Pamela Anderson is reflecting on her early career as a sex symbol in Baywatch in the ’90s. Since then, she has come to understand how difficult her public persona was for children at the time.
“A lot of the things I went through, I never thought my kids were going through at the same time,” she told Anora’s Mikey Madison on the variety show “Actors on Actors” series. . “I didn’t realize how difficult it was to be a working mother and be in this entertainment world and have mothers be sexualized in some way.”
Anderson has two sons, Brandon Thomas Lee (born 1996) and Dylan Jagger Lee (born 1997), with her ex-husband Tommy Lee. By the time the children were born, Anderson was already a global superstar thanks to her role in Baywatch. .
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As she explained to Madison, thinking about the impact her career has had on her children was a big part of her preparation for her latest role — in Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl , Anderson plays Shelley, an aging Las Vegas showgirl who is forced to perform. When a show she’s been on for decades suddenly ends, she sometimes reflects on herself. Although Shelly loved her life as a showgirl, she is faced with the harsh reality that few people respect her chosen career path. Her estranged daughter blames her mother’s absence, while casting directors don’t consider her a serious dancer.
Anderson said of playing Shelley, “I was able to incorporate my own personal experiences, my long life of dealing with beauty and glamor, aging, and reevaluating my life choices. I had to put everything in my life into this role.” “I don’t think the past should dictate your future. But looking back, I was always creating characters. And I feel like I found out I created some Halloween costumes. I will.”
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But while her children may have struggled in her early career, she has no regrets.
“In hindsight I might have done things differently, but I’m not ashamed of my choices,” she said. “But it takes life experience to know that you would have done things differently.”
Anderson has previously spoken about how she tried to protect her sons when she found herself at the center of a stolen sex tape scandal in the ’90s. As she told Glamor, keeping her sons safe and happy has always been her sole focus. “What saved my life is something I would never want to inflict on my children,” she said. “I had to be strong for my sons. And I had to leave Tommy for the sake of my sons. And I married someone else and did other things. But my intention was to create a family for them.”
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The Last Showgirl marks the beginning of a new era for Anderson. Anderson reclaimed her story with her memoir Love, Pamela and documentary Pamela, a Love Story (both released in 2023), along with a new makeup-free beauty routine. Make her feel like her “real self.” “Now I feel like I have the freedom to focus on things instead of worrying about relationships and family,” she told Madison. “My children have grown up. I am free. Now I can play again.”
Now, it seems like her sons couldn’t be happier watching her grow up these days. Her eldest son Brandon, who “oversees” the family business, was actually the one who made sure the script for The Last Showgirl made it to his mother’s desk. And he told Variety that he’s thrilled to see the world finally accepting her in a new way. As he says, “This is the culmination of a very long journey and a lot of hard work, and marks the culmination of an amazing moment that is really just the beginning for her.”
