Pamela Anderson has revealed her bittersweet reaction to watching Mikey Madison’s performance as a sex worker in the Oscar-frontrunner Anora.
Mikey, 25, plays a topless dancer and escort from Brooklyn who spontaneously marries an immature young man named Ivan ‘Vanya’ Zakharov, the son of a Russian oligarch.
The film is filled with nudity and sex scenes, and has been hailed as one of the Oscars’ most raunchiest contenders yet.
However, during Variety’s Actors on Actors special, the Baywatch icon described sex work as being a ‘scary life’ and looked visibly concerned and protective of Mikey when she explained how she felt when seeing it for the first time – which she said was ‘so emotional’ for her.
‘When I saw the movie, you know I didn’t know what to expect,’ Pamela, 57, told Mikey.
‘When I saw it, I thought there was so much sexuality, and nudity, and sex in the film too, and I thought, I just want to grab you out of there and hug you!’ she gasped.
Pamela Anderson has revealed her emotional reaction to watching Mikey Madison’s sex scenes in Anora during an interview with Variety
‘I’ve had friends in [the sex industry] as well, and people who have tried to recover from certain things in their life, and a lot of it does come from trauma and taking your power back, taking your sexuality back, and there are parts of my life where I could really relate to it,’ she added.
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‘But it was so emotional,’ she concluded while also being full of praise for the rising star.
When talking about her racy scenes, Mikey insisted that she was ‘ready’ for the the role of a sex worker.
Speaking about using an intimacy coordinator to help, she said: ‘For our film, it was a choice that I made; the filmmakers offered me, if I wanted, an intimacy coordinator. Mark Eydelshteyn, who plays Ivan, and I decided it would be best to just keep it small.
‘My character is a sex worker, and I had seen Sean’s films and know his dedication to authenticity. I was ready for it. As an actress, I approached it as a job.”
Meanwhile, Pamela is also in the awards race with performance as a Las Vegas dancer in The Last Showgirl.
Mikey revealed that she worked with an intimacy coordinator for the role
Mikey, 25, stunned in the shoot to promote her Oscar-buzzy role
Pammy has become known for her makeup free appearance
Anora, known to her friends as Ani, beguiles Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn), the engagingly puppyish but entirely feckless son of a shady Russian oligarch
Talking about channeling her personal experiences when preparing for her role, she said: ‘I was able to bring a lot of my own personal experience, my long life of dealing with beauty and glamour and aging and reassessing life choices.
‘I got to bring my whole life into this role. I think the past shouldn’t dictate your future. But looking back, I was always creating characters. And I feel like I know I’ve created a few Halloween costumes.
‘But a lot of the things I went through, I didn’t realize my kids were going through them at the same time. Being a working mom and being in this entertainment world and having your mom be sexualized in some way—I didn’t realize how difficult it was.
‘So I’m not ashamed of my life. I’m not ashamed of the choices that I made, even though maybe in hindsight I would’ve done things differently.
‘But you need life experience to know that you would’ve done that differently.’