After a week-plus race that took her from Los Angeles to New York on the promotional tour for her documentary and memoir doubleheader, Pamela Anderson has returned to her native Canada — and is already starting to feel like herself again.
“As soon as I step on Canadian soil, I feel some sense of relief,” Anderson says from Toronto, where she’s stopping for the final leg of her press tour.
Having spent much of the last few years back home in her native Ladysmith, British Columbia, Anderson is once again in the spotlight with the release of the documentary “Pamela, a Love Story” on Netflix and her memoir, “Love, Pamela,” from HarperCollins. Both projects have been met with overwhelmingly positive reviews, both critically and from the general public, and it’s taking Anderson a bit of time to process it all.
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“Every day I just wake up a little happier,” she says. “I feel like it’s such a sense of relief, and I’m so grateful for the outpouring of support and love. I am a girl’s girl, but I’ve kind of been missing in action. Anytime I’m in a relationship, I usually put my entire focus on that and my children, so it’s so nice — I just feel like I’m just a free spirit, wandering around the planet, just bumping into people, having these great conversations and it feels great.”
After five marriages, she’s single for the first time in awhile and credits that with being able to really lean in to telling her own story.
“I never would’ve been able to do this book, or shoot this documentary, or have any of these conversations if I was in a relationship,” she says. “And that shows you what kind of relationships I’ve had in the past. I would have been too afraid to upset somebody, or make somebody jealous, or anything.”
The film and book show a woman unafraid of speaking her mind and giving her side of the stories that have dominated headlines since she broke out as a Playboy model in the late ’80s.
Here, WWD chats with Anderson about all she’s been through — and what’s to come next.
WWD: After being in the public eye for so long, what is it like for you being on this side of the things, telling your own story?
Pamela Anderson: I just never thought I’d get the chance to do it. I thought my legacy would be a red swimsuit and a pink fuzzy hat, and nobody would ever know how much I’ve gone through, what I’ve overcome and how I put this all together as a creative art project. But also, as a woman who had this kind of fairy-tale, imaginative life, and I just feel like I’ve been able to explain…not explain myself, because I think we don’t need to explain ourselves. But I’m always fascinated by other people. I like to know their history. I think that it’s hard to tell in this kind of piecemeal social media, tabloid-y Hollywood life that there’s got to be more to a story than just these moments in time.
WWD: What is the best thing about life in Ladysmith?
P.A.: The best thing about Ladysmith is that it’s a beautiful town. I get to come back to my community and do some projects with people around me who have known my family for generations. And Ladysmith, it’s such a secret little beautiful town. There’s one stoplight. There’s one street that has little stores on it. And I have my beautiful property there, which is 6 acres on the water, and I just put a little pier in. I’m renovating right now, so I’m putting all these little cabins back where my grandmother had them, recreating what she had, but in just a more modern kind of way.
WWD: What’s a typical day for you there?
P.A.: Now my day revolves around my dogs. I get up very early and then I let my dogs out, and I feed them, and then it depends if it’s summer, because I’m always in my garden. If it’s spring or summer, I’m planting. And if it’s the winter or fall, I’m canning and making pickles and making jams, and I’m expanding with everything. I’m always in my garden and I’m always writing. I was a little restless when I got home. I’d walk around in circles almost and just think, “Do I need to go to Paris? What’s happening right now? Where do I need to go? I need to go somewhere.” But the funny thing is when you’re searching and you’re trying to go back into the chapters of your life and really visualize those times and write about them, you want to run away. You can’t just get away from yourself by traveling. So I wanted to sit in this space and go, “This is where I was as a child. This is what was happening when I was 5 years old. These are the trees that have known me since birth. This is the first place my little feet touched the beach, the ocean.” I just wanted to feel the feelings and wander around and see what came up. I had to be patient because I didn’t know what was going to come up. And there were days when I felt really restless, but that’s always the time where you just have to wait. You just have to wait. And there’s always something great around every corner, that’s what I say. Just wait when you’re restless.
WWD: What is something that people get wrong about you?
P.A.: Even with writing a book, I had to battle. I met a book agent and he’s like, “Listen, you’re going to need some help with this.” I said, “No, give me a shot. If I talk to a publisher and they don’t like what I wrote, then let’s just not do it. Just give me a chance.” They wanted me to work with a collaborator or a ghostwriter. So I did the proposal and they loved it, and then I extended it. And so I think it always feels like I have to prove myself.
