Pamela Anderson wants to take back her life and her story – on her own terms.
The 55-year-old actress, known for her role playing lifeguard C.J. Parker on the hit 90s show “Baywatch,” is out with a new tell-all memoir, “Love Pamela,” alongside a new Netflix documentary, “Pamela, a Love Story.”
In the book and documentary, Anderson describes her journey – and all of the challenges along the way – as she skyrocketed from small-town girl to Hollywood icon, activist and mother.
Anderson recounted to Know Your Value's Mika Brzezinski how one of her grown sons, Brandon, recently convinced her to take on the two projects. “He just said, ‘Mom, it’s time. You have to tell your story….You know, people talk about all these parts of your life, but they aren’t talking about the whole person,'” she recounted in an interview that aired on Monday's "Morning Joe."
In the memoir and documentary, Anderson recounted how she was discovered at a football game in Canada after being shown on the Jumbotron. She was asked to be in a commercial for Labatt’s beer, and not long after, Playboy came calling.
She also discussed several challenges she faced, including a childhood marked by physical and sexual assaults, trauma she endured as a result of her infamous stolen sex tape, hitting rock bottom amid her divorce from Tommy Lee and more.
Family, she wrote, has always been key. In the acknowledgements of her book, she thanked her sons because they knew she “needed to take back [her] life. She also thanked ex-husband Lee, saying, “Thank you for just being you, and for being the catalyst for everything good in my life.” She noted that the memoir isn’t a “woe-is-me” book, but a story of “imperfect people living imperfect lives and finding joy in that.”
And that wisdom has come with age. Anderson told “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski that she isn’t afraid of getting older, even coming out of a career that often revolved around appearances. “You got to just accept [aging],” said Anderson. “It’s going to happen no matter what. We are going to get old, so I want to embrace it … It’s funny, I look at myself sometimes and go ‘you look kind of funny. What happened to you?’ …[But] Just embrace it… I think, when you look in the mirror and you see all that life on your face, [you know] you’ve earned it.”
Brzezinski also asked Anderson her advice to women who sometimes feel stuck in life.
Anderson said she has often felt that way and noted and the recent joy of seeing herself with her children in her new documentary.
“I think [to myself], remember those times and you are that person, because we can get so sidetracked… Just be brave. Happiness is a choice. We all have reasons to be upset and there’s a reason not to do everything I always say…But there’s a reason to do something, and there’s a reason to make a different choice. And I think there is a lot of negativity in the world…But we can choose to be happy…It’s kind of a rebel move to be happy and sexy at any age.”