“I have doubted myself many times”

Pamela Anderson, actress and erotic icon of the 90s, has presented his new acting baptism in San Sebastián with the help of Gia Coppola, The last showgirla tailor-made film that reflects on the decline of beauty and the dark side of the American dream.

“I have doubted myself many times and so have others.“, the one who was the star of the series confessed at a press conference. Baywatchproud and happy to make this leap into independent and auteur cinema at the age of 57, “when I believed, she said, that it was impossible.”

“It’s never too late, I was in my garden making jam and thinking that I would never have an opportunity like that,” said the actress, who has acknowledged having lived through “some lost decades.” “I feel like I went from Baywatch to Broadway in one fell swoop.“I don’t know what happened in between,” he said.

The film, which closes this Friday the parade of candidates for the Golden Shell at the San Sebastián festival, revolves around a veteran dancer who sees how the Las Vegas show in which he has been working for 30 years, the curtain drops abruptly. As he faces an uncertain professional future at 50, he strives to repair his strained relationship with his daughter, who has often been in the background.

Anderson has admitted that her situation had many parallels with that of Shelley, her character, who has relied heavily on her body and her beauty to work. “Much of my career has depended on my physique and that has been one of the reasons for doing this experiment with myself,” she noted, “remove layers, remember who I am, not let myself be defined by others or by what people expect of me, not become bitter and maintain the joy of working in this business.”

The actress arrived in San Sebastián and rushed down the stairs of the María Cristina hotel, dressed in sober black pants and sweater and with her hair tied up. this friday has appeared before the press in a pink gala dresssince he had just walked the red carpet at the Kursaal prior to the premiere of his film.

For Gia Coppola (Los Angeles, 1987), granddaughter of Francis Ford Coppola and niece of Sofía Coppola, This is his third feature film after Palo Alto (2013) y Mainstream (2020), which were presented at the Venice festival.

“I always wanted to make a movie in Las Vegas,” he said. Through a cousin she learned that there was a show, Jubilee Showgirls, about to end, she went to see it and He found a world that interested him because it was disdaineddespite its high level of production and where it found strong symbolism of the decline of the American dream.

“It’s a metaphor for the American dream, all that glitters is not gold, a lot of people in America have that life,” Coppola said. “Entertainment has the focus but sometimes it doesn’t work and dreams collide with reality, without a retirement plan, without income and ultimately without being able to make a living from it.

The director has said that she had Anderson in mind from the beginning, but when she saw her documentary Pamela Anderson: A Love Story (2023), in which she narrated her career in first person, marked by her conversion into an erotic television icon and her tortuous relationship with musician Tommy Lee, he thought no one else could do it.

After passing through San Sebastián, Pamela Anderson will receive the Golden Eye Award at the Zurich Festivalwhich will be held from October 3 to 13, an award that recognizes his career achievements.