Pamela Anderson: 'I got so much off my chest' making 'Last Showgirl'

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 8 (UPI) -- Pamela Anderson says she expressed many of her real-life struggles by acting in The Last Showgirl, in theaters Friday. Anderson plays Shelly, a dancer in Razzle Dazzle, a fictional Las Vegas show that is closing after 30 years.

In a recent Zoom interview with UPI, Anderson, 57, compared Shelly's career with her own as an actor on Baywatch and model for Playboy. Shelly's estranged relationship with her daughter (Billie Lourd) also brought to mind issues Anderson has faced with her own sons, Brandon and Dylan.

"I felt like I got so much off my chest in this film in a way that you just can't in therapy," Anderson told UPI. "Having two adult children after being kind of objectified in my career and life, seeing how that really affected them, you don't think about that in the moment."

Anderson said she was comfortable with her work in her earlier career as a way to provide for her family. She and her sons still discuss the impact her earlier work had on them.

In the film, Shelly's daughter felt neglected compared to the time her mother invested in Razzle Dazzle. Performing at night, Shelly often missed after-school events while working.

"I think we're all going to face our adult children and beg for forgiveness," Anderson said. "There's no perfect way to do it."

Contrary to her strained relationship with her daughter, Shelly becomes a mother figure to the younger dancers in the show. One such character is Jodie (Kiernan Shipka), who left her home and is estranged from her parents because she became a Las Vegas dancer.

Shipka, 25, has been acting since she was 6. Though she is still in touch with her family, Shipka said she related to the life moments Jodie was experiencing at the end of her teenage years.

"There are some lessons that you learn at 19," Shipka said. "She's just feeling this idea that life is big and scary and she doesn't know what the hell is going to happen. I've definitely been there, too."

Anderson said the end of Razzle Dazzle forces Shelly to confront the consequences of the sacrifices she made in her career.

"Her art is very important to her," Anderson said. "She always thought she was doing the best she can, even though that wasn't enough for her daughter."

The end of Razzle Dazzle leaves a void in Shelly's life that she struggles to fill by auditioning for other, newer shows. The Last Showgirl's director, Gia Coppola, said Shelly's tragedy is that her passion for Razzle Dazzle is not reciprocated.

"She's in love with something that doesn't love her back and that's a really heartbreaking space to be in," Coppola said. "As a working woman and a working mother, there's a lot of systemic issues against us."

For Anderson, however, The Last Showgirl is part of a career resurgence. Coppola sent Kate Gersten's script to Anderson after the actor played Roxy Hart in Chicago on Broadway in 2022.

"I was just aching to express myself in a creative way that I'd kept kind of hidden," Anderson said of her recent roles. "From Baywatch to Broadway had a nice ring to it, but I was craving to do more."

Coppola, 37, said she had no preconceptions of Anderson since she was only a child during the star's Baywatch and pinup era. She said the 2023 Netflix documentary Pamela: A Love Story showed the vulnerability she was looking for.

"She's such an optimistic character, almost to a fault," Coppola said of Anderson. "So I could see a level of Pamela's optimism, generosity and gratitude would lend itself well to Shelly."

Shelly says in the film that Razzle Dazzle makes her feel beautiful. Anderson felt the same way while filming, wearing costumes originally designed by Bob Mackie for the Jubilee show at Bally's in Las Vegas.

"These are museum pieces still with nametags in them," Anderson said. "You felt so many women have worn these before you and everybody is with you in those costumes."

The Last Showgirl pays tribute to other entertainers in Las Vegas. Shelly remains friends with Annette (Jamie Lee Curtis), who left Razzle Dazzle and became a cocktail waitress long before the show finally closed.

Curtis said she knows women like Annette and imagined her spray tanned skin and dyed hair when she read the script.

"I knew her skin was going to look like leather," Curtis said. "I knew that her hair was going to be that not-real-redhead. She is, as we would say, rode hard and put away wet."

The Last Showgirl also briefly highlights the personal struggles of women tourists, driving home the film's message for Anderson. The actor said she hopes the film promotes empathy.

"The people holding up the rhinestones have very complex stories and heartache and heartbreak," Anderson said. "I feel like we're all fighting an invisible battle and we need to be kind to each other."