Lily James on Changing Pamela Anderson’s Narrative in ‘Pam & Tommy’ and Exploring “Our Own Culpability”

Kirsten Chuba
·4 min read
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On the eve of Pam & Tommy‘s final episode release, stars Lily James, Sebastian Stan and Seth Rogen celebrated their series with a finale event at Los Angeles’ Greek Theatre on Tuesday.

The Hulu show follows the turbulent marriage between Pamela Anderson (played by James) and rocker Tommy Lee (Stan) as their honeymoon sex tape is stolen and distributed to the public, while also taking a close look at what Anderson experienced in the media and the legal system as the couple tried to stop distribution of the tape.

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“I was so drawn into the scripts because they’re so unexpected; it starts in one place and ends in another. It explores our own culpability within our prejudice and our treatment of, particularly, women in the media and explores privacy and the violation of privacy,” James told The Hollywood Reporter on the red carpet. “There was so much in it that was deeply surprising but then when you look at how we treated Pamela and women in these instances and you look at now and think, ‘Oh it’s still the same, we’re still doing it.’ I just felt like it was timely because we continue to treat and reduce women in the media.”

Rogen, who plays carpenter Rand Gauthier — the man who steals the tape from the couple’s home after a confrontation with Lee and begins selling it online — said that working on the show changed the way he saw its two central figures and how the whole sex tape ordeal truly went down.

“It made me understand a lot about a thing that happened when I was young and I interacted with as a very young person, not truly understanding any of the context or the story surrounding this thing,” he said. “It was one of those things where the more I learned about it, the more I realized I truly had fabricated an entire narrative in my head that was in no way reflective of reality, which was actually a much more sad event.”

Stan added that though the series just scratched the surface of the couple’s story, he hopes it has started a conversation, acknowledging the newly announced documentary Anderson will be releasing herself on Netflix: “It looks like there’s going to be more coming our way about this and I look forward to that.”

James also said of the doc and a chance for Anderson to directly tell her story, “That’s just so exciting and I can’t wait to watch it.” Co-showrunners Robert Siegel and D.V. DeVincentis — who note they did try to reach out to both Anderson and Lee several times during production, to no avail — said they have not heard anything from the former couple or their surrounding circles while the show has been rolling out, and as it comes to an end, “I hope people come to understand what an incredibly courageous person Pamela Anderson is and was,” said DeVincentis. “That’s my No. 1 thing.”

Following the carpet, the final episode premiered at the Greek shortly before it was available on Hulu; the cast, showrunners and series directors then came on stage for a post-screening Q&A, where the stars dove deeper into their transformations and taking on the ’90s icons.

“We spent a long time watching them. I think both of us worked so hard and really, really wanted to do them justice and be good custodians of them,” explained James, while Stan remembered, “the camera test when we finally actually put on the tattoos and the wigs and the costumes and looked at each other like, ‘Oh, we’re maybe going to be OK'” in successfully portraying the characters. James spent four hours in makeup each day to physically become Anderson, which Rogen joked was jarring to see.

“Sometimes I would see Lily mid-transformation and I felt like I was seeing something I shouldn’t be seeing,” he teased, and also wanted to make sure the audience knew his transformation as Rand was just as impressive as the two stars, though he was not playing a public figure whose appearance was commonly known.

“Just so you know, I do look exactly like him and it is a remarkable transformation. It is shocking how well I did in emulating this man,” he joked. “You don’t know that so you’ll have to take my word for it.”

James again spoke to the show dissecting Anderson’s public treatment as well, comparing her to another famous woman from that era recently in the news.

“We’re looking at all these things as reckonings, the same thing as what happened with Britney Spears and everything, and it’s so disheartening and so important to look at it and explore it and our own culpability,” she said. “It’s so important, I care about it so much and I hope the show provokes a conversation about all of it.”

The Pam & Tommy finale is now streaming on Hulu.

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