Lily James Says She Reached Out To Pamela Anderson Before Making “Pam & Tommy”

Pam & Tommy, the eight-episode limited series about the theft and release of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee’s sex tape, is coming out next month on Hulu. It stars Lily James and Sebastian Stan as the square-nailed Baywatch queen and rock drummer. And while Pam and her friends, like Courtney Love, have already said how much they hate this shit and think it’s exploitive trash, Lily James says in a new interview that she actually tried really hard to speak to Pamela before the show started filming. Pamela didn’t answer her calls.

Pam & Tommy takes us back to 1995 when Pamela and Tommy got married and made a sex tape, which was stolen by accident by their disgruntled contractor, played by Seth Rogen. Last year, a friend of Pam’s talked to The Sun and said that she “has no intention of watching this God awful show, absolutely not. Never. She’s never heard of the actors playing her or Tommy, and doesn’t care to know them. She and her family think the show is a cheap knockoff. The whole thing is a joke to them.” Courtney also posted and deleted on Facebook calling the show “fucking outrageous,” and said it was “further causing… complex trauma.” She also dragged the fuck out of Lily James calling her “#vile.” 

Lily tells Net-A-Porter that she was actually interested in having a heart-to-heart with Pamela and reached out.

The series has prompted debate online, as it was made without Anderson’s involvement. “I was really hopeful that she would be involved. I wish it had been different,” James sighs. “My sole intention was to take care of the story and to play Pamela authentically.” Did she reach out to Anderson independently? “Yes. And I was very hopeful that we would be in touch right up until we started filming.”

Lily swears she did her own research though and really worked to become Pamela:

“I’ve never worked so hard,” says James. “I read the books [Anderson] has written, I read her poetry, I can parrot along to all her interviews.”

She read her poetry! Okay… I mean, how much is she getting paid here to suffer through that? Did she watch VIP, because if Lily didn’t, then she doesn’t know shit! And Lily should just enjoy the ride while she can because we’re all gonna forget about her portrayal of Pamela as soon as the next Hulu mini-series is greenlit, Pam & Juli–all about her bond with Julian Assange. That’s where the Emmy is at.

Pic: Hulu