Pamela Anderson on Going Makeup-Free: ‘I Just Want to Be Me’

Pamela Anderson didn’t think anyone would notice her makeup-free transformation.

While speaking to Entertainment Tonight on the promotional circuit of her new film, The Last Showgirl, the iconic actress was asked about leaning into her authenticity when she’s away from the cameras.

“This whole peeling it back was kind of how I just started,” said Anderson, 57, about going makeup-free. “I just wanted to remember who I was. I mean, I've been playing characters my whole life. I want to play characters in movies, not in my personal life. I just want to be me.”

“So this is an experiment. It's just something I felt drawn to do. I didn't even know anyone would notice,” she added.

The Baywatch actress said in an October episode of the Drew Barrymore Show that her journey to going makeup-free began while attending Paris Fashion Week.

“I decided I was just going to a fashion show, I didn't need to compete with anybody,” she said at the 5:41 mark here. “Like, why am I wasting three hours in a makeup chair when I have these beautiful Vivienne Westwood clothes on and like, I didn't realize anyone would even notice.”

“I don't want people to think of me as all those cartoon characters I kind of created for protection, that's what I think I did it for looking back. But this is the best time in my life. I feel so empowered and so free and so excited about life again,” she added.

The Last Showgirl starring Pamela Anderson and Jamie Lee Curtis hits theaters Dec. 13.