Pamela Anderson Weighs in on Being Minimized by Hollywood Until ‘Last Showgirl’: ‘I Underestimated Myself Too’

variety.com:

Tatiana Siegel Despite working in Hollywood for decades, Pamela Anderson never was offered a meaty role like “The Last Showgirl” protagonist Shelley, a struggling dancer about to lose the only job she’s ever known due to age and shifting tastes among the Las Vegas tourist set. “I underestimated myself too,” Anderson said during an interview at the Variety Toronto Film Festival Studio. “And it just came at the right time.

Everything just came at the right time.” The right time for Anderson was a career-changing 2023 that saw her sex symbol public persona morph into something more multidimensional thanks to Ryan White’s 2023 Emmy-nominated documentary “Pamela, A Love Story” and her best-selling memoir “Love Pamela.” “The stars have really aligned,” Anderson added. “And now it just it also feels very surreal, like I’m going to wake up and this isn’t really happening, and then I’ll be really pissed because I just I feel so blessed and fortunate that I get this opportunity and chance to kind of have this life that I’ve thought I could have a long time ago, and things get interrupted, life interrupted.” The film, which made its world premiere at TIFF on Sept.

6 to rapturous applause, features the “Baywatch” icon in a way that audiences have never seen before, sans glamor, unappreciated and showcasing a full range of emotions.

For director Gia Coppola, the choice wasn’t obvious. “I kind of came across a picture of her. I guess you were promoting your documentary and, there was this sort of gut feeling of, ‘Well, what about her?’” Coppola recalled. “But I didn’t know too much about you at that time.