Pamela Anderson’s Son Made It His Mission To Change The Way We View Her

What does the name “Pamela Anderson” conjure in your mind? When I was younger, it was the 90s blonde bombshell running on a beach, Playboy covers, red swimsuits, and tabloid drama. Now, she's so much more than a sex symbol.

Today, at 57 years old, Anderson is a Golden Globe-nominated actress and a best-selling author. And while you have to give it to Anderson for her transformation, her eldest son – Brandon Thomas Lee – deserves some recognition for showing us the real, talented woman behind all the makeup and costumes.

Anderson’s career was a typecast from the start, going from “Playmate of the Month” to lifeguard C.J. Parker on Baywatch. She was the bikini-clad model on every cover, the poster child for “blonde bombshell” stereotypes. Her personal life was… well, tabloid-worthy, having had a whirlwind marriage to Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee. She had a sex tape scandal as well. 

Lee knew that the media’s portrayal of his mother wasn’t accurate. Most of all, it was damaging. As an executive producer on Anderson’s recent projects, including the critically acclaimed The Last Showgirl and her Netflix documentary Pamela, a Love Story, Lee has been a driving force in reintroducing his mom to audiences as an artist and a strong woman. “What Pamela is doing and the opportunities she’s getting right now are just fantastic,” Brandon said in a recent interview with Variety. “It lets you know you’re doing the right things.”

Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl showed us Anderson’s range. She played Shelly, a Vegas Revue dancer approaching the end of her career while dealing with a strained relationship with her estranged daughter.  

Lee, who also served as an executive producer on the film, said he knew immediately that the role was perfect for his mom. “It was such a breath of fresh air,” he said, “and it was something I knew she could deliver on. And it was so timely, and it just seemed like the stars were aligning a bit on it and how it was playing into this arc of where she was in her career. I knew there were so many real-life inspirations she could take into this.”

“My personal mission was to give my mom the opportunities she gave me as a child,” he said. “She would do anything for me. She showed up and was a very good mother. And at a certain point in your life, you become a protector.”

Lee turned down big-money opportunities that leaned into the outdated “Pamela Anderson” caricature because he wanted her to feel proud of her work. “It would’ve been very easy to come up with some sort of scheme to make money off the Pamela people thought they knew,” he explained. “But I really just wanted her to have the opportunity to achieve success in the field she wanted to be in.”

Anderson’s memoir, Love, Pamela, and the Netflix documentary, which Brandon also produced, gave us a glimpse into the star’s unfiltered life. Anderson opened up about everything from her career struggles to her tumultuous personal life.

Brandon noted a noticeable shift in public perception after these projects – especially among women. In the past, Anderson’s image was very much for the male gaze. The Anderson we know now inspires everyone. “The category she was in before, she was just very objectified and very made for the, you know, her whole career was just positioned towards the male gaze,” Lee noted. “And for us to see the shift after we laid all the cards out on the table was shocking to me. I knew at that point that there was going to be this great shift in her career, because she was no longer this misunderstood or threatening personality.”

He continued, “She wasn’t this sex symbol anymore. She was a human being, and I think people were looking at her in a completely new light. And I feel like that kind of reintroduced her to the world. It feels like everyone’s rooting for her.”

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