The cultural reassessment of Pamela Anderson that has been brewing with the fictionalized Pam & Tommy and the documentary Pamela: A Love Story culminates in The Last Showgirl teaser. Gia Coppola’s latest film—which opens in theaters on December 13—premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, and since then there’s been some buzz that Anderson’s name could be in awards contention. That positioning is evident in the new teaser from the long shot of a teary-eyed Anderson adjusting her feathered headpiece and attempting an unnatural smile, a classic calling card of female Oscar hopefuls. (See also: Margot Robbie in I, Tonya.)
Described as a “poignant film of resilience, rhinestones and feathers,” The Last Showgirl stars Anderson as Shelly, “a glamorous showgirl who must plan for her future when her show abruptly closes after a 30-year run.” The movie also stars Billie Lourd as Coppola’s estranged daughter Hannah, Jamie Lee Curtis as her best friend (the showgirl-turned-waitress) Annette, Kiernan Shipka and Brenda Song as two younger performers in “Le Razzle Dazzle,” and Dave Bautista as their stage manager Eddie.
Coppola, the granddaughter of Francis Ford Coppola and the niece of Sofia Coppola, previously directed 2013’s Paolo Alto and 2020’s Mainstream. Her latest feature is in direct conversation with that cultural reassessment of Pamela Anderson; she was envisioning the leading lady of The Last Showgirl as Marilyn Monroe when she watched Anderson’s Netflix documentary. It occurred to Coppola that “She is the Marilyn of our time,” the filmmaker told Entertainment Weekly earlier this month. “I find her to be a very interesting human being. She’s very intelligent and has an art background, and I could see she was a woman that was really craving to express herself as an actress creatively. I saw a lot of parallels with Shelly, but I also saw this was a person that was really hungry to show her talents.”
“I’ve never read a script that I responded to like that before—no one was sending me anything like this,” Anderson said to EW. “I read it and I thought, I have to do this. It’s life or death. It’s really important.”
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