Pamela Anderson: I ‘put my entire life’ into ‘The Last Showgirl’

Pamela Anderson is as surprised as you are.

“The Last Showgirl,” inspired by the long-running “Jubilee!” and its final days on the Strip, is the first movie she’s headlined that’s earned more than a bare-bones theatrical release since “Barb Wire” misfired in 1996.

Now Anderson, who became one of the most recognizable women on the planet in the 1990s thanks to the potent combination of “Baywatch” and Playboy, is a Golden Globe nominee.

At Sunday’s ceremony, she’s up for best actress in a dramatic motion picture alongside Nicole Kidman, Kate Winslet, Angelina Jolie and Tilda Swinton — who share 46 career Golden Globe nominations and 14 wins — as well as Fernanda Torres from the Brazilian sensation “I’m Still Here.”

“It’s just so fun,” Anderson says of this newfound acclaim. “Who would have thought? I never thought I’d ever be in this position.”

Her return to the spotlight has been one of the awards season’s great feel-good stories. For once in her career, it seems as though much of the public is in her corner. Even the media that dismissed her early and often has been mostly kind.

“I actually have people jumping out of their cars on street corners to give me a hug. Like, ‘You can do this!’,” Anderson says, laughing. “I guess I’m doing this for everybody. This is great.”

‘Breasts and rhinestones and joy!’

“Le Razzle Dazzle,” the movie’s “Jubilee!” stand-in, has seen better days.

It’s the last show of its kind in Las Vegas, but the dancers outnumber the paying customers even on a good night. Those who bother to see it often appear disinterested. That lack of a reaction is more than Anderson’s Shelly, a dancer in the show for the past three decades, can take.

“This,” she declares, “is breasts and rhinestones and joy!”

Maybe if “Le Razzle Dazzle” had used that quote in its advertising instead of photos from the 1980s, the dancers wouldn’t be getting their two-week notices.

Shelly’s been with the show since its glory days. Back then, showgirls were treated like movie stars. American Express flew the cast around the world for an advertising campaign, and Shelly was photographed atop the Great Wall of China.

Now, though, prospective employers aren’t exactly beating down the door looking for dancers in their 50s with no other discernible skills. Shelly’s staring down a future of cocktailing with her former castmate Annette (Jamie Lee Curtis) that comes with zero chance of retirement. Their friend Esme is still slinging drinks at the age of 83.

Over the years, Shelly sacrificed everything for “Le Razzle Dazzle.” Her marriage ended when she didn’t want to relocate to New York. She has a strained, virtually nonexistent relationship with her daughter, Hannah, who still bears the emotional scars of being left in the casino parking lot during shows because Shelly couldn’t afford childcare. (Hannah’s played by Billie Lourd, who’s descended from Las Vegas royalty as the granddaughter of Debbie Reynolds.)

Shelly’s entire identity is wrapped up in “Le Razzle Dazzle.” Unlike younger dancers Mary-Anne (Brenda Song) and Jodie (Kiernan Shipka), she either can’t — or won’t — see that the show is a shadow of its former self.

“This show is famous,” Shelly says in its defense. “It’s a tradition. It has its roots in France!”

“I mean,” she continues, “it’s the last remaining descendant of Parisian Lido culture.”

“Shelly,” Mary-Anne assures her, “nobody knows what the (expletive) that means.”

Anderson takes control

You can’t talk about “The Last Showgirl” without mentioning “Pamela, A Love Story.”

The 2023 Netflix documentary follows Anderson, who’d moved back to her childhood home in British Columbia, as she reads through her journals, watches old home movies and generally takes control of her narrative.

She’s raw and honest in the film, discussing the sexual abuse and rape she suffered as a child and the domestic violence she survived as an adult. Anderson also offers glimpses into the long-term trauma caused by the stolen videotape of intimate moments with her then-husband Tommy Lee and the way she wasn’t taken seriously for decades after it became public.

The documentary culminates with her triumphant eight-week run on Broadway as “Chicago’s” Roxie Hart. Director Gia Coppola saw “Pamela, A Love Story” and knew she wanted to extend that redemption arc with “The Last Showgirl.”

“I never read a really great script like this before,” Anderson says.

No wonder. She told People magazine that her now-former agent turned down “The Last Showgirl” without showing it to her. The script only made its way to Anderson after Coppola tracked down her son, Brandon Thomas Lee, who was one of the producers of “Pamela, A Love Story” and is an executive producer on “The Last Showgirl.”

“It was so touching,” Anderson says of the script. “I know a lot of Shellys. And I thought, I just really feel strongly that I know where to take this. All the nuances and layers of emotion and guilt and shame about (being) a working mother, and a mother in this industry, and the objectification.”

The actress saw it as a hopeful story. Shelly’s at a crossroads, she says, and she’ll find a way to reinvent herself, whatever it takes.

“I’ve been there,” Anderson says.

