Interview: Pamela Anderson on Finding a Home for Her Passions in ‘The Last Showgirl’

When you speak with Pamela Anderson, there’s an overwhelming sense of passion that hits you. Perhaps it’s borne out of a life and career full of strangers deciding they knew who she was and what she was about, but the love Anderson has for cinema, the arts and people is both vociferous and endless. She isn’t here to simply talk about her new film, The Last Showgirl, this awards season. No, she’s here to show the world who Pamela Anderson truly is. Who Pamela Anderson is, something the wonderful doc Pamela, A Love Story, helped pull the curtain back on in 2023, is an artist the world never gave an opportunity to express herself. We all know the Pamela Anderson story as it was told to us by lurid tabloids or exploitative recreations, what we don’t know is that this is a woman who put so much thought and effort into everything she did. From Baywatch to Barb Wire to this year’s The Last Showgirl, Anderson didn’t just show up. She put countless hours, weeks and months into training to be the best she possibly could at whatever was required of her.

All these years later, at 57, she’s finally been given the chance to express her artistry in Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl. In Showgirl, Anderson plays Shelly, a lifelong Vegas Showgirl whose world is turned upside down after her home club announces they’ll be ending her show after 30 years. Faced with having to plan for a future she’d never considered, Shelly is forced to finally navigate her nonexistent relationship with her daughter, reckon with the friendship’s she’s made at her job and face an unfairly hostile world to women her age. 

Anderson imbues Shelly with a wealth of empathy, making for a knockout performance full of contradiction. Shelly is a pretty face on a stage, sure, but she isn’t simply a mascot for a failing club and casino. She’s a woman with passions who’s lived a life that let her explore them on, to her, the grandest stage. A woman whose said pretty face became the one thing audiences cared about, never once asking who she was underneath. It’s so easy, a bit trite even, to cite the parallels between Shelly and Anderson. What’s more thrilling is to discover the universe of curiosity that is Pamela Anderson the woman, the actress and yes, the icon. 

I recently caught up with her talk The Last Showgirl, her deep love of cinema and her experience with stunt work. 

Brandon Streussnig: I love how important art is to Shelly the character. We see her watching classic films. She’s constantly referencing the ties to show to Paris. You were in the Criterion Closet recently, and I loved the films you picked; especially a film like Love Streams. How much of a crossover is there between how much art influences Shelly the character and Pamela the person? 

Pamela Anderson: Well, I think that’s one of the parallels is that we both are a lover of nostalgia and have so much respect for the people that came before us. And even in the costumes that I wore playing Shelly, there were name tags still in some of them. And I thought, “There’s magic in these costumes. There’s so many women who have wore them before.” And it’s the same, I feel the same with I’m a big reader, and I’m a big, I love film, I love French films. I love Italian European Cinema, Hong Kong Cinema, In the Mood for Love and all the Godard and the Bergman and Mike Leigh, and I just robbed the Criterion Closet blind. It was so exciting to be in there.

But yes, and I think she’s very similar. She was watching Glorifying the American Girl and The Red Shoes while she’s dancing in her apartment. But I mean, that’s what movies are for, that’s why some of them just linger in your mind. And I always say that tells you that it’s a good film for me is if I’m thinking about it years later or days later even. Sometimes you can watch a great film and then you forget about it, but some things just go, oh, even looking back in hindsight on the The Last Showgirl, I see so many things that in the moment you’re living it, you’re being it, but even later I go, wow, this is such an incredible mother-daughter story. It’s so many generations of women meeting the same crossroads.

In this, I sound old when I say, in this day and age, it usually takes a lot to entertain people. There’s a formula which is quite exploitative sometimes and a lot of sensory kind of overload where this is just a wonderful story, and it’s enough. So that’s exciting. It was so nice to be a part of that, and I look for that in future projects because I’m always fascinated by, especially in Las Vegas, the working class, what does it take to make Vegas sparkle? It’s not just the person on stage.

BS: When you mentioned the story, I know you’ve talked a bit about how the script took a little while to get to you. When it finally did, what resonated with you about it? 

PA: Well, as I started reading it, I could hear the voice in my head immediately, right from the first page, and it just never ended. There were no hiccups. There was nothing in it that I went, “Oh, that’s too bad. Maybe they could change this, and maybe I consider it.” It was just absolutely, I felt like the perfect fit, and it wasn’t that I felt the same as the character. I just had so much empathy for her, and I wanted to be able to transform into this woman. And I felt like I had lived enough life now, and my life is this kind of messy everyone. I took a very unorthodox route to get here, but I needed to in order to play this role. And not to be dramatic, but I felt like that made it all worthwhile.

