How Lily James Transformed Into Pamela Anderson For Pam & Tommy

Lily James is a British actress best known for wide-eyed, effervescent roles in "Downton Abbey," Disney's 2015 live-action remake of "Cinderella," and "Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again," where she played a young Meryl Streep. Apart from her talent, nothing in those previous roles would suggest that she was the right actor to play Pamela Anderson, the ultimate female sex symbol of the 1990s. Yet in 2020, she was cast alongside Sebastian Stan in the title roles of the Hulu miniseries "Pam & Tommy."

Directed by "I, Tonya" and "Cruella" helmer Craig Gillespie and written by Robert Siegel ("The Wrestler," "Big Fan"), the miniseries centers around the tumultuous marriage between Anderson and Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee (Stan), and the theft and subsequent release of their private sex tape by a disgruntled electrician (series producer Seth Rogen). The scandal was one of the biggest of the late 1990s, raising legal and ethical issues concerning the emerging realms of internet pornography, privacy in an online world, and celebrity rights in response to largely anonymous bad faith actors — all issues society is still grappling with today.

For James, the role required not just a complete physical transformation to resemble Anderson, but a deep dive into her experience and psyche in order to better understand one of the most recognizable celebrities of the past 30 years.

As she began researching her role and delving into Anderson's life, James was shocked by the sexist tone of Anderson's media coverage. "When you look back at some of her interviews in the 1990s, the misogyny is so striking."

Indeed, many of Anderson's interviews at the time, even supposedly friendly environments like Jay Leno's "Tonight Show," seem determined to discount her accomplishments, treating the idea that there is in fact a brain powering her body like some sort of novelty. She was often regarded as a body to be lusted after — and sometimes not even a whole body. "I'm not talking about my boobs — that's very 1999," she said in a 2013 interview with London's The Guardian. "You know people project boobs onto me." But even in that interview, the writer cannot help but frame Anderson's 1990s heyday as unmitigated sleaze and treat her intelligence as a parlor trick: "Amazing, I say, here I am expecting to meet pin-up Pam and here she is, renaissance woman."

James did not have to rely solely on archival material and research on Anderson's life, though; she had her own experiences as a young woman in show business to turn to — specifically, the experience of being hounded by tabloid press. In October 2020 paparazzi caught James and her "The Pursuit of Love" co-star Dominic West enjoying what appeared to be a romantic afternoon sightseeing in Rome; West, 20 years James' senior, has been married to Irish architect Catherine FitzGerald since 2010.

While West and FitzGerald performed damage control in the wake of the scandal, James chose to lay low, only speaking about the incident publicly several months later — and even then, only to say that she wasn't ready to discuss it. Still, the experience was a hard-earned lesson in how the press can treat celebrities, and especially the double-standard in scrutiny and judgment that women face. "Women are held to much higher standards," she said to Porter, "and attacked in ways that feel so vicious."

The effect of such an involved makeup routine was transformative for James, as if by looking so much like Anderson on the outside she was imbued with a measure of the strength and grace she saw in Anderson, both in the script and in real life. "I've never done anything where I look very different from myself before," she told Porter. "There was a bravery that came from that. A courage that came from ... disappearing."

Likewise, removing the costume and makeup had a flattening effect. "I hated it. It was like being stripped of all these superpowers! I'd really enjoyed the physicality and sensuality, even down to the long fingernails. There was just so much character to hold onto — it was really thrilling."

The transformation amazed her co-stars as well. Sebastian Stan recently told Entertainment Tonight that "the first time [he] saw her [out of costume] was actually at the end of the shoot five months later, and [he] was like, 'Who are you?'"

Looking back, James relished the opportunity for such a full-body transformation and is eager to try the same approach to a new role. "I'd really like to continue in this vein, because I felt there was something very freeing and liberating in it."

The miniseries is part of a recent spate of films and television shows examining 1990s scandals from a fresh perspective, often reevaluating a woman scorned at the time by public opinion. Gillespie's own "I, Tonya" fits this description, as does "The Eyes of Tammy Faye" starring Jessica Chastain. FX's "American Crime Story: Impeachment" examined the Monica Lewinsky scandal with the participation of Lewinsky herself, who served as an executive producer.

Neither Anderson nor Tommy Lee were involved with the making of "Pam & Tommy," however — a point of contention for some, including James. "I was really hopeful that she would be involved," she said of Anderson. "I wish it had been different." 

James has said that she reached out to Anderson before production began, but Anderson never responded to her inquiry. In the absence of Anderson's participation, James put her trust in the script and her directors. "I realize a lot of it is incredibly sensitive and difficult. And so, as an actor, to a certain extent, what you do is make yourself very open to talk to all of that."

For his part, Lee has given the miniseries his blessing. "It's a really beautiful story."

In her interview with Porter, James discusses the difficulties of leaving the character of Pamela Anderson behind once filming was complete. "It takes a while to let a character like that leave you. In the past, I maybe felt too modest to believe that I might inhabit a role so greatly that it would impact on me, but it really does." She relates an anecdote told to her by her therapist, about how the therapist's husband becomes vicariously exhausted when watching rugby matches, as if he himself is playing. "I think the same thing happens when you live through someone."

It may have been difficult for James to leave her role behind because her physical transformation into Anderson was so complete, but it may also have been because in many ways we are living in the world that Pam and Tommy's sex tape created. In the 25-plus years since the Lees' electrician stole their safe containing a honeymoon VHS tape, notions of privacy have been upended, with so many people's personal details (sexual or not) posted willingly online for public consumption and corporate gain. "This was a trigger moment that unintentionally sparked a new time," James said. "I hope a lot has changed. But sometimes it doesn't feel like it's changed quite enough."