Pamela Anderson Reflects on Collaborating With Gia Coppola for ‘The Last Showgirl:’ ‘This Might Be My Only Chance’

variety.com:

Todd Gilchrist Pamela Anderson and director Gia Coppola jointly received the Sun Valley Film Festival Pioneer Award on Dec.

6, the second day of the festival’s 2024 Winter Screening Series. Appearing after a screening of their film “The Last Showgirl,” the duo accepted their belt buckle-shaped trophies from SVFF executive director Teddy Grennan and director Candice Pate before sitting down for a conversation with Variety Senior Editor Todd Gilchrist.

Presented in partnership with Variety, Sun Valley’s Pioneer Award “recognizes trailblazers in front of and behind the camera.” The pair were eminently qualified for their collaboration on the film, which follows a veteran showgirl named Shelly (played by Anderson) contemplating the future of her career after the revue in which she appears abruptly announces plans to close.

Prior to making the film, Anderson had not only just released a memoir, a cookbook and a documentary about her life, but concluded an acclaimed run as Roxie Hart in a Broadway production of the musical “Chicago,” all of which she described as a “warm-up” for the challenges of the role. “I always say if I had any other life, I couldn’t have played Shelly the way that I got to play her,” she said. “So it was all worth it.” Even more than those recent experiences, Anderson said she’d always harbored bigger aspirations than she was able to achieve during her lengthy and successful career as a model. “I was really aching to express myself as an artist,” she said.