She may have been one of the most famous faces of the 1990s, but Pamela Anderson has revealed she is “more comfortable in [her] skin now” than she has been “in the last 30 years”.
In a new profile for Glamour Magazine, the Baywatch
Pamela Anderson more comfortable in her skin now than over past 30 years
NZ Herald
5 mins to read
Subscribe to listen
Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber? Sign in here
Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
Pamela Anderson at the Glamour Women of the Year Awards 2024 on October 1, 2024 in London. Photo / Gareth Cattermole / Getty Images
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
Both ensembles were paired with little to no makeup - a look Anderson has been wearing for events, photo shoots and public appearances for over a year now.
“I feel more comfortable in my skin now than I have in the last 30 years,” she told Glamour.
“You’re going to hit a crossroads in your 50s, and you go, ‘Am I going to chase youth? Am I going to be miserable? Or am I going to be self-accepting?’ And it’s a practice. And it’s hard to say that you’re attempting all this if you’re still doing the red carpets and the covers of magazines plastered in makeup.”
Anderson was applauded in October last year for attending Paris Fashion Week without a lick of makeup, prompting photos of the barefaced star to be widely circulated online. Her look drew praise from her The Last Showgirl co-star Jamie Lee Curtis, who declared she was “floored by [Anderson’s] act of courage and rebellion” in a supportive message to Instagram.
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
“THE NATURAL BEAUTY REVOLUTION HAS OFFICIALLY BEGUN! @pamelaanderson in the middle of fashion week with so many pressures and postures... this woman showed up and claimed her seat at the table with nothing on her face. I am so impressed [sic],” Curtis wrote at the time.
Anderson’s transition to a more natural look preceded her acquisition of ethical skincare brand Sonsie in January. In a post to Instagram at the time, she revealed she had taken on the role as Sonsie’s co-founder and new owner, alongside its German creator, Marie von Behrens-Felipe.
But Anderson’s new beauty ethos is a far cry from her heavily lined lips and pencilled eyebrows, both of which were de rigueur in the 1990s. A bonafide style icon of the era, the star made headlines for her fun yet unconventional approach to fashion throughout the decade: including the famous pink feathered hat, sequined sheer trousers, and white corset combination she wore to the 1999 Video Music Awards.
“Everyone was asking me, ‘Who was your stylist back then with the pink hat?’ And I say, ‘You think any stylist would have let me out the door [in that]?!’” she told Glamour.
Anderson remains a front-row fixture, attending the Rotate show at Copenhagen Fashion Week in August with her sons Brandon and Dylan. The previous year she was snapped at the spring/summer 2024 Isabel Marant show at Paris Fashion Week (when her barefaced look first went viral), as well as the ready-to-wear collection show for Vivienne Westwood. In 2009, Anderson walked the runway at New Zealand Fashion Week.
And the actress has undergone a career renaissance as of late, with her New York Times best-selling memoir, Love, Pamela, and her Netflix documentary, Pamela, A Love Story, both released to acclaim in 2023.
“I said, ‘Film it, I don’t care. I’m just going to take everything off and I want to go through this journey with people and and if you like me at my worst you can like me at my best’,” Anderson said of the documentary to Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking in February last year.
Another new career move for Anderson is the release of her upcoming cookbook, I Love You: Recipes From the Heart. The book contains vegetable-based homespun recipes from her kitchen garden on Vancouver Island in her native Canada. Although Anderson is a vegan, she has assured potential readers it’s “not a vegan cookbook”.
In July, the mother-of-two wrapped filming her latest project, The Naked Gun - a reboot of the classic 80s and 90s spoof cop films alongside Liam Neeson.
She also stars in the Gia Coppola-directed drama The Last Showgirl alongside Curtis - a film that currently boasts an 80% approval rating on the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes. The project, which focuses on an ageing Las Vegas dancer trying to make sense of her life, has been hailed as a major comeback for Anderson, with an early industry buzz that the film could see her recognised next awards season.
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
Anderson shares two sons, Brandon Thomas, 28, and Dylan Jagger, 26, with ex-husband and Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee. Their relationship was plagued by the highly publicised stolen sex tape scandal, with Anderson ultimately filing for divorce in February 1998 when Lee was charged with spousal and child abuse after assaulting Anderson as she held 7-week-old Dylan. Lee was later sentenced to six months in jail.
The pair reconciled several times before eventually ending their relationship for good in 2009.
Their tumultuous relationship was the subject of the Hulu miniseries Pam & Tommy in 2022, which Anderson claimed went ahead without her blessing or input.
Anderson went on to marry and divorce musician Kid Rock, professional poker player Rick Salomon (twice), and most recently, her bodyguard Dan Hayhurst, from whom she split in January 2022 after a year.
