Pamela Anderson gets her dream role with ‘The Last Showgirl’

TORONTO – Pamela Anderson’s dream character has been three decades in the making.
And that’s about how long Shelley, the role the former “Baywatch” star plays in director Gia Coppola’s ensemble drama “The Last Showgirl,” has been performing in the Las Vegas attraction “Le Razzle Dazzle.” The show’s shutdown, and Shelley’s emotional reckoning, gives Anderson the kind of weighty part she had been ready and willing to play.
“I think I’ve been getting ready my whole life for this role,” Anderson, 57, said at a Q&A event after the “Last Showgirl” premiere at Toronto International Film Festival on Friday.
“It’s the first time I ever read a good script, first of all. I never had a script given to me that was coherent,” added Anderson, a former Playboy Playmate whose filmography includes “Barb Wire” and “Raw Justice.” “So I was like, I’m really wanting to do this. I’ve never felt that strongly about something.” And when Coppola offered the role, she was in: “I have nothing to lose. I’m just going to do it.”
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In “The Last Showgirl,” Shelley faces a life change for the first time in forever, and Anderson gets to show her mettle playing an aging showgirl going out for auditions alongside much younger dancers. And there’s a lot of emotion to mine, too, as Shelley reconnects with her estranged 22-year-old daughter, Hannah (Billie Lourd).
But Shelley’s not the only one figuring out an uncertain future. So is her best friend, ex-showgirl and cocktail waitress Annette (Jamie Lee Curtis), as well as the “Razzle Dazzle” stage manager (Dave Bautista) and her young co-workers (Brenda Song and Kiernan Shipka).
“It’s a hard life wherever you go. And in Vegas it’s a really hard life,” said Curtis, who cried after seeing the film for the first time. “It is a movie about going after your dreams. But of course, the dreams become a really harsh reality. And for women, it’s a really harsh reality that men don’t have as much.
“Annette is simply your portal into what ends up happening. And a spray tan helps.”
“The Last Showgirl,” which filmed in just 18 days, came at the right time and meant a lot to various cast members. Bautista remembered that about eight years ago, he was “in a tough place with my career because I was getting offered a lot of action roles, kind of roles that you would easily picture me in.” Searching for “meaningful stuff” led him to meeting Coppola and ultimately getting cast.
Song was also at a career “crossroads” until her agent called her about the movie “when I was sitting in the parking lot at Costco,” she said. “It just all came together and I’m just so proud of everyone and I’m still happy to be here.”
Lourd definitely took the movie to heart, speaking to Coppola about the relationship between her mother, Carrie Fisher, and her grandmother, Debbie Reynolds.
“Getting to play this character was extremely cathartic for me because it felt like Shelley was my grandma and I got to be my mom,” Lourd said. “And I got to understand my mom on a deeper level than I ever had.
“It was a beautiful experience and to get to do that with Pamela was an absolute gift. She is a wonderful mother in real life and was a wonderful mother to me on this film, and I feel so lucky.”