The meat grinder that is Hollywood has destroyed the careers of some actresses because of the pressure to have the perfect physique in order to be sexualized on camera. The list of actresses swallowed up by the industry is eternal, and many of them have found themselves in absolute ostracism. But times have changed and cinema is experiencing a moment of revision, thanks to the new wave of feminism in recent years, on the way in which women’s bodies are treated in cinema and in the search for beauty and figures not canonical. protagonists.
It is curious that this year there have been three films – and mind you, all three directed by women – which rescue the stars who have suffered this pressure, and which even integrate it into their plots. In Cannes we saw The bottom, Coralie Fargeat’s film that recasts Demi Moore as an aerobics show star who is literally replaced by a younger version of herself. In Venice he was little girl, Although it questions whether submission can be a feminist practice, it features Nicole Kidman getting Botox and being teased by her children for it.
Today, in San Sebastian, it’s Pamela Anderson’s turn. The decision here is even riskier, because she was never a Hollywood star as such, but rather a celebrity whose body was exploited by the lowest strata of the industry to sell as lure in derivative products such as Baywatch, Barbed wire and many magazine covers for teenagers with their raging hormones.
She is the protagonist of The last showgirl, the film by Gia Coppola, the granddaughter of the director of The godfather which draws more from her aunt Sofía’s style than her grandfather’s to tell the story of a cabaret performer at a Las Vegas show who faces the closure of the show in which she dances. This is Pamela Anderson, who came from Toronto surrounded by compliments for her performance and even requests for an Oscar nomination. Anderson is more than right in this role, certainly, but far from offering work that deserves awards attention.
It is worthy of praise that Coppola offered this forgiveness in the form of the best role of her life, and that she gives herself, showing facets and registers unknown until now, but the film is only one anecdote. It is a beautiful and correct film whose main success is the dignity, affection and empathy with which it looks at its protagonist. He doesn’t judge her, he doesn’t wrap her in tragic miserabilism, but he looks her in the eyes, and it’s not that easy.
Alongside him in the film is Jamie Lee Curtis, amusing as another Las Vegas dancer who is also judged on her looks and age. One of those roles that the actress loves in this last stage, because it allows her to display herself with a zany touch – of which Total Eclipse of the Heart is the best example – so effective and that people love so much.
I missed a few decades. From “Baywatch” to Playboy, it’s like I don’t remember what happened in between
Pamela Anderson
— Actress
Pamela Anderson became the star of the last day of the festival and, although she was not particularly critical of Hollywood, she admitted that she thought that by then she would no longer be able to demonstrate her talent. “I missed a few decades. Of Baywatch And Playboy Until now, it’s like I don’t remember what happened between the two. It’s a blessing that this project happened, it’s never too late. I was in the garden making jam when they called me. “I always knew I was capable of doing so much more and I thought maybe this was the only opportunity to play a role like this, but now, at my age, I know I can do it,” he said at the press conference. press conference for the film.
Anderson explained that throughout her career, she had doubted herself and others many times, and that’s why this role surprised her: “I loved this role, it’s something something that really touches me. When I read the script I was surprised, I had never been offered a role like this and I was very excited. I was attracted by the mother-daughter relationship, and also by the way dreams are managed in this profession. I took experiences that I had in my career, with my children, in my career.
A character with whom he identified from the first moment and which he constructed from his “personal experience and trying to find ways to summarize the whole life, almost impossible to articulate, that I lived, you know, from Playboy to Los Angeles.” Baywatch. “I am very grateful to have had this experience, because I always knew I was capable of so much more. I guess I just had nothing to lose. And I was so attracted to this project because I thought maybe this was the only opportunity to be able to do something like this. So I was really inspired by that experience and all my experiences: my marriages, my children, my life, my career… that’s how it happened. “It’s been addictive and fun,” he added.
At 57, she knows her career “was all about the physical,” but she also learned to “not let yourself be defined by what people say,” but by what she does. “I learned to have passion, to not become bitter, to not get tired, to find joy in the process, in life and in this profession. This is another trait that united me with the character. She also left an interesting metaphor for how she saw Las Vegas: “During the day, she’s like a woman without makeup. It’s more vulnerable, more revealing and more intimate.
