Pamela Anderson’s TIFF Premiere: Why Her ‘Brave’ Performance is an Insult to Real Actors

I know we’re all supposed to act like this is some triumphant comeback for Pamela Anderson, but The Last Showgirl is just nostalgia wrapped in a feather boa. Everyone’s clapping like it’s the new wave of indie film artistry, but you want to know what this really is? A failed breath of life into a career that was far from talent in the first place. Anderson herself said she’s never had a “good script” before. Do we forget her entire career was built on slow-motion beach runs and mockery? And now, because she’s willing to “ponder her choices” while in a bedazzled showgirl outfit, suddenly we’re all expected to treat her like a legitimate actress.

Pamela Anderson is banking on the one thing Hollywood knows sells — an aging starlet being “brave” enough to embrace her decline. It’s the same tired thing recycled over and over. Put a fading actress in a role that’s “close to her heart” and we applaud the layers of metaphor as one would do at a Shakespeare revival. No. This is Baywatch in glitter, and I’m not buying it.

Jamie Lee Curtis. I love her, but her comment about women facing a harsher reality than men… hmm. The way she brings it up here feels like another cheap emotional grab. I do agree, the entertainment industry is brutal to women, but using that reality to elevate this movie to some feminist manifesto? Come on. At its core, it’s still women dancing around in skimpy costumes while the camera ogles them. That’s empowering?

Sorry, but if Anderson’s so-called “comeback” is the hill we’re dying on for female representation in Hollywood, then we’re all doomed. Pam, you had your time in the sun — or rather, in the spray tan. This “comeback” is smoke and mirrors, darling.