Pamela Anderson says women aren’t ‘just the wild animal between the sheets’ as she fights sex symbol status

Pamela Anderson knows that women can be many things, and despite her sex-symbol past, she’s branching out to discover her new self at 58. 

“I don’t like being a sex symbol, I mean, I think it’s not very sexy,” the “Baywatch” star told Elizabeth Day on her “How to Fail” podcast on Monday. “I think we all aspire to be sexy in our relationships, but sexy for the world is, I don’t know.” 

She said being a sex symbol “brought a lot of attention I didn’t like, but I hate to say that because I’m not complaining, but I do feel that is kind of a slippery slope where you are presenting yourself to the world like this, and you get this attention back that can be even scary at times.”

She said at the age she is now, she wants to have a more natural look.

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Pamela Anderson knows that women can be many things, and despite her sex-symbol past, she’s branching out to discover her new self at 58.  (MEGA/GC Images)

“I want to challenge myself and become and present myself in different ways because women are many things,” she said, adding, “We’re not just the wild animal between the sheets.” 

She said that she’s also found expectations from people in her life “pretty jarring” at times, “but I’m glad I’m in this place now, and looking back I think, ‘Well, I got to be that person, I got to have those experiences and those are all part of me and there’s some places I’ve now compartmentalized my life a little bit more I present myself one way, I can be in a relationship one way I can still be wild and crazy when I want to, but it’s not 24/7.”

“I want to challenge myself and become and present myself in different ways because women are many things. We’re not just the wild animal between the sheets.” 

— Pamela Anderson 

Anderson has been open about her preference to go without makeup, including during public appearances. ( Arnold Jerocki/Getty Images)

The actress, who was nominated for a Golden Globe for 2024’s “The Last Showgirl” and stars with Liam Neeson in the upcoming “Naked Gun” movie, said she was “disappointed” with how her career had previously gone, “thinking I was never really going to be able to reach what I thought would be my full potential. I’ve always been kind of carrying the secret that I could do more, but this business has a funny way about it.”

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Anderson became one of the biggest sex symbols of the 1990s, playing lifeguard C.J. Parker on the hit show “Baywatch.”

Pamela Anderson on ‘Baywatch’, circa 1990. (Kypros/Getty Images)

She said she still struggles with having a connotation of “that girl in the red bathing suit, you know, the marriages, or just the personal part of it” when she hears her name. “So, if I feel that way, I’m sure many people feel that way.”

The “Home Improvement” actress admitted she has trouble shaking that image of herself. 

“It’s been a funny kind of excavation in these last few years as to remember who I am, what are my original thoughts, what are my dreams and desires and how do I go about round two with all the lessons that I learned the first time around and thinking I just don’t want to fall into the same trappings,” she said. 

Anderson seen in New York in May.  (TheStewartofNY/GC Images)

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Anderson, who has recently begun going makeup-free at certain events, added, “Beauty’s subjective and we don’t have to look like the covers of magazines. We don’t have to do the industry standard.”

She said “everyone” was horrified when she decided she didn’t need a “glam team for certain events. You know, I’d rather go look at architecture at a museum when I was in Paris. I thought who’s looking at me? … Is anyone really going to fall over backwards if I’m not wearing makeup?”

The 58-year-old added, “Why am I sitting in a makeup chair for three hours when I’m not trying to be the prettiest girl in the room?”

Pamela Anderson in 1992.  (Eddie Sanderson/Getty Images)

She also