This Is Not Pamela Anderson’s Comeback: It’s Something Much Better

Pamela Anderson was interviewed by Variety. She popped into the Criterion closet to share her love of Bergman. She was nominated for a Golden Globe and received an award from the San Sebastian Film Festival. She landed a surprise SAG Award nomination, beating out industry stalwarts like Nicole Kidman and Angelina Jolie for a coveted spot in a crowded field. Right now, she is having an undeniable moment, in large part thanks to her performance in Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl. It’s 2024, and Pamela Anderson is the well-deserving recipient of awards season buzz. Nobody could have predicted this even five years ago, least of all Anderson herself, who has spent much of the past few months being effusive in her gratitude for this unexpected and invigorating shift in her career. It’s a moment that’s been labeled as a comeback, akin to what Demi Moore is currently experiencing thanks to career-best reviews with The Substance, but it’s not an accurate descriptor for Anderson. What she’s going through is far more intriguing.

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Anderson has been undergoing a cultural reassessment for the past few years now. Her memoir and accompanying documentary delved into her origins and return to her home of Vancouver Island for a quiet life while preparing for her Broadway debut in Chicago. That turn as Roxie Hart gave her some strong reviews and came at the right time, as the world finally realized that maybe, just maybe, she’d been poorly treated for decades. The Hulu drama Pam and Tommy came with some uncomfortable baggage as Anderson let her feelings on its existence be known but it did help to turn the tide on a decades’ long error regarding the illegally distributed sex tape she had made with her then-husband Tommy Lee.

At the time, it was seen as a sign of Anderson’s status as public property to be scolded and leered at without complaint. She posed nude for Playboy and wore a skimpy swimsuit on Baywatch, so of course it was okay for people to watch a video of her at a vulnerable moment that was never intended for worldwide consumption. There was shockingly little media or cultural awareness over the disturbing ramifications of this obscene invasion of privacy. Because Anderson’s image was so sexualized, it was simply assumed that, even if she hadn’t asked for this, she should take it with a smile and offer up more. The lack of consent was viewed thrillingly, almost like an act of retribution against a woman whose only crime was expecting to be taken seriously.

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And Anderson, to put it bluntly, was never taken seriously. Her job on Home Improvement was to look hot. Baywatch didn’t exactly give any of its cast ample material to flex their acting muscles but Anderson’s character CJ was especially gawked at. When interviewers weren’t asking her deeply inappropriate questions, they were openly laughing at any suggestion she could or would want to be a ‘serious actress.’ Women who posed topless for Playboy were seen as figures of low cultural value. Anderson was one of the most visible women to emerge from the Playboy shadow, and she’s endured for decades through consistent work across various mediums, but she was still never taken seriously, never given roles where she could be more than a campy version of herself. What is Borat if nothing but an extended joke on how women like her are treated like crap?

In The Last Showgirl, Shelly is a victim of future-shock. She has dedicated decades of her life to this job she loves that is a relic of an increasingly bygone age, and being abandoned by it is leading her to question what it was all for. Her estranged daughter, played by a tender and gently bitter Billie Lourd, watches one of the shows in the days before its closure, when there are barely a dozen attendees in this once-legendary revue. She derides its tackiness and what she sees as a thinly veiled excuse for nudity in the name of glamour and class, and her cold assessment is a shock to Shelly. She’s never felt more like the world had no place for her now, after it once celebrated her, albeit in a fetishistic manner. It’s easy to watch The Last Showgirl and feel Anderson’s history in it.

And it’s a great performance. There’s this urge among many to condescend Anderson or act as though the difficulty curve is smaller for her than other actresses, but that doesn’t do her justice. What she does in The Last Showgirl more than equals performances in 2024 by the likes of Kidman, Cynthia Erivo, Moore, and other Best Actress contenders. A number of critics have compared her to Judy Holliday, the star of Born Yesterday who famously beat both Bette Davis and Gloria Swanson to the Oscar in the highly competitive 1950 season. Holliday was known for playing women dismissed as dizzy blondes who reveal themselves to be whip-smart and laden with pathos. It’s an apt comparison for what Anderson is doing in The Last Showgirl, playing a woman who adores what she does but has grown tired of having to carry the emotional burden of all she’s given up for a dream that’s coming to an end. Anderson’s Shelly is a woman who always puts a happy face on any situation, pushing through the cynicism of her younger colleagues, her jaded best friend, and her daughter. When the audience sees her work stripped of the feathers and gemstones of nostalgia, you cannot help but ache for Anderson.

We love a comeback. We’re also in an era of overdue reassessments of oft-maligned figures in pop culture history recent and retro. Anderson’s return isn’t just an opportunity for a cultural rewrite. It’s been a platform for her to be so much more than she was ever allowed to be for decades. It’s not a joke to see Anderson in the Criterion closet talking about how much she loves Bergman and Jean Seberg. We’re not meant to laugh at that, and people aren’t. Only a few years ago, that would have been a set-up for a bad SNL sketch. We’re now excited to see what Anderson does next, which currently includes a well-received cookbook and accompanying TV series, the remake of The Naked Gun, and an indie drama with Brazilian director Karim Anouz, co-starring Riley Keough and Tracy Letts. In her Criterion closet video, she talks about how she’d love to do a remake of the Katharine Hepburn film Summertime and I too would like to see that.

Career rejuvenations like this seldom happen in the entertainment industry. Comebacks usually occur with people who were at least taken somewhat seriously in their early careers, even if they weren’t fully appreciated in their time. What Pamela Anderson is undergoing is a reinvention that probably deserves its own film. For now, it’s just a joy to see someone get to do the kind of work and receive the consideration that was denied to her for decades based solely on misogyny. Imagine how many other maligned figures from our cultural past could benefit from someone taking a chance on them like Gia Coppola did with Anderson. How much richer we’d all be with that.

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