Pamela Anderson: ‘Instead of Trying to be This Polished Person, I’d Rather be Raw’

She is self-deprecating and funny. For example, when referring to a famous look she wore in the ’90s—a giant pink fluffy hat, sequined sheer trousers, and a white corset—she says, “Everyone was asking me, ‘Who was your stylist back then with the pink hat?’ And I say, ‘You think any stylist would have let me out the door [in that]?!’”

But the self-deprecating shtick, as funny as it is (crazy is a word she often uses to describe herself), at times makes me sad. It feels, perhaps, like her armor, a coping mechanism that is part of her protective, public-facing shield. And she shocks me more than once by revealing she has battled with deep insecurities surrounding her image.

The parsnip, as it turns out, is an apt icebreaker because we’re here to discuss, among many things, her first cookbook of vegetable recipes. I Love You: Recipes From the Heart, on sale later this month, is teeming with homespun recipes from her kitchen garden in the town of Ladysmith on Vancouver Island in British Columbia.

“It’s not a vegan cookbook. I’m not telling other people how to eat,” says Anderson (famously vegan) hastily, clearly worried about coming across preachy. “I just have so many vegetables in my garden! I’m always canning and pickling and making sauces and just trying to find cool ways to cook vegetables.”

We’re also here to talk about her vegan, cruelty-free skin care range, Sonsie, which she acquired earlier this year, plus her renaissance as a movie star with the aforementioned The Naked Gun, as well as The Last Showgirl costarring Jamie Lee Curtis, both out next year.

And there is early industry buzz that The Last Showgirl could well [whisper it] put Anderson on track for awards-season recognition. Which—and Anderson herself is the first to admit this, self-deprecating again: “That’s hysterical,” she says, laughing—would certainly be a whole new era for the actor formerly known as Barb Wire.

But industry buzz aside, Anderson has most definitely entered a new era. And she is, perhaps for the first time in her five decades in the public eye, very much in the driver’s seat, determining how she is presented to the world. After a lifetime of being objectified, she is seizing back control.

Anderson has clearly thought a lot about being one of Glamour’s two Global Women of the Year.

“It’s really an honour to be chosen…but I want to be careful with all of it. I want to have integrity,” she tells me. “Why do you want me to be Woman of the Year? Because I’m living my authentic life, because I’m making these choices.”

As such, Anderson is keen to be involved in the creative process of our cover shoot. Most importantly (and unusually for a cover shoot), she is adamant that she will have barely any makeup or hair styling. This is a radical new look for Anderson, one that has caused an avalanche of headlines since she debuted her bare face at Paris Fashion Week in September of 2023. And it is something we will discuss in more detail later.

Before our interview, Anderson took the unusual step of emailing me an essay she has written, entitled “The Roles I’ve Played.” It’s kind of a meandering stream of consciousness, and it is beautifully written, poetic and poignant at times.