What kind of creep licks someone’s face before even introducing himself? Follows someone he barely knows to Cancún? Calls every hotel in the area because he doesn’t know where she’s staying? Tommy Lee, that’s who. Hulu’s new eight-episode series “Pam and Tommy” dives into the dramatic, enigmatic relationship between ‘90s Hollywood “it” couple Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee. The show details the leak of their controversial sex tape and the intricacies of Anderson and Lee’s relationship. The whole series cascades into a crescendo viewers might think is too outlandish to be true. But the kicker is, “Pam and Tommy” is almost entirely real.
The story starts with Rand Gauthier. Seth Rogan dons a mullet and a wife-beater to slip into the role of Gauthier, the disgruntled carpenter who stole Anderson and Lee’s safe. According to “Pam and Tommy,” Gauthier was working on Lee’s property when Lee decided to fire him (without paying). Lee even takes his tools as collateral for all the damage Gauthier allegedly did to his property. This is when Gauthier decides to take revenge by breaking into Lee’s property and stealing the safe that contained guns, jewels and the sex tape.
The drama of “Pam and Tommy” doesn’t end off the screen. Anderson will “never, never watch [the show],” according to Entertainment News, and refused to talk to the cast both before and after the production. The show rehashes Anderson’s trauma, commercializing something she thought was private and broadcasting it to the entire world… again. While Hulu didn’t need Anderson’s blessing to film, it feels disrespectful that they created such a personal story without her permission. Anderson and Lee spent so much time trying to get away from nosy paparazzi and interviewers during this stressful period of their lives. Having a miniseries made about that is the ultimate invasion of privacy.
Despite the unsavory terms “Pam and Tommy” was filmed on, Lily James and Sebastian Stan captured Anderson and Lee with utmost respect. “Sebastian and I felt like custodians of our characters and really wanted to do right by them and respect them,” James said in an interview with TV Line. “They’re real people, and that was always at the forefront of our minds.” Both James and Stan went through drastic changes to fulfill their roles, studying mannerisms and accents through old TV shows.
Physical changes were also required for the roles of Anderson and Lee. James spent hours in the prosthetics chair each morning and even had to shave her eyebrows to get Anderson’s iconic pencil-thin brow look. Stan donned all of Lee’s iconic tattoos and wore a set of steel balls to get used to Lee’s “large endowment.” He completed the Motley Crue’s drummer’s look with a black thong he wears for most of the first episode.
Instead of painting either Gauthier, the sex tape thief, or Lee, the rich celebrity jerk, as the bad guy, “Pam and Tommy” offers its audience all of the complexities and nuances to make their own decisions. It’s easy to see the real victim of the situation is Anderson, whose career and image suffered the most from the tape. In an extremely well-done scene, Anderson snaps at her husband after he says the tape “[i]sn’t exactly anything people haven’t seen before.” The show offers thought into the double-standard women were, and still are, held to when it comes to sex. Lee is the cool guy, and Anderson is the floozy.
I would have felt differently about watching “Pam and Tommy” if I knew Anderson’s opinion on the show before I put it on. It’s easy to laugh at the outrageous plot and characters that feel too large for life. But beneath the surface-level humor, viewers can see the outright invasion of privacy Anderson and Lee suffered. Both Stan and James were compelling, making the show enigmatic to watch. The snappy editing, ‘90s nostalgia and catchy soundtrack make “Pam and Tommy” easy to watch. But while watching, consider what Anderson and Lee went through, and the real-life consequences of the tape.
