Finally, Pamela Anderson Has Agency Over Her Own Story In Netflix Doc

Her story has been told for her by others over the years, but now, Pamela Anderson gets to tell it in her own words in the new Netflix documentary, Pamela, a love story.

She shares her feelings about her life thus far via intimate interviews. She’s makeup-free, unfiltered, and very raw with her emotions. This film is compelling and beautifully shot, making you love her even more for her ability to share her darkest moments and laugh at herself.

The documentary is directed by Ryan White and produced by Jessica Hargrave, Julia Nottingham, and her son, Brandon Thomas Lee. The film details her rise from small-town girl to Playboy centerfold to actress to international sex symbol.

But Anderson is so much more than a famous blonde bombshell; she grew into herself and became an icon and a feminist in the truest sense. She’s also a dedicated mother, animal-loving activist, philanthropist, and hopeless romantic.

As much as she was celebrated for her beauty, she was sometimes punished for it. She’s repeatedly been forced to take back her power over the years, and she always does. She is a survivor.

There is a loft in her boathouse in her home in Ladysmith, BC, Canada, packed with boxes of old VHS tapes containing snippets of her fascinating life. Many of these never-before-seen home videos are shown in the film, along with stacks of journal entries. She has kept copious notes throughout her life on dozens of yellow legal pads and in diaries. It was too hard for her to read these, but she gave her sons Brandon and Dylan, and the filmmakers, full access to them and permission for a voice actress to narrate them.

Her hometown is the polar opposite of the bright city lights of Hollywood, with a population of less than 9,000. Her property, which she is constantly updating and adding to, is what she calls her “truth serum.” It’s a place she had often returned to over the years when troubles arose, and it’s there that she has always found the solutions and answers that she’s seeking.

Watching her reminisce on her many explosive, whirlwind romances is emotional and funny. She often pokes fun at herself, which makes her even more endearing. Empathy is the emotion I felt as she detailed the most painful time in her life when that infamous stolen sex tape upended her life and career. The world had yet to discover the power of the internet, and the tape would become the first viral video. Anderson and her then-husband, Tommy Lee, were the first celebrities to face such ridicule.

She stands by the fact that she and Lee never made any money on the video, nor did they settle. “You can’t put a monetary number on the amount of pain and suffering that it caused,” she said.

Every time she reflects on her whirlwind romance with Lee, it’s evident in her eyes that he is the love of her life. Their love was an altogether different story she describes as “a heart-to-heart explosive kind of love” and one of the “wildest, most beautiful love affairs ever.”

At one particularly emotional point in the film, Anderson tears up. She tells her son Dylan, “It’s probably going to get me a lot of sh*t for saying this, but I really loved your dad like for all the right reasons, and I don’t think I’ve ever loved anybody else.”

She says she never got over not making it work with the father of her kids and realizes this is why she’s failed in all of her relationships since. Her relationship with Lee is similar to what she witnessed growing up with her parents, who also had a tumultuous relationship. They were wildly in love and split up at times, but they always got back together and are currently happy.

Anderson admits she’d rather be alone than not be with Lee. “It’s impossible to be with anybody else,” she confesses, adding she doesn’t feel she could be with Lee either. She’s a lifelong romantic who cannot be with anyone.

In one scene, she’s on a boat with her then-husband Dan Hayhurst, whom she divorced in January of 2022 after one year of marriage. Throughout, she talks about feeling restless, saying at one point, “I’m looking for a feeling I can’t find.”

Anderson also delves into her childhood, saying she had some horrible things happen to her. Over three or four years, she was molested by a female babysitter. She explains how she protected her brother from the abuse and confronted the babysitter. Anderson told her she wished she would die. The next day, she was killed in a car crash, and Anderson felt guilt for years, thinking she had caused her death.

When she was 12 years old, she described a 25-year-old man raping her, and she felt at the time that it was her fault. This time was very confusing for her because it was also her first experience with sex. Posing for Playboy later in life would free her from her shyness and insecurities. Playboy enabled her to take back the power of her sexuality.

Anderson wanted to be more than a sex symbol and to be taken seriously as an actress. Baywatch would be her first acting job, and the show catapulted her into worldwide stardom. During this time, the stolen sex tape went viral, and her dreams of becoming a respected actress were shattered. The stress caused her and Lee to lose their first baby.

She explained that the difference between the stolen sex tape and Playboy was that she chose to be in the magazine, which was empowering. The release of the stolen video was a violation. “In this case, it felt like a rape,” she said, adding that the situation devastated her. To survive, she had to block that time out of her life.

She tried to put it all behind her. Then, she found out about the Hulu mini-series Pam & Tommy. She and her sons were horrified. She describes once again feeling like a thing owned by the world.

She got her moxie back when the opportunity of a lifetime presented itself to play Roxie Hart in Broadway’s Chicago. She performed to packed houses, and the fans and critics praised her singing, dancing, and acting.

Yet again, Anderson has taken back her power and proven that she is much more than a blonde bombshell. She has proven to herself and the world that she’s an unstoppable powerhouse.

In her words: “I want to embrace the past, embrace the truth. My life is not a woe-is-me story.”