Pamela Anderson wrote her memoir Love, Pamela and participated in the Netflix documentary of her life last year, but now it seems as those activities were just warmups. In some ways, she’s at the beginning of a career that just parachuted into high gear with her universally acclaimed performance in Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl. In the movie — which opens December 13 for a weeklong awards-qualification run and then go wide on January 10 — she plays Shelley, a longtime Vegas showgirl whose show has been given a closing notice. As something she has done for virtually all of her career, this becomes a devastating moment for Shelley but also perhaps one of rebirth.
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That word, rebirth, also describes the career transformation Anderson is undergoing with this film, preceded by a Broadway debut in 2022 as Roxie Hart in Chicago. This professed “non-dancer” said she got that role after director Rob Marshall, who made the Oscar-winning 2002 film version, saw her on Dancing with the Stars and recommended her for the role. It was life-changing, a critical success and, yes, a new beginning.
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Her documentary ends with that triumph and with her saying she does not know what is next. At that time that was true, but “next” turned out to be The Last Showgirl, an indie production shot in 18 days that has generated awards buzz including a nomination for Anderson’s Lead Performance at the Gotham Awards taking place next week. The film also has been winning awards on the fall festival circuit after its debut in Anderson’s home country at the Toronto International Film Festival in early September, where fans lined up for four city blocks to get into its premiere screening (I know this because I was at the end of that line). Watch the trailer below.
Anderson joins me in conversation for my Deadline video series The Actor’s Side and discusses all of this, her wild career from Baywatch to Broadway — as she puts it — the ups and downs and a determination to make the most of this new chapter.
To watch and to get the “actor’s side” of it all from Pamela Anderson, just click on the link above.
Join me every week during Oscar season for more episodes of The Actor’s Side.