BS: You’re number one on the call sheet, and so much of it’s centered on you, your reactions. There are so many great moments that just on your face. What was it like being able to anchor a film like this and what was your process like? It’s an incredible performance.

PA: Oh, thank you. Well, I just played Roxie in Chicago on Broadway, and I thought, “Okay, this movie’s going to be a very short film. We’re shooting on film, we’re shooting it in 18 days, which is incredible. I’m probably doing eight or nine scenes a day. I just need to stay focused and in it from day one.” And so I came to Las Vegas completely fully-loaded. I worked on things multiple times and made sure the nuances and the layers and the experience were all there in every scene, and I made this kind of little snake trail [of script pages] along my hallway where I had the ups and downs… I have taken acting lessons before. Ivana Chubbuck is an acting teacher I adore and love, and we worked together privately, but I never had a place to put it.

So I took all of that, and these are things I was just doing naturally. No one told me to do this, but I guess I was kind of creating the arc of the character. And then when we kind of surgically went in and did these scenes, I kind of knew where Shelly’s head was at and what point in her life or what point we were going for. It was just so much fun. I felt like it was scientific in a way, but also then once you put all that in you, then you just let it go, and you go there, and you just make sure your feet are planted down the ground. You feel grounded and present. And I know that sounds like therapy in some ways, but it was a cathartic experience. I learned so much about myself doing this, and there’s no therapist, no best friend, no person that can help you get through your life doing something like this. It felt like another way to express myself. I felt like I got a lot off my chest in this film. So I mean, it was life-saving.

BS: Gia pushed hard to get you this script. What was it like working with in comparison to other filmmakers you’ve worked with before? 

PA: Well, she’s wonderful. She’s very soft-spoken, but very decisive. I mean, the epitome of an actor’s director. She just kind of puts all the pieces together, and she’s very free with seeing what happens. And I just felt like she knew when she got it, and we’re shooting on film, so it wasn’t like we had multiple takes, just a couple.

But she carried her little monitor herself. She didn’t share her monitor with anybody else. No other department heads. I mean, this is really her singular vision. This is a Gia Coppola film and that’s what’s so great about independent filmmaking is it’s her vision. There weren’t a lot of people chiming in telling her what else to do, so it was a great collaboration. And like I said, I’m just new at this. I feel like I’m just beginning, and so I’m just so grateful that it’s resonating with people and that people are feeling what I feel because then I feel like I did my job, and I really feel like this is the first time I’ve ever been able to do that. And so it’s exciting. Like I say, I am one who strives for imperfection. I always feel like perfection doesn’t exist, so I’ve embraced that philosophy.

BS: This film is so far afield of something like Barb Wire, but I love how that movie has taken on such a following, especially with the queer community and women. Beyoncé referenced it in her video ‘Bodyguard’ recently. What’s it been like having people come to that all these years later and still love it? What do you hope those same people to take away from The Last Showgirl once they get the chance to see it?

PA: Well, I mean, I love to create memorable characters, and I think that comes from heart and soul. I remember I was taking kickboxing lessons before Baywatch, before the sun came up, and I was at the target range after. I mean, I took it seriously. It was going to be kind of a indie-style dark comedy. But then when I went to Cannes, we got so much attention. They wanted to become more commercial, so they kept on kind of changing the script and all that kind of stuff. But in the end, it was such a wonderful experience.

But again, it’s just creating those characters. Sometimes maybe something isn’t a box office smash, but it lingers in people’s hearts and minds, and it’s a funny movie. It’s the look, I’m really always very, I’m a very visual person, so the look to me, what I was in charge of was the look and the interior world of Barbed. And then for this character, I don’t know, maybe Shelley will be another Halloween costume down the road. How fun is that if I see a bunch of showgirls coming for caramel apples? But I mean-

BS: That would be incredible. I had no idea you took kickboxing lessons. I love that because, this is totally separate, but I run a stunt awards for Vulture/New York Magazine every year. Martial arts and stunts are a big passion of mine, so that’s amazing. 

PA: Well, I love the physicality. That’s what draws me to things too. With Baywatch, I loved swimming in the ocean by the speedboats way out, and you couldn’t see land or people. I love the physicality of wearing the costumes [in The Last Showgirl]. There’s 60 pounds, in some cases, 65 pounds, and you’re bouncing. There’s more to it than just fluffy feathers. You have to hold yourself differently. Your weight is different. I mean, it’s actually a stunt to wear those costumes and walk down the stairs without falling down. (laughs)

BS: Absolutely. Thank you so much for taking the time, it was such a pleasure to talk to you. Loved the film.

PA: Thank you so much. Nice meeting you.

The Last Showgirl will be in limited theaters December 13 with a wide run on January 10, 2025 from Roadside Attractions.