New times are dawning for Pamela Anderson. The woman who rose to fame in the ’90s as a sex symbol and later through a leaked sex tape with her then-husband Tommy Lee, both of which prevented her from becoming a more serious actress, now tells her own story twice: under the name “Love, Pamela” is the memoir of the 55-year-old published these days. At the same time, the documentary she authorized “Pamela – A Love Story” started on Netflix.
Both releases must be read for what they are: Pamela Anderson’s acts of self-empowerment. Highly justified attempts to reclaim the narrative of their own biography. Two of the last sentences in the film bear witness to this: “I am not a victim. I put myself in crazy situations and survived them. (…) I am grateful for all the experiences I have had and I don’t blame anyone for anything.”
In the Netflix documentary, Pamela Anderson tells in a nutshell about her life so far, which has not always been easy, even outside of acting: about how she grew up in a small town in Canada as the daughter of young parents, her father an alcoholic. That she survived a rape. From the moment word got around when she was spotted in the crowd at a football game by cameras, to Hugh Hefner, Anderson ended up on the cover of Playboy as a very young adult and would become one of Heffner’s bunnies. Of course, it’s still about her breakthrough with her acting debut in “Baywatch”, about various relationships, for example with surfer Kelly Slater, about the extreme marriage with Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee and about the turning point with the release of the sex tape. After that, she became even more reduced to her body than before, not a talk show host refraining from commenting on her boobs or that video, no matter how many times Anderson countered how outrageous their questions and jokes were.
Anderson didn’t make a dime on the sextape
Her children also have a say in the documentary. While Anderson says that she never earned a cent on the sex tape and that she still wouldn’t accept any money for it, her son contradicts her: He wishes his mother had accepted the sometimes very high sums at the time – so that she could at least get one thing from the number could have taken away for itself. The reputation was ruined anyway.
Anderson’s personal life didn’t get any easier after that: she married and separated from again kid rock, about which she reports in the book, among other things, about an evening when they saw “Borat” together in the cinema. She didn’t tell her husband that she herself was in it, she wanted to surprise him. After the scene in which Sacha Baron Cohen’s character tries to kidnap Pamela Anderson at an autograph session, Kid Rock stormed out of the room, rioted in the presence of numerous celebrities and other guests, allegedly called her a whore, ran to the car and drove away. Anderson allowed himself to be followed. When he got home, he yelled at her – her divorce was sealed a few weeks later.
After that she dated and married other men, she is currently single and admits in “Pamela – A Love Story” that Tommy Lee was the only man she really loved. This chapter of her life caught up with her again recently: In the mini-series “Pam & Tommy” a fictionalized version of the sextape story of this oh so notorious couple is told partly in the form of a comedy. Anderson never authorized the series and – allegedly like the sex tape itself – has not watched a minute of it to this day. However, in “Pamela – A Love Story” one of her sons tells her that he saw three episodes of the series and that the creators had the audacity to give the craftsman (played by Seth Rogen) a good reason for viewers to steal and circulate the sextape. Tommy Lee was an asshole towards him, didn’t pay for his work and the robbery of a safe that eventually contained this tape was simply his revenge, his attempt to get what he deserved.
The film ends with scenes from Anderson’s appearances in the Broadway show Chicago, a new starring role she’s been aspiring to – and with the impression that Anderson has found her way not only personally but also professionally. And that men alone no longer rule their lives.