WWD: What is advice you would give to your younger self?
P.A.: I did that exercise idea when you picture yourself as a young girl. And it’s just such a profound thing to do because if you just close your eyes and imagine yourself from head to toe, and you call her over and you give her a big hug, and you really feel that moment. And you look into the eyes of your younger self and you just say, “You’re going to be OK. You’re loved. You’re beautiful.” All the things you wanted to hear at that age, and then let them run off again just so they know you’re there. I started crying when I did that because I feel the same as I do now as I did at five years old: full of wonder. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I was always excited about what was going to happen, and I feel the same way. But I didn’t feel safe my whole life. And I feel like as I get older, I feel safer. And that’s just something I’ve kind of put together in the last few days, even. I feel good. I feel OK. I just feel like great things are around the corner and I’m safe.”
WWD: What is one of the most valuable things you learned from the late Vivienne Westwood?
P.A.: She taught me to really challenge beauty. She always told me to read. I mean, she knew I was a big reader. I mean, she came to my little trailer park one time to shoot me with Juergen Teller, and I had a volume of Plato beside my bed, and she had me take pictures with it on the beach, on the golf cart, with a surfboard. And we shot in the laundromat at the trailer park. She just taught me to challenge myself, number one. She always said, “Read and you’ll never be boring. If you read, you’ll always have a job.” She was an activist, too. I mean, she really loved Julian Assange, and she introduced me to him. And she just said, “You have to say it. I mean, you just got to get out there and tell the truth.”
WWD: What role has fashion played in your life?
P.A.: I always thought that I repelled clothes. Everything was always a little bit off. And believe me, I would love for Anna Wintour to love me, but I know she never will because I just, I’m a clothing repellent. I want to dress in these beautiful clothes, but I just don’t look right in them; some things are too weird, my body doesn’t quite fit. But especially when I was younger, I would err on the side of just have fun. I mean, those looks took me five minutes to put together with these sparkly pants, the big hat and the blue eyeliner. And walking down red carpets with Tommy [Lee] was just, we just thought “we’re going to be funny.” We weren’t thinking we could have a stylist or anything like that.
WWD: What do you feel most powerful in?
P.A.: I really feel powerful right now when everything’s very pared down. I like to see my freckles. I like when my hair isn’t done. I like just a really fresh face. I don’t like those injections, and that doesn’t work on me. I want to see what’s going to happen. And I feel like now I can put on a beautiful silk blouse and some trousers, and always a heel, and just with nothing on my face, and just let my hair dry after I get out of the shower and sleep on it. That’s my favorite. That’s my look. And I feel like that is a power statement because I’m accepting myself a lot more these days, and it feels great.
WWD: What words do you live by?
P.A.: Be real, be honest, and always do your best. Really, that’s it. Each day try not to hurt anyone. It’s as simple as that. If we all just tried not to hurt anybody each day…it’s a daily practice. No days are perfect, but you do your best.
WWD: What do you consider your greatest achievement?
P.A.: My big accomplishment for me lately is just that I got to tell my stories from start to finish, and all the fear that goes into that, because you know you’re not going to make everybody happy, including the people that are closest to you. It’s always those hard things to say that are the things you need to say. But I’ve been able to tell my whole story. And I didn’t know if people were going to take it seriously, or just think it was ridiculous, or self-serving, or just another celebrity talking about herself. And I didn’t know how it was going to be accepted, so I was scared. But I thought it’s my Hail Mary. I’m just going to sort of do what I did where I landed in L.A., just roll off the cliff and see what happens. Sink or swim, fly, or whatever. I’m in that state right now where it’s very mysterious. I don’t know what’s happening. There’s things percolating, but I’m just kind of taking a breath right now.
WWD: What is the next thing you want to be known for?
P.A.: Just a woman, a person, a human being. That I did the best I could, every day.
WWD: What does the term “icon” mean to you?
P.A.: I don’t know. It’s way overboard. I like taking apart the stereotype, the “sex symbol,” “icon,” whatever you want to call it. It just is the tip of the iceberg. There’s so much more to a person than a word that drums up this idea of who you think you know. And I guess that’s been my project right now, is deconstructing that image. And letting people know that I have so much more to offer, and there’s so much more ahead of me. This is just the beginning of my life, I feel like. I feel like I just went through all that for a reason, and now I’m free of it. And now whatever’s next is going to be great and on my terms.