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| “Lily and I didn’t really see each other outside of those costumes until the end,” Sebastian Stan said of playing Tommy Lee, with Lily James as Pamela Anderson. “Even now, we see each other for the press, and we’re like, ‘This is your hair?’” |
Pamela Anderson and her new husband, Tommy Lee, drummer for the glam metal band Mötley Crüe, were on top of the world back in 1995. While his band was past its heyday in the 1980s, he could still live la Vida rocks in his Malibu house since she was starring in the TV show "Baywatch."
You can't blame them for using a Hi8 camcorder to capture some of their happiest moments — including some pretty nude, very sexual ones — for posterity.
The film was then leaked, much to the couple's dismay. And he moved about.
The eight-part scripted series "Pam & Tommy," a wild, picaresque adventure through the nightclubs, palaces, and porn dens of mid-90s Hollywood, which premiered Wednesday on Hulu, dramatizes those events and their aftermath. But the program is about more than celebrity antics or period-perfect parodies on the protagonist couple's bizarre struggles and tribulations — though it does include both.
The series utilizes the controversy as a guide through an era in American society when fortunes were made, lives were lost, and the celebrity sex video became a defining relic of the internet age. It represents a period when glam gave way to grunge, and when low-cost video and dial-up modems dramatically extended the reach — and intrusiveness — of the sexual images business.
D.V. DeVincentis ("The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story"), a writer, executive producer, and co-showrunner for the series, remarked, "We're still living in that now." "If not this moment, then this era," says the narrator, "and it's something you'll never get back in the bottle."
It's difficult to appreciate the enormity of the issue now that it's cloaked in a cloud of nostalgia for the 1990s.
"Obviously Pamela was such a big part of everyone's lives, and even that time in the '90s is idealized in my imagination — this crazy time of crop tops and Spice Girls," Lily James, 32, who plays Anderson in "Pam & Tommy," said. "However, we also discussed how there is a deeper, unreported tale that was mostly overlooked by the headlines."
A depiction of Anderson and Lee’s wedding (with Alberto Manquero, left) in “Pam & Tommy.” In real life, they met, fell in love, and were married in the course of four days.
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| Seth Rogen left, and Nick Offerman play the miffed contractor who stole the tape and the porn producer who helped him distribute it. |
Rand Gauthier, the real-life electrician who stole, reproduced, and disseminated the tape, is played by Seth Rogen, 39, one of the show's executive producers. Rogen recalls seeing the tape for the first time over the phone. "I was 13, 14 years old when it came out, so I had no idea what was going on," he explained. "I simply knew it was this mythological thing that was going around my social group a little bit — almost like 'Lord of the Rings,'" she says.
But how can you convey a tale with such evident sex appeal that is enjoyable without adding to the exploitation? (The production did not include Anderson or Lee.) It was a difficult task, especially since the fact is so fantastical that it may add to the legend.
The performance kicks out with the narrative equivalent of a Miata's squealing tires, based on an eye-popping investigative Rolling Stone article written by Amanda Chicago Lewis in 2014. Gauthier, the son of tiny Hollywood nobility, is the one who sets the wheels in motion — and who, in early episodes, looks to be the show's moral core. (His father, Dick Gautier, played Robin Hood in Mel Brooks' short-lived sitcom "When Things Were Rotten" in 1975.) Rand changed the spelling of his own surname.)
Gauthier was helping restore Lee and Anderson's house when he was sacked, with money still due by a capricious and stingy Lee, as represented in "Pam & Tommy" (Sebastian Stan). Gauthier went to reclaim his equipment, already out hundreds of dollars, when Lee, according to the account, shoved a shotgun in his face. (For the Rolling Stone piece, Lee and Anderson declined to comment.)
Infuriated, he devised a complex strategy to recoup his losses by stealing a six-foot-tall safe from Lee's residence, the contents of which he had no knowledge of. Gauthier tries to trick Lee's security camera by covering his back with white fur and dropping down on all fours to imitate Lee's enormous dog in one of the show's funniest sequences.
"People believe it's made up because I'm on the show," Rogen remarked, chuckling.
Along with his weaponry and Anderson's jewels, Lee had kept the priceless footage in that safe. Until early 1996, when the couple realized that film of their X-rated escapades aboard a boat on Lake Mead had begun to appear publicly, the tape was out of sight and out of mind. Anderson and Lee, who were suddenly the subject of obscene attention, only knew the video had been stolen after it had been stolen, and they were soon the brunt of late-night jokes.
James required four hours in the makeup chair daily and Stan three, many of them dedicated to the painstaking application of Lee’s many tattoos.
The scam metastasized, spreading into seedy corners of North America in a tale worthy of the Coen brothers. Biker gangs, gamblers, a ruthless moneylender named Butchie (Andrew Dice Clay), and various bottom feeders like Gauthier's associate Milton Ingley (Nick Offerman), a San Fernando Valley pornographer, joined the real-life ensemble of characters.