It all goes back to ‘Jubilee!’

“The Last Showgirl” has its roots in “Body of Work,” an unproduced play written by Kate Gersten, the wife of Coppola’s cousin Matthew Shire.

Gersten saw “Jubilee!” in 2013 and wanted to learn everything she could about the people who brought it to life each night. She spoke with cast members about their experiences and their day-to-day lives. Gersten was schooled in showgirl history by Diane Palm, who was with “Jubilee!” throughout its 34-year run, rising from one of its original dancers in 1981 to company manager.

The “Jubilee!” connections don’t end there.

A sly, throwaway line reveals Shelly used to perform “the Hindenburg solo,” a nod to “Jubilee!” and its famously strange sinking of the Titanic.

The costumes worn in “Le Razzle Dazzle” were designed by Bob Mackie and Pete Menefee for “Jubilee!” and were acquired for the production by Dita Von Teese. The burlesque queen has become the unofficial keeper of the “Jubilee!” legacy through her show in its former theater and her current production at The Venetian.

“There was so much magic in those costumes,” Anderson says. “There were still name tags in some of them, so I knew that many women had worn these before me, and I just felt their presence in them. It was such an honor.”

Some of the former “Jubilee!” dressers were on set to help the actresses with their quick changes. Anderson also had some of the show’s alums over for tea in the Summerlin home she once shared with poker pro Rick Salomon, whom she married twice.

The showgirls told her about their lives, their second careers, and what to do — and never do — on stage.

“Everything influenced me,” Anderson says of her time with them. “The showgirl walk, the showgirl grace, carrying themselves with such grace. Their stories. I was so grateful that I got to tell those stories in the film, too.”

Knowing Las Vegas

“The Last Showgirl” marks the latest chapter in Anderson’s long, headline-spawning history with Las Vegas.

She’s been married here (to Salomon at The Mirage in 2007), gotten engaged on the way here (to Kid Rock in the desert outside Primm in 2002) and honeymooned near here (with Lee on a houseboat on Lake Mead in 1995).

In 2007, Anderson played the role of assistant to Dutch illusionist Hans Klok throughout the run of “The Beauty of Magic” at Planet Hollywood Resort, and she was named Assistant of the Year at the World Magic Awards. That was three years after she was levitated by magician Lance Burton during an episode of “The Tonight Show” taped at Paris Las Vegas.

As part of her devotion to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, she served a vegetarian Thanksgiving dinner to homeless families at a downtown charity. On another Thanksgiving, she was the maid of honor when PETA spokesman Dan Mathews wed at the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign.

Anderson has appeared on countless red carpets, celebrating casino openings, birthdays and New Year’s Eves. And she’s used Las Vegas as a launching pad for her Playboy co-branded slot machine, her cruelty-free clothing line and her short-lived online poker community that was connected to Doyle Brunson.

She’s spent so much time here, she ought to at least qualify for local’s discounts around town.

“It’s just such a beautiful landscape,” Anderson says of the valley. “Vegas during the day isn’t seen enough.”

She compares the city without its lights to a woman without her makeup. Considering she’s famously spent the past year virtually makeup-free, it’s definitely intended as a compliment.

The Rio provided the casino backdrop, as well as the backstage area seen in the film. “The Last Showgirl” also visited several rarely used locations during the brisk, 18-day Las Vegas shoot that began last January.

It’s surely the only movie that’s ever featured both Los Compadres Meat Market on Stewart Avenue and the fenced-in parking lot of the Las Vegas School of Dealing on South Valley View Boulevard.

Both were filmed in broad daylight.

Her life was leading to this

“I love creating characters, and I will create them in my personal life if I’m not putting them in movies,” Anderson says, giggling. “It’s better that I put them in movies, trust me.”

Shelly offered the sort of outlet Anderson had been craving for years. Much like “Pamela, A Love Story” and “Love, Pamela,” its accompanying New York Times bestseller, the role provided a place for her to temporarily store the various hurts and heartbreaks she’s accumulated over the years.

“When I got the script,” Anderson says, “I just went, ‘OK, this is why. I have had my life, my life has been the way it is, because I was going to be able to do this.’

“Not to be too dramatic, but if I had any different life, if one thing was changed, I couldn’t have played Shelly the way I played her. And I was able to put my entire life, from a little girl until now, into the film. Every part of me is in there somewhere. Some little detail. It’s all in there. And it was a great place to put it. I got a lot off my chest in this movie.”

Up next, Anderson will be seen opposite Liam Neeson in a reboot of “The Naked Gun,” due out Aug. 1. It’s safe to say the scripts she’s sent will continue to get better — and that her new representatives will pass them on to her — thanks to “The Last Showgirl.”

After all, she’s now being taken seriously as an actress.

Finally, at the age of 57.

“I’m very grateful for it. And I didn’t expect it. And maybe that’s what makes it even sweeter,” Anderson says. “This is a true gift.”

Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4567.