Pamela Anderson beamed as she transformed into a faded Las Vegas performer in the gripping first trailer for The Last Showgirl.
The Baywatch star, 57, who has received the best reviews of her career for the Gia Coppola-directed film, stars as Shelly, a glamorous aging showgirl who must make plans for her future when her show abruptly closes after a run of 30 years.
The trailer opens with Shelly dressed in her showgirl sequined finery as manager and ex-lover Eddie (Dave Bautista) says, “Please take your seats for the final performance of the Razzle Dazzle.”
A tearful Shelly forces a smile as the curtain rises.
Offstage, Shelly reflects on her career and says, “Las Vegas treated us like movie stars, the costumes like the sets, we were ambassadors for style and grace, the Las Vegas showgirl, the iconic American showgirl.”
Pamela Anderson beamed as she transformed into a faded Las Vegas performer in the gripping first trailer for The Last Showgirl
The Baywatch star, 57, who has received the best reviews of her career for the Gia Coppola-directed film, stars as Shelly, a glamorous aging showgirl who must make plans for her future when her show abruptly closes after a run of 30 years.
Shelly chats with her waitress and former showgirl best friend Annette (Jamie Lee Curtis) and spends time with her daughter Hannah (Billie Lourd).
Shelley starts looking for new work and during an audition is asked: ‘Have you prepared an act?’ to which she replies, “Yes, I’m a dancer.”
She reflects: ‘Feeling seen, feeling beautiful, that is powerful and I can’t imagine my life without it.
‘Doing a job you don’t really love, that’s hard’ – before the scene ends with Shelly surrounded by dancers on stage as a new Miley Cyrus song called Beautiful That Way plays.
Initially released on September 6, The Last Showgirl also stars Kiernan Shipka, Brenda Song and Jason Schwartzman.
The film will have a limited release in LA on December 13 as a qualifying round and will premiere nationally on January 10, 2025.
Anderson has fueled speculation that she will land a Best Actress Oscar nomination for the role, with Curtis’ performance hailed as a “force of nature” by Variety critic Peter Debruge.
Deadline Pete Hammond said: “Anderson is remarkable in this role, which suits her own natural optimism but also gives her the opportunity to lay bare her emotions. She will break your heart.
Jamie Lee Curtis plays Shelly’s waitress and former showgirl best friend Annette
The trailer opens with Shelly dressed in her showgirl sequined finery as manager and ex-lover Eddie (Dave Bautista) says, “Please take your seats for the final performance of the Razzle Dazzle.”
A tearful Shelly forces a smile as the curtain rises
Off stage, Shelly reflects on her career and says: ‘Las Vegas always treated us like movie stars, the costumes the sets, we were ambassadors for style and grace, the Las Vegas showgirl, the iconic American showgirl’
Shelley starts looking for new work and during an audition is asked: ‘Have you prepared an act?’ to which she responds: ‘Yes, I am a dancer’
Shelly reflects on the end of her three-decade career
She reflects: ‘Feeling seen, feeling beautiful, that’s powerful and I can’t imagine life without it’
Kiernan Shipka and Brenda Song play two showgirl colleagues
Shipka and Song play Jodie and Marianne in the film
“I’ve always thought she was an underrated comedic actress, especially based on her short-lived 2005 sitcom Stacked, but the dramatic chops haven’t been there before, especially on this scale. And she’s all in here. Curtis steals every scene she has with wicked humor.”
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has 81% of 52 critic reviews as positive.
Anderson last appeared on screen in the 2017 film adaptation of Baywatch, in which she briefly reprized her iconic role of CJ Parker.
When Anderson got her hands on Kate Gersten’s script, she said she was immediately drawn to the character, who takes her art form very seriously despite everyone reducing her to a sexual object.
“I’ve never read a script that had me reacting like that; no one sent me anything like that,” she said. ‘I read it and thought: I have to do this. It’s life or death. It’s very important.’
At the film’s premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, she said she had been “preparing for this role my whole life.”
“Having a beautiful, messy life is an incredible thing to draw from, and sometimes I look back on my life and think, I could have done this differently, but it takes the life experience to be able to look back and see those things to be able to say. she said.
“I really love the acting profession and I took a lot of private lessons, and ultimately I felt like this was an opportunity for me to put that into practice,” she added.
Anderson added that she was able to focus “a thousand percent” on the project since she is single and her two sons are grown.
Anderson was pictured last week with writer Kate Gersten, Song and Coppola
‘I have nothing to lose. And what if this is the last movie I ever make, or the only movie I ever make?’
She said she saw the role as an opportunity to “see what I’m made of.”
“I knew I was capable of more than I had in the past, and I had kind of given up and went home and thought, ‘Oh, it’s too bad. I screwed up.’ I didn’t work hard enough, or people just see me a certain way because I fell into the traps,” she said.
‘I want to be defined by what I do and not by what has been done to me.’