Pamela Anderson is putting the trauma of her early Hollywood career behind her — and that’s largely thanks to her new film. The Last Showgirl. As the actress recently said Entertainment tonight“Every time you do a project, you heal parts of yourself.”

In the film, Anderson plays Shelly, an aging Las Vegas showgirl whose show is coming to an end. As she reflects on her career, she realizes that she has sacrificed things like motherhood and stability for an art form that few seem to appreciate.

For Anderson, who was famous as Baywatch A sex symbol in the ’90s, the new role was largely inspired by her experiences in show business as a young woman. “I was able to bring a lot of my personal experience, my long life dealing with beauty and glamor and aging and re-evaluating life decisions. I was able to bring my whole life to this role,” Anderson said during a press conference diversity Conversation earlier this month. “I think the past shouldn’t dictate the future. But looking back, I always created characters. And I feel like I know I’ve designed a few Halloween costumes.”

After an early career filled with trauma, including a private sex tape that was stolen and uploaded to the Internet, Anderson retreated from public life. As she said earlier this year: “I left Baywatch to Broadway. I don’t know what happened in between, it’s all a big blur… I think I’ve been suffering from depression for a few decades.”

In her recent interview with Entertainment tonightAnderson reiterated that she didn’t initially “continue” with her career. “I don’t know if I continued, I went home to my garden to make pickles and jam,” said the actress. “I didn’t know I was going to get this opportunity and when I got it, I grabbed it by the throat because I’m resilient and I needed to know what was in me for me.”

Jamie Lee Curtis also stars in the film with Anderson as her friend, a former showgirl who now works at a casino. “I said yes to the film because I knew Pamela Anderson would play Shelly. Period,” Curtis said.

She also shared how the film’s themes resonated with both of them. “Everything each of us wants to be is complex and interesting and not just the limited idea of ​​who we are, and I think we’ve both liberated ourselves from that,” she said.

Elsewhere in the interview, Anderson talked about how the film comes with a new makeup-free look – another way she’s shedding the past and marking a new, more authentic era.

“This whole withdrawing thing is kind of where I started,” Anderson said. “I just wanted to remember who I was. I just want to be myself, so this is an experiment. It’s just something I was drawn to. I didn’t even know anyone would notice.”

Anderson went viral in 2023 for going without her makeup during Paris Fashion Week. Aside from a few subtle no-makeup looks, she hasn’t looked back since. In fact, her co-star Curtis took inspiration from her and posted a makeup-free selfie earlier this year.

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