After scoring her first Golden Globe nomination for her star turn in The Last Showgirl, Pamela Anderson caught up with Deadline to tease upcoming projects and discuss what this long-awaited moment in her career means to her.
In terms of upcoming films for Anderson at present, the buzziest would have to be Paramount’s The Naked Gun reboot, in which she stars opposite Liam Neeson, who she says she adores. “It was physical comedy, so it’s completely different,” Anderson says. “I’m literally running into walls, so I’m really excited about that one.”
Then, there’s Rosebush Pruning, a thriller in which she stars opposite a slew of “incredible young actors” including Riley Keough, Elle Fanning, and Lukas Gage. That project called for “a very serious, classic style of acting,” Anderson says, “which is really fun to be around because it’s always the stuff I responded to.” At the helm there was Karim Aïnouz, who Anderson raved about as “this wild man behind the camera, like a conductor.”
Turning to The Last Showgirl, in which Anderson portrays Shelley, a glamorous showgirl confronting life after the end of her long-running Vegas show, the actress has to say that life is a bit “different” in the aftermath of the project. While she’s taking meetings with people like Aaron Sorkin, who recently hosted a screening and Q&A in support of the film, she’s still coming to grips with the fact that the rooms she’s now in are the ones in which she belongs.
Said Anderson: “It’s so humbling and strange to walk into these rooms with Nicole Kidman and Demi Moore — to be in the same places of these women who I worship and admire and have always followed. So I have to work on my insecurities a little bit about being able to walk up to people and say hello and shake their hand. I’m really working on that because it’s hard.”
At present, there’s “a long list” of filmmakers Anderson is hoping to work with, including Werner Herzog, with whom she says she “missed a chance to work” years ago. She shared that she’s “fortunate” that people are now bringing her “incredible projects that are challenging and transformative,” and that she hopes her work going forward will “represent women, in some way.”
Continued Anderson, “It’s funny I’m saying [this] because I’ve had this kind of objectified image in the past. I’ve felt like Mr. Magoo, kind of navigating this world somehow. [But] I got through it. And I want to celebrate women in all their imperfections, and those interesting stories, those real painful, raw moments, which we were able to see in The Last Showgirl.”
Discussed by Anderson along the awards circuit as the film she’s been waiting for her entire career, The Last Showgirl gave the star a chance to prove what she’s made of — to demonstrate range and flex creative muscles she always knew were there, but weren’t always accessed. Pigeonholed to an extent in past decades by Playboy shoots and projects like Baywatch, Anderson says “opportunities were coming” to her back in the day. “But…I was going from photo shoot to Samuel French and trying to figure out, how do I get from here to here?”
In everything from her Baywatch outfit to each year’s Halloween costumes, Anderson says she’s always “been playing with characterization.” And now that she’s gotten the chance to show what she can do, she adds, “I’ve just scratched the surface.”
The takeaway from Anderson’s story this season? “Hard work really does pay off, perseverance, and I always say, it’s never too late, to never give up,” the actress says. “You never know when you’ll get the opportunity — you just have to keep filling your pockets with these skills.”
Anderson’s The Last Showgirl turn landed her a nomination for Best Performance By A Female Actor In A Motion Picture – Drama. Competitors in the category include Angelina Jolie (Maria), Nicole Kidman (Babygirl), Tilda Swinton (The Room Next Door), Fernanda Torres (I’m Still Here), and Kate Winslet (Lee). On the heels of the film’s TIFF premiere, it’ll release via Roadside Attractions December 13, with the Globes coming up on January 5.
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