Pamela Anderson Felt 'The Last Showgirl' Came at the Perfect Time in Her Career

oh well you know having nothing to live up to is kind of a good position to be in you can surprise anybody even with a full sentence you're genius you [Music] know Gia when did you exactly Envision Pamela to Star a Shelly in this film um well it was funny I I kind of came across a picture of her uh I guess you were promoting your documentary and there was the sort of gut feeling of well what about her but I haven't I didn't know too much about you at that time and then my other cousin Matt Shire was like I know who your Shelly is it's Pamela watch her documentary and I did and I was like you're absolutely right like no one else can be her I have to go find her and um uh yeah am I allowed to tell this story and I uh submitted the script to her old agent and um it got turned down within an hour and then uh I was able to find a away through Brandon your son to get her the script and then we we talked shortly after you finally you read it really fast and then you called me right away and you're like this is mine I was like of course it is like you don't need to sell yourself to me I want you to to do I've got to do this are you sure you want me to do this I really got to do this um yeah no one else could have played this role but but Pamela yeah and it's funny Kate you did not write this role with Pamela in Mind Correct I wrote it 11 years ago I didn't have Pamela in mind and then the first time I heard her read at our first read through she just said every single line the way I've always imagined it in them in my head I mean every single one was exactly the way I'd always heard them so the Alchemy was really on point Pamela after watching last show girl it's very evident to me that Hollywood has underestimated you for decades well you know having nothing to live up to is kind of a good position to be in you can surprise anybody even with a full sentence you're you know that's kind of where I but no it's timing I just think timing and and uh having the capacity to focus and I don't know it's it's not just that I was I underestimated myself too and I think that I you've got to believe in yourself for others to believe in you and just came at the right time you know just came everything just came at the right time the stars have really aligned this feels like such a dream experience and I watched the movie I felt like it was a dream you know I doing the movie it felt like a dream and now it just it Al feels very surreal like I'm going to wake up and this isn't really happening and then I'll be really pissed because but it it's you know yeah I don't know I just I feel so blessed and fortunate that I get this opportunity and chance to kind of have this you know life that I've thought I could have a long time ago and just you know things get interrupted life Interrupted and then you know here we go now it's now it's here we go time like I'm really inspired to work and to and this movie was to see it last night for the first time was really emotional too and doing it was emotional so it's it's been a process and it's been such a journey and I feel like it's just beginning G I asked you the same question or a version of the same question why do you think Pamela has been underestimated by Hollywood and directors all along and what does that say about Hollywood um I feel like you know being a beautiful woman you get typ casted in a way and I'm so drawn to actors in general that um feel like they have to express so much more and have so much more to themselves um but then get pigeon hold into this kind of type cast you know Dave I think felt a similar way of just being this kind of action guy but really wanted to show himself as a more dramatic actor and um I I like kind of uh working with actors that really want that that chance um because it becomes such a fulfilling collaboration um and um yeah I mean I think this is what the script talks about so much is just like how women and creative women mothers um and daughters anyone it's just that Society can pigeon hole you and um and yeah I feel like you're really much more articulate about this I think that what you're saying is that we are all put into boxes in order to organize what kind of women we are and you know even to relate it back to the movie it's like sometimes our children put us into this box says you're my mother and you're the queen of my house or you're you're the the mother you're the mother queen of me and the world revolves around me as your child you know and and we have so many more aspects to ourselves than anybody ever wants to acknowledge and it's just very difficult to show that to the world so when you have that opportunity you really really take it um Brenda and Karan uh how and Pamela how did you all relate to your respective characters in the film I I I I really felt like Jodie was such a dreamer in the same way that Shelly was and I think that's that's how I sort of initially found my way into the bond that shared and then really the way in is just working with Pam and soaking up all of your beautiful beautiful energy I mean it's just it was so it was amazing to go to work every single day with everyone because everyone was just so damn good at what they do uh but I I I think I I related to her her spirit and and her hope and also this idea that as you get older there's these little things that sort of dim dim your light a little bit and you know I'm I'm 24 and she's 19 and there's certain odd weird scary things about being 19 where you just kind of don't exactly know who you are but you don't know that you don't know who you are so everything just feels like it's sort of crumbling in on you and I I definitely try to find my way back into that I think she's she's she's different from me in in in many ways um but that that Universal experience of of growing up and understanding the world around you and your frontal lob literally developing and seeing things in a different kind of way I I definitely relate to yeah and the thing is I like on the opposite end of the spectrum I think Maryanne is just really represents the woman who has sort of been beaten down by life and just you know going to work and doing this very glamorous job but it's her 9 to5 and I think she's forgotten how wonderful her job can be and the joy in dancing and the joy in being in front of a crowd um and you know to go back on what Gia was saying before like I wouldn't be sitting here if Gia didn't like look past the tropes that people have or the stereotypes that people pigeon hold me and I remember sitting down with Gia and just having the most incredible conversation about just opportunity and wanting more out of life we had both just been you were young we just you just had a baby maybe are kids of the same age and we're just talking about this crazy phase in your life where your you know the world tells you follow your dreams do you but then also be a mom do and you it's like what do we do and finding that balance and being able to see that story being sort of told in a different perspective is really drew me in and Maryanne I had to like sort of dive into this time in my life in my early 20s where I I think I was just in this cycle of going to set every day and I was like Brenda you are doing what you have dreamed of doing your entire life but you've forgotten because it's became so monotonous almost being on a long running show and trying to get to that place where it's like I automatically drive to Stage like I get in a car and I like I remember the show ending and for the first few weeks I would get in a car and start driving to like wait what am I doing like and I think that's Maryann I think she got in a car every day she would just drive she would just drive to the Rio the film depicts a number of humiliating job experiences uh and audition um I asked the three performers here what has been your worst experience or audition ever oh my gosh I want a better I want like a good nothing if I'm being honest nothing jumps to the top of my saying um mind and I really want I mean I definitely all I feel like I feel like every aition is like I think it's like was like oh my God every addition is terrible I'm never that's how I feel so maybe every audition I like life is an audition we're auditioning for everybody everybody's love and acceptance It's a constant thing isn't it yeah feels like yeah sometimes I look at myself I'm like who am I auditioning for like oh I'm smart I can read I can do this I can do that I can cook I can have a garden I'm really [Laughter] cool are the coolest and oh yeah but that scene like as it opens the film and then sort of closes the film where this man is just sort of like looking through you and he's like he doesn't even see you as a performer as anything other than just some widget that he can either plug into his production or not and is that something that is there is a parallel in Hollywood well I think I I like the fact that she's not a pushover I mean Shel is very um she has this optimistic look on life but she also has her boundaries they're different maybe than other people's but she I like that she challenged him mhm in that scene and stood up for herself because you know just you can't leave that you can't like I I feel like you got to be able to you know like I'm 57 and I'm beautiful like I thought that was a real powerful line it's like you know she's kind of lying her way through and then it's just like you know what screw it I'm 57 and I'm beautiful sorry beautiful that's was the line the movie um so I just I I I do feel like it at the end of the day that's you know you have to have um your your value your sense of worth and and it's a it's a crazy business it's based on but you don't want to become bitter like I feel like that's the parallel too with Shelly and I is that you know if you're bitter they win so just you got to keep keep up just keep enjoying it all the good the bad the ugly the all of it it's a creative process there's nothing easy about it and it's we're blessed to be in it so that's how I feel about it too um as much as this film looks at agism um I also think see the parallels of how the young are also treated as dis as equally disposable and you see some of that in Hollywood um Brenda you and your partner mcau kin both started out as child actors and that can be as fraught um are you able to commiserate with one another about the how the industry treats the very young here's I you know for me I think we had vastly different experiences as as child actors so I the it's and that's an interesting conversation that we've had because we you know I've been doing since I was three and I still love it something must be wrong with me um but you know the thing about it is I think you just learn to not take anything personally at a young age because the thing is at the end of the day this is just a job as with anyone at any job everyone feels disposable I think it's just harder to take on cuz sometimes it's like no you just don't look right you're not tall enough and to not take that personally at a young age I think is the difficult thing because you don't understand that you don't understand this and I feel just really lucky because my experience has been really lovely because my you know my the way that my parents treat it and Kieran who also has been doing this since she was six years old I really it's a testament to my parents who this was just an after school activity till I became an adult and and that's what really got me through and it really was just like me doing a like a play at school or you know it didn't it become a career choice until my mom got breast cancer for the first time and I booked the Sweet Life and also got into college and I had to sort of choose which sort of Direction I want to take because it can no longer be an act after school activity so I think for me it never really that sort of it never really hit me till I actually became an adult like how disposable and difficult this actually really is because my parents sheltered me from it because this wasn't it wasn't like a a business to them um and so I think as an adult it's harder for me to sort of you know handle my emotions and keep myself in check when it comes to rejection or you know just understanding that you know this is the reason we're all sitting here is because so many visions and everything sort of has to align for something to work and to be okay with that to be accepting of that and also to honor who you are and what your strengths are I think it's been more of a journey as an adult than as a child I'm the same literally the same it's very interesting because I feel like I found my way and it's again it's like I come at it from a really lucky perspective because I feel like I found my way into what I wanted to do through just Joy it was just fun and then as you get older you start to figure out how to deal with all the other factors of it and uh luckily you know I have good good surroundings and great great people stuff in my mom's school that's that always that always makes a difference but but yes it is more of a mental trip as an adult than it was as a kid I mean surely there's things that you internalize and have to work out later you know um but uh not on scath but still it's it's it's nice if you can find your way in through just like a childlike sort of joy and love of something final question um the dancing and Kar and you have that one great uh and camela Brenda tell me how you all kind of trained and got prepared for doing these like very vulnerable type of dance I was really lucky because Greg Butler who I worked with on Broadway um came and did some of the choreography and all of the choreography right he was Fant gent worked with me as well I mean like this was we trained for a very long time like we just kept on in between scenes um you know on days off we were in the studio dancing and the other dancers were so helpful on the day as well incredibly helpful because I am not a trained dancer and not anywhere close to it you can tell there is not a lot of maryan dancing thank you GF um and the thing about it is you know we also didn't have a lot of at least for me I we I remember sitting down with G and's like so how do you feel about going to Vegas in 3 weeks I was like three weeks what um but the thing about it is this and this being on this set was so collaborative so incredibly safe and everybody you could turn at any point and be like I need help with this or can someone help me I remember Greg coming in and just being like let's go into this room and let me just walk you through some simple steps to make you feel comfortable and I mean that's really all it is like at the end of the day we kind of just have to like you know swallow our pride and like just do our best right I just want to add that like for me the dancing was such an interesting way for these women to kind of cope with their issues of like they they seem so kind of lost in free when they get to sort of Express themselves in that way um and then learning with uh the actual dancers from D Devon's show who I think at some time also worked in Jubilee um they showed us so much of how to orchestrate the costumes it was very much another form of choreography that those costumes are the real pieces from the Jubilee show their real Bob Mackey and uh Pete menae and the their Museum pieces they hadn't left the building in 30 years and uh just the production value of those pieces is so interesting U and they're really heavy and so it's a whole other craft to see them as actors doing their lines knowing their you know blocking and then having to wear these complicated pieces and then you know the cameras and like they're huge and they're heavy and so it it was a real dance and and and and knowing like when to take them off like take on the bra or take off the necklace and the earrings come first it was a real team effort to try to figure out the the rhythm of all that but it was super fun and really interesting to learn the the etiquette of of what that art form used to be and I think um it it's just we want to sort of shed light to to that to that art form that that really was a special time and meaningful to those dancers and and took a lot of effort and we that just doesn't exist anymore and I think I'm I'm also really drawn to that that level of of taste in in art and how it shifted from not you know having that same kind of level to of detail and and and of appreciation I think there was rules right with headdresses you could only have them on for so many minutes and then I had to make you wear it for really long because it's like we're we can't keep resetting the camera not taking this off Mass after or something yeah oh yeah you guys had was wild so fun though to be able to wear those costum in the history and just we were all just so enamored with everything we really was wonderful was really a great experience I can feel the every time you say the head feel my head start to get heavy you all have PTSD from the the best like I want to go back to the real back kind of no you don't I do I know I do too I do too it's weird that smell lives with me forever carpet SM the carpet you congratulations than on that note shout out to the Rio shout out to the Rio [Music]