Posted on: January 6, 2025, 02:15h.
Last updated on: January 6, 2025, 02:22h.
It didn’t snag the Golden Globe she was up for on Sunday night, but we live in a world where there is actual Oscar buzz for Pamela Anderson. The former “Baywatch” babe plays a Las Vegas showgirl facing down the end of her career in Gia Copolla’s indie film, “The Last Showgirl,” which is garnering rave reviews and opens wide Wednesday.
“I love ‘Baywatch’ and I took it very seriously,” Anderson told Vegas PBS following a screening of the movie last week at the Beverly Theatre in downtown Las Vegas. “People don’t want to understand that, but I have always been interested in the craft. I just didn’t know where to start.”
As it turns out, Copolla (Francis Ford’s granddaughter) found her. She was impressed by the vulnerability Anderson radiated in the 2023 Netflix documentary “Pamela, A Love Story,” and saw parallels between her journey and that of her film’s main character.
Shelley is a 50something dancer with no other discernable skills, who is staring at a future of minimum-wage bartending with her former castmate (Jamie Lee Curtis).
All this comes after her devotion to being a showgirl cost her a marriage and her relationship with her daughter, who still bears the scars of being left in the casino parking lot during shows because Shelley couldn’t afford childcare.
No Show
“The Last Showgirl” is the first movie to shine a direct spotlight on the plight of hundreds of former Las Vegas showgirls, who found themselves professionally and personally adrift after the last two showgirl production shows on the Strip closed — “Folie Bergere” at the Tropicana in 2009, after 50 years, and “Jubilee!” at Bally’s in 2016, after 35 years.
Anderson met with a handful of “Jubilee!” showgirls, seeking their input.
“I had them come over and I made tea for everybody and we talked about different stories and some do’s and don’ts and some things that were really important to them,” Anderson told Vegas PBS. “I just took a lot of their pride and how they held themselves in their everyday life just like dancers.”
Anderson said she prepped for months for the role with her acting coach, Ivana Chubbuck, before filming took place over 18 days last January at the Rio.
“I had to learn a lot about myself in order to be able to play a role like this,” she said.
Deadline called Anderson’s performance “career-defining … both heartbreaking and sensational,” while IndieWire called it “both raw and nuanced, highlighting the bittersweet reality of aging in the entertainment industry.”
At 57, Anderson said she looks forward to continuing the second career that “The Last Showgirl” has helped her launch.
“I always knew that I was capable of more than I was doing,” she said, “but I didn’t know how I would get the opportunity to share that. What was wonderful about Gia was (her being able to) weed through the nonsense and see a person aching to express herself as an artist.
“It’s never too late.”
