Pamela Anderson Reflects on Her 'Unorthodox' Career Ahead of 'The Last Showgirl:' 'This Is Just the Beginning'

On Jan 5, Pamela Anderson had a major career first. Despite being a household name for decades, she attended the Golden Globe Awards as a nominee for the very first time.

But her nomination was only the latest milestone in Anderson’s career comeback. In addition to showing her most authentic side to the world in the past few years with her documentary, Pamela, a Love Story, her memoir, Love, Pamela, and her cookbook, I Love You: Recipes from the Heart, she’s turning a new leaf in her acting career too. In her new movie, The Last Showgirl, which premieres on Jan. 8, viewers will see a new side to her, one that shows the complexities of being a woman, a mom, and an artist.

“I didn’t know that I’d be doing a film at this point in my life, so I was just I’m very grateful, and I got to do it in a very unorthodox way,” she tells SheKnows alongside her co-star, Jamie Lee Curtis. “I feel like this is just the beginning of my career now, at 57 years old.”

In the movie, Anderson plays Shelly, a Las Vegas showgirl whose dreams get crushed when her longtime show on the Strip announces its end.

Since the beginning, Shelly was a character Anderson connected to. “I just imagine that Shelly had a similar upbringing as me because of the way she gravitated to being a showgirl,” she says, adding that they both “made lemonade out of lemons.”

“In a way, I feel like, yes, I’ve had a lot of opportunities in television but I always felt like I could do more,” she added. “And so this was really exciting for me to kind of sink my teeth into and to apply all those things I’ve learned along the way. But yeah, there’s, like I said, many parallels, but that just felt like a jumping-off point in creating Shelley, but it’s just an exciting opportunity. It’s always when you can relate to something or to respond to something so wholeheartedly.”

“It just felt like life or death for me,” she says of the role. “Not to sound dramatic.”

When it came to Curtis’ decision to join the project, it had everything to do with wanting to work and get to know Anderson.

“We didn’t know each other before we met in the cinder block basement of the Rio Hotel in Vegas,” the Oscar winner remembers. “I just knew, I knew there was a depth of being in her. I knew it. I just knew it by looking at her, maybe because I’ve had the same sort of judgments placed on me about the way I look or my body, and I know the depth of being in me, and I think I just, I look in her eyes. I mean, look at these eyes. You can’t not see it.”

“I’m sure other people got distracted by other parts,” she jokes. “But I’m telling you, the eyes are the window to the soul, and she has a deep soul.”

Of course, Curtis’ belief in Anderson’s depth absolutely came true. “The first interview we’ve ever done where she was talking she was talking about doing Playboy magazine, and while she was doing that, during the rest of the day, she was at Samuel French, reading Eugene O’Neill plays and Tennessee Williams plays,” Curtis says. “That tells me everything about the depth of being and the deep intelligence and intellectualism that belies all of the external subterfuge, and therefore I knew who she was going to be before.”

“So we met, and it was an immediate appreciation of each other, and we had to become Ride or Die besties within one second,” Curtis says. “And it happened.”

The Last Showgirl hit theaters on January 8.

Before you go, click here to see our favorite movies and TV shows about imperfect, complicated women.