Pamela Anderson Says 'The Last Showgirl' Helped Heal Her Hollywood Trauma

Pamela Anderson was put through hell during her early career in Hollywood. The actress—most well-known for her time on the iconic television series Baywatch—was a central fixture of the tabloids in the '90s and early 2000s, and it all had a huge impact on her life. In many ways, the things she experienced were traumatic.

But thanks to her role in the Gia Coppola's new film The Last Showgirl, Anderson has proven to herself just how capable she is—and how far she's come from those early days.

In a new interview with Entertainment Tonight, Anderson—alongside her co-star Jamie Lee Curtis—spoke candidly about how long it took her to return to herself and feel healed from all she experienced in Hollywood.

When asked how she kept going in her career, Anderson was decidedly frank. "I don't know if I kept going, I went home to my garden to make pickles and jam," the actress explained. "I just wanted to remember who I was."

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She added that the experience on The Last Showgirl was very healing for her and her sense of self after her tough early days in Hollywood, explaining that, "every time you do a project you're healing parts of yourself."

For Anderson, The Last Showgirl did all that and more. She needed to be reminded that she was, and is, "resilient, and I needed to know what I was made of—for me."

And, as evidenced by her performance in The Last Showgirl (which this particular writer has already seen!), we can confirm that Anderson shines as Shelly, and gives the aging showgirl the complexity and nuance all women deserve and are so rarely afforded—particularly in entertainment.

"It's all any of us want to be," Curtis added, "[to be] seen as complex and interesting, and not just the limited idea of who we are. And I think that's something both of us have broken free from."

Anderson went on to say that she, "didn't know I was going to get this opportunity, so when I got it, I grabbed it by the throat." The actress believes she is "at my best when I'm working really hard" and "will create drama in my life if I am not in something."

As for all the accolades and attention she's getting for her return to form? "I really am just eating it up." As she should.