There are so many fascinating layers to the Hulu limited series Pam & Tommy, from the wild love story of two celebrities, to the legal and moral crimes that were committed, to how everything lined up between a video, an obsession with celebrity culture, and the early days of the internet. Based on the true story of how a disgruntled contractor decided to get revenge on the rock star who refused to pay for his work by stealing from him, Rand (Seth Rogen) finds himself in possession of a very private VHS tape that went on to become a global sensation, altering the lives of actress Pamela Anderson (Lily James) and Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee (Sebastian Stan) forever.
During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, which you can both watch and read, James talked about how fully transformative the role was, doing all the research she could possibly do, the double standard in Hollywood and how that affects the portrayal of women in the media, how looked after she felt during the production, the importance of bringing Pamela Anderson to life in a real and authentic way, her moment of panic before shooting began, and the effect she hopes the series has on viewers.
Collider: I’m curious, when you see the show, and you see the artwork for the show, what do you think of how you look? Do you see yourself?
LILY JAMES: I don’t really see myself, which is weird. Although, whilst I was filming, as it went on, I less recognized myself like this because I was, more often than not, dressed up in my whole look. And I stayed in the accent the entire four months, or however long it was we shot. It was weird becoming English Lily again. But yeah, I don’t recognize myself at all, which is very surreal and really quite crazy.
Did you then have to readjust to actually being yourself again, once it finished? Did you have a period where you were like, “Okay, everybody leave me alone while I become me again”?
JAMES: Yeah. I do actually find that always hard, after you’ve played a character, increasingly, and I’ve recognized that, but it’s been more subtle because I’ve played characters that look like myself, or it’s not the biggest stretch. With this, it was more glaringly obvious that I did have to actively take myself off and go to the English countryside and just go on long walks and assimilate back into myself.
You’ve previously talked about how you barely met Sebastian Stan and that he was pretty much Tommy Lee while you were pretty much Pamela Anderson. Is this the most transformative role you’ve done? Have you ever played another character that you felt you’ve taken on this fully?
JAMES: It was definitely the most challenging role I’ve ever played, and it was transformative, for sure. I literally could not have ever imagined having the opportunity to play Pamela Anderson, or that anyone would’ve ever thought of me to do it. I think I saw Sebastian twice for two afternoons of rehearsal, and then only ever on the set of the shoot. We were working such crazy hours. Sometimes they’d be 18-hour days. It worked really well, actually, for both of us because we were making such a leap and really trying to be great custodians of these characters, so there was a lot of effort involved.
You bring such a vulnerability and dimension to your portrayal, as well as moments of real strength, which make the viewer feel so deeply for Pamela and the situation that she finds herself in. Where did that come from? Do you feel like that developed out of your own understanding of her and your own feelings about how all of this affected her?
JAMES: Yeah. Obviously, I did all the research I could possibly do. I worked really hard to feel like I was as informed as I possibly could be. Of course, there is so much I could never know and will never know. However, I read her books, watched everything she’s ever done, her TV shows, her movies, her poetry. And then, beyond that, it was about, “How do I relate?” To be honest, a lot of it just feels relatable, as a woman, to feel that there’s something really unjust going on in the double standard with how women are treated, and to feel the sexism involved in the whole of the media and even the legal system. I, as a young actress, know what it’s like to feel, at times, like you are not taken that seriously, or you’re patronized. There was a lot in it that felt deeply relatable and deeply human. When you find out what really happened, that this was a crime against a couple that were newlyweds and their private property was stolen. I just explored that as I would any character, trying to figure out how I would feel, if that happened to me.
It’s so crazy that there is this crime that was committed, but the worst part of the whole situation is that the way that Pamela Anderson was treated and judged was not a crime.
JAMES: Yeah, a legally sanctioned crime.
There are a number of layers to what you pulled off, in bringing Pamela Anderson to life. There’s the work that you did studying her, there’s the physical transformation, and then there’s the humanity of it all. Were there things that you did to keep yourself in check and to make sure that it never became a caricature or impression? How did you keep track of that?
JAMES: Well, obviously, I never wanted it to be a caricature. I always wanted to try to play her authentically. I have huge, huge, huge respect for her, and I really admire her. I wanted to be a real person and be as informed as possible, learning about her. And then, I had really great directors, starting off with Craig Gillespie, who’s just so cool. He comes at things with such a strong angle and such a point of view, and he really gives you little clues for how to attack a scene or look at a certain moment that’s surprising and that unlocks so much for you, as an actor, so you feel really free and spontaneous. And then, we had Lake Bell and Hannah Fidell and our amazing director, Gwyneth [Horder-Payton]. I was being led. I was being looked after. And also, our writers, D.V. [DeVincentis] and Rob [Siegel], were the other people that I knew had worked as hard on Pamela as I had, and they were there every day. So, I felt like there were a lot of custodians of the role and a lot of people making sure we were telling the story we wanted to tell.
You signed on to do this and threw yourself into the preparation, and then it sounds like you had a bit of a panic, feeling like you wanted to quit before shooting. What were you most scared of, in that moment, and how did you finally get past the fear enough to channel it into the performance?
JAMES: I really do often feel like I want to quit. I remember doing a play in the West End, and if someone had said to me, just before the show, every single night at 7:15, “You can leave out the back door, and you won’t lose your career over it,” I’d have gone and been like, “I don’t care about the whole audience of people. I’m out.” I think that’s a general fear and anxiety that I have, which is like stage fright, or a version of fright. But with this, it just felt like such a huge responsibility. There was a moment where I just stopped believing that I could do it and do her justice and be convincing. Also, the whole transformation with the makeup and the look and the body and everything didn’t happen until right at the starting line, so I had to have huge faith in the makeup and hair team that we were going to get there. At one point, I was really just scared that we wouldn’t. It’s really the biggest challenge I’ve ever had, as an actor, and feeling that responsibility, it all just was quite terrifying.
Similarly, did you have a moment where you were in the character, in all of that, and you thought, “Okay, I’ve really got this”?
JAMES: In the moment, in scenes, particularly with Sebastian, who is such a great scene partner, there were moments where I really believed what we were doing. I really always believed what we were doing. I felt really in it with him, and we found our version of this. Of course, we’re just basing this on what we know. We found our truth in it, and it felt real and honest, so that was exciting. But you can never really pinpoint who someone is, or pinpoint a character. It’s always growing and moving, depending on the day and what you’re reacting to. There’s such a huge shift in the series. It starts out with this huge meeting and falling in love and them against the world, and then the worst possible thing you could imagine happening to a newlywed couple happens, and there’s this huge violation of their privacy and this crime, and everything spirals from there. So, it got pretty heavy, pretty fast.
What do you hope people take from what they learn about Pamela Anderson in this and from this series, especially because we do get to learn so much that we didn’t know before?
JAMES: The whole aim of this story, really, was to show the untold story and to look at what really happened, which was, as we’ve talked about, a crime. This private property was stolen. It happened at the same time as the internet. It’s unbelievable what happened. This video spread all over the world. We wanted to look at that truthfully and look at the consequences and explore what that means, as a woman, what it meant to experience that, and honestly, to look at our own culpability and our own behavior in perpetuating this culture of obsession and privacy being violated and negativity. I think the show is, at times, uncomfortable for the audience. If they really engage with it on that level, that’s what the show is asking of us.
Pam & Tommy is available to stream at Hulu.