Before Jamie Lee Curtis had even read the script for The Last Showgirl, she was ready to sign on for the project. Why? Pamela Anderson.
“As soon as [director] Gia Coppola told me that she was working on something called The Last Showgirl and it was going to star Pamela Anderson, I was in,” Curtis, 66, tells WHO.
“That’s how much I wanted to work with her – as an artist and as someone I have long admired as a woman.” Like Anderson, Curtis is enjoying a renaissance, sparked by her Oscar-winning role in Everything Everywhere All at Once and her magnificent performance in hit series The Bear.
After more than 40 years in the business, the best may still be to come.
What can you tell us about the character you play in The Last Showgirl?
I play Annette, who is the best friend of Pamela’s character and a former showgirl herself. Annette is what they call a bevertainer in Vegas. A bevertainer is basically a cocktail waitress who also entertains. She dances, she sings and she serves drinks.
How did you enjoy the dancing part of the role?
I’ll be honest, I didn’t know I was going to have to do any of that when I signed up. I had no idea what a bevertainer was – none of us did really. I thought I was playing a cocktail waitress and former showgirl, and then we really found out what a bevertainer does. The next thing I know, we were in rehearsal and there I am dancing to ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ (laughs).
Had you had any experience of Vegas showgirls before this role came to you?
I was aware of them. I had been to Vegas but I had never really seen the showgirls. I was too young when they were really a thing. I had seen pictures.
Annette has a distinctive look. How would you describe it?
I would say she has that look of experience. She looks like she has been there and done that. She’s been working in Vegas for 40 years and still loves it. She has been spray tanned so many times over the years that she looks like burnt leather. She wears her years and her experience with pride and has no intention to retire or give up doing what she loves.
Did you have to be spray tanned for the role?
I did. Many times over the 18 days we shot the movie. The very first time I met Pamela actually was in a Vegas hotel basement corridor right after I had got my spray tan. It was the beginning of what has become a beautiful friendship. We were besties from that moment on.
Yes, you and Pamela became very close through making this film together. What is it about her?
Pamela is amazing. She is someone I admire and identify with. I know what it’s like to be underestimated, to be put in a box and stereotyped. I know what it is like to suddenly be given a chance to emerge and be something more. For me, that moment came with Everything Everywhere All at Once. That film changed my life. It has opened so many doors for me. The Last Showgirl is that moment for Pamela Anderson. She can do anything after this. She’s her own boss at last.
Has the acclaim Pamela has received for her performance surprised you at all?
Not one bit. She is breathtaking in this role and proving she is more than just the girl in the red bathing suit that people once saw her as. Pamela tells the story of how, while she was shooting for Playboy, she was reading Tennessee Williams and Eugene O’Neill plays. The artist that she is now has always been in her. It’s just taken 57 years for her to be able to show what she can do and to be allowed to show more than just one aspect of herself.
Did you always know The Last Showgirl would resonate with so many people?
You never really know. You hope a film can make an impact and be a success, but you never know until it’s done. For all of us, I think that moment came when we all sat down to watch it at TIFF [Toronto International Film Festival]. We were all in tears. Everyone was in tears. To see Pamela emerge as this character in all her beauty was just incredible. This is a film about women, about all generations of women, yet it is a film for everyone. It’s rare to get something like that.
You are busier than ever now. How are you enjoying this phase of your career?
I’m loving it. As someone who has always been kind of bossy, I’m loving being the boss of what I do – acting, producing, being creative. I mean, I loved what I did before. I have had a great career and a great life. I got to raise beautiful children and I got to work at doing something I love. I have always been grateful for any job that came my way. But to be here now at 66 years old, still acting, producing, directing maybe and having a larger role in everything I do is just a joy.
