Pamela Anderson finally feels like an actress, 32 years after 'Baywatch'

by Francois BECKER and Adam PLOWRIGHT

After winning rave reviews for her turn in the film "The Last Showgirl", 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 "Baywatch", told AFP that playing a fading showgirl in Gia Coppola's recently released film had made her feel like a real actress for the first time.

"This (role) came to me as a surprise, when I thought it was the end of my career as an actress," she said during a trip to Paris.

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"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 "Godfather" director Francis Ford Coppola, pursued Anderson for the role in "The Last Showgirl" after watching a Netflix documentary about her life, "Pamela: A Love Story".

Anderson's late-career bloom echoes the success of another 1990s icon, Demi Moore, who also challenged the entertainment industry's treatment of older women with her brilliant performance in Oscar-nominated "The Substance" last year.

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 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," she added.

- '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."

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" and released a cookbook last year.

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 shit, 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 told AFP.