Pamela Anderson’s public persona may be all-breast-no-brain, but a new documentary and autobiography — both available Jan. 31 — will help correct that.
The book is Love, Pamela; the movie, Pamela: A Love Story, is on Netflix.
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Both let Anderson take charge of her own story in her own words.
Once the filter of the male gaze is removed, a different person emerges from the tawdry tabloid image.
(A reminder: Anderson is Canadian. That gives a little cultural context for those surprised to find out the “Baywatch babe” is brave, thoughtful, self-effacing and funny.)
Directed by Ryan White, Pamela: A Love Story is Anderson’s account of her life from childhood in the little town of Ladysmith, B.C. (population 8,900) through fame, fortune and many marriages — and then back again to Ladysmith, where she returned to live briefly with her parents.
The movie covers Anderson’s “Schwab’s Drugstore” moment, when she was captured on the Jumbotron at a 1989 BC Lions game in Vancouver and became an overnight sensation.
Labatt’s put her in their advertising. Playboy called. A star was born.
In the course of describing her first Playboy shoot, Anderson talks about an alleged sexual assault that happened when she was 12.
She says in the movie that the photo shoot for Playboy freed her from years of shame and fear after that assault. It was a chance to take her power back.
Boldly posing naked for the camera, “Was like playing a character to me.”
Anderson played that character and created a career out of it, but became public property in the process.
Her love life was endlessly scrutinized. There’s a large section of Pamela: A Love Story dedicated to Anderson’s many boyfriends and marriages.
She married Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee after four days together in Mexico, despite the fact she was dating Kelly Slater at the time.
Stories in the Netflix doc are told with the help of Anderson’s many home movies and the diaries and journals she’s kept since childhood.
Some are comical tales: She almost wasn’t part of Baywatch, which eventually became the biggest TV show on the planet, because Marina del Ray just seemed too far to go from L.A. for an audition.
She was eventually hired on the spot — but only after 11 attempts to get her out there.
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Some segments are disturbing: Here are multiple clips of male talk show hosts asking personal questions — over and over and over and over again — about her breasts; Anderson often quietly trolls these idiots with her responses, but they don’t even notice.
Likewise, Anderson is caught on camera responding to news about the Hulu TV series Pam & Tommy, and she is sick over the potential violation of her privacy — again.
She doesn’t want to relive the theft of a sex tape from the home she shared with Tommy Lee.
That marked the beginning of the end of her career. And the start of public shaming.
A sex tape launched Kim Kardashian, but back in the late ’90s such a thing was considered scandalous.
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The bigger scandal is what happened with Anderson and Lee’s futile pursuit of justice through the courts.
Regardless, Pamela: A Love Story ends on a high note, with Anderson taking on her first Broadway role in 2022 in the musical Chicago.
It’s a trip to watch Anderson in rehearsals, mastering the singing and dancing required of her (at age 55) with gusto. She is so vulnerable and so courageous.
Big breasts, sure. Bigger cojones.
