TORONTO — The Toronto International Film Festival has produced many comeback stories over the years. Brendan Fraser was applauded here two years ago for his performance in ‘The Whale’. This year’s unlikely comeback story could be Pamela Anderson.
On Friday, Gia Coppola premiered her film “The Last Showgirl,” an indie drama starring Anderson as an aging Las Vegas showgirl. Shelley (Anderson) is the long-running star of the casino dance show of scantily clad, feather-adorned women who has seen better days. With attendance dwindling, the show’s director (Dave Bautista) announces that they will soon perform their final performance, causing Shelley – who truly believes in the show – to reconsider her choices.
The film, available for purchase in Toronto, received mixed reviews but warm applause for the 57-year-old Anderson.
“I’ve been preparing for this role my whole life,” Anderson told the audience at the Princess of Wales Theater after the premiere.
For Anderson, whose best-known credits include “Baywatch” and “Borat,” the exposure of the festival was a new experience. Even getting a script like ‘The Last Showgirl’ was something new for her.
“First of all, it’s the first time I’ve read a good script. I’ve never been given a script that was coherent,” Anderson said. “I thought: I’m the only one who can do this. I’ve never felt so strongly about anything.”
“The Last Showgirl” extends a run of good fortune for the former Playboy Playmate, including her 2023 memoir “Love, Pamela” and the Emmy-nominated Netflix documentary “Pamela, A Love Story.” It also shares some of the same themes as another TIFF entry, the body horror film ‘The Substance’. That film, starring Demi Moore, also grapples with agism for female entertainers.
Jamie Lee Curtis, who stars as a very bronzed casino waitress in “The Last Showgirl,” got emotional while discussing her character.
“I’m just a product of that same reality,” Curtis said. ‘You know who Annette is. You all know an Annette. It’s a film about dreams and chasing your dreams. But of course the dreams become a really (expletive) harsh reality. And for women it is a very harsh reality that men do not have as much.”
Curtis then added with a grin, “And a spray tan helps.”
