The Last Showgirl director Gia Coppola sent Pamela Anderson’s then-agent the script for her new movie, hoping the former Baywatch star would take the lead role. However, the agent never passed along the project to his client.
“He was sent the script, and he just turned it down within the hour,” Anderson, 57, tells PEOPLE. “I don’t know if it was the money or the role or whatever. He thought I wouldn’t do it.”
It was a huge mistake on the agent’s part. Not only would Anderson eventually say yes to the role, but she’s no longer working with that representative. “He’s an old agent of mine, let me be clear,” she explains with a smile. “I changed agencies.”
“You have to send offers to the artist,” continues the mom of two, who says she was gardening at home in Canada when her son Brandon Lee brought her the script.
Coppola tracked down Brandon, 28, after learning he was a producer on Anderson’s 2023 documentary Pamela: A Love Story.
“She found Brandon — Brandon knew where I was obviously — and brought me the script, and then I read it and I just knew I had to do it. It was very exciting,” says Anderson, who also shares son Dylan Lee, 26, with her ex-husband, musician Tommy Lee, 62.
Her departure from her agency was “a long time coming,” says Anderson. “I didn’t have a real strong agent or anyone with any vision or belief in me. Now I do, but only because I did The Last Showgirl. You have to get a project that you can sink your teeth into to show people that you’re more than where you’ve been pigeonholed.”
“The opportunity was something I was really craving,” she adds.
In The Last Showgirl, Anderson plays Shelly, a dancer who has been performing for decades in a show called Les Razzle Dazzle — which is suddenly canceled by the higher-ups at the Las Vegas resort that hosts it.
Faced with an uncertain future, Shelly must figure out her next steps as she tries to build a relationship with her estranged adult daughter (Billie Lourd).
The film, which has been earning Anderson glowing reviews, also stars Jamie Lee Curtis, Kiernan Shipka, Brenda Song and Dave Bautista.
The Last Showgirl is in select theaters now before going wide on Jan. 10.
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