sideline as a plant-based cooking guru. She has her own TV cooking show, Pamela’s Cooking With Love (2025), and released a cookbook in 2024.
As well as animal rights activism, she released an autobiography in 2023, insisting publicly that she wrote it herself after rejecting advice from her literary agent that she should employ a ghostwriter.
“I can write, you stupid s***, give me some credit” was her reaction, she told The Times newspaper afterwards. “And so I wrote it.”
It revealed her tumultuous upbringing with volatile parents, as well as childhood sexual abuse.
“I don’t really know what’s next. There’s a lot of opportunity out there, but I’m okay with living in the mystery of what’s next,” she said. AFP
The Last Showgirl opens in Singapore on March 13.