The sleazy ambiance of mid-90s Los Angeles is accentuated with bawdy touches, especially in the early episodes. In one scene, an animated version of Lee's penis discusses his love for Anderson with the notoriously well-endowed Lee (voiced by Jason Mantzoukas). It's as funny as it is bizarre, but it's not a humorous whim on the side of the screenwriters: Such encounters abound in Lee's 2004 memoir, "Tommyland." (According to a Hulu spokeswoman, the series' dialogue is original.)
According to Jason Collins, whose business, Autonomous FX, created and manufactured the various prosthetics featured in the episode, similar stunts are often done using digital effects in postproduction. Two puppeteers sitting out of camera range and equipped with remote controls brought Lee's talking member to life.
"Doing it this way allows the director and creators to feed lines to the puppeteers and Sebastian," Collins explained, "so they can maybe do a little more improv and be a little looser on the scene that day."
The viewers' allegiances shift as the series proceed. Rogen was intrigued by Gauthier and his unclear position in the events because of his production firm, Point Grey, which he co-founded with Evan Goldberg. The series was created with Annapurna Pictures for Hulu.
"I think you like him at first because he's a basic dopey man doing his hardest — you don't believe he's doing anything evil because he doesn't realize he's doing anything bad," Rogen explained.
He went on to say, "The reality is that he honestly didn't regard anyone other than himself." "And he had a significant detrimental influence on the lives of others."
Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson had two children and were divorced in 1998, but they had an on-and-off relationship for many years after.
Lee, too, is endearingly wacky, lavishing attention on Anderson and delighting in every rock-star cliché. Anderson, on the other hand, eventually emerges as the story's emotional and moral core. And, despite her instincts and intelligence being continually ignored, she is always one step ahead of almost everyone around her, notably her husband.
"She's ultimately our major character," said show creator and co-showrunner Robert Siegel ("The Wrestler"). "She had the worst of luck in terms of her job and public opinion, yet she comes out of our program as the finest person."
To that aim, DeVincentis added, the play took steps to emphasize the drastically different ways Anderson and Lee saw the events. Two of the authors were women, and subsequent episodes were directed by women, including Lake Bell, Gwyneth Horder-Payton, and Hannah Fidell, who authored the Rolling Stone piece. (The first three were directed by Craig Gillespie, who also directed "I, Tonya.")
"These two people had the exact same experience on video, and that footage was presented to the world," DeVincentis explained. "However, she was slut-shamed out of the profession, while he was spared from being a has-been and remade as a type of sex god." "The only thing that separated them was their gender."
Early reviewers have accused "Pam & Tommy" of attempting to have it both ways, seeking retribution for Anderson's humiliation while also exploiting the subject's natural eroticism. It exposes the secret narrative of a non-consensual leak, although it wasn't created with Anderson's permission. The sex and nudity remain basically unaffected, but they're not hidden.
Several news publications, including Entertainment Tonight, US Weekly, and The Sun, have stated that Anderson is unhappy with the series, citing unnamed individuals close to her. According to the producers, they attempted to: According to a Hulu spokeswoman, Anderson turned down several requests from the producers to be a part of the series. (Anderson did not reply to this article's requests for comment.)
In a follow-up email, the showrunners noted, "We were continually watching the tight line of disclosing how Pam was victimized while depicting folks who had rock 'n' roll lives." "Everyone engaged in the production of the play was in a near-constant discussion about how we would thread that needle in our representation."
James, a British actress who has appeared in "Downton Abbey," "Cinderella," and "Baby Driver," said she tried unsuccessfully to reach Anderson. Siegel admitted that James was an unconventional choice for the part, but he had sought to defy expectations.
He explained, "A lot of folks expected we'd cast whoever had the greatest bombshell." "However, one of the show's main points is that Pam isn't who you think she is, and we've all misjudged her." Maybe you're evaluating Lily the same way you're judging Pam."
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| Stan and James tried to contact their respective subjects, but only Stan succeeded. It made James “even more committed to giving my absolute all to play her authentically and do her justice,” she said. |
James, 39, and Stan, 39, had to blend into their roles. Both stated that they needed to reduce weight and exercise consistently in order to fulfill their roles. Stan admitted to being terrified by the drumming moments, especially because Lee was a high-intensity performer. (While Lee was not invited to be a part of the series, Stan spoke with him and claimed that he felt "quite moved" that they had connected; Lee declined to comment for this story.)
"You have to remember this was a person who would be performing on a roller coaster upside down," he remarked, alluding to a common occurrence at concerts. "You'll need a lot of energy to deal with that."
Then there were the long makeup sessions: James took four hours each day, while Stan required three for his many adornments, much of which were dedicated to the careful application of Lee's tattoos.
"It's very crazy," he remarked, "since Lily and I didn't actually see each other outside of those costumes until the end." "Even today, when we meet for press, we're like, 'Is this your hair?'"
Both performers put those hours to good use by viewing a slew of YouTube videos and honing their elocution skills. James' work was made more difficult by the fact that he had to adopt a new accent (Anderson was born in Canada) while wearing prosthetic choppers.
In the end, it was more important to get the characters correct than it was to get the looks right. But the fact that James couldn't meet Anderson in person only fueled her desire to do so.
"I was simply much more dedicated to my own research — even more dedicated to giving it my best to play her truthfully and do her justice," she explained.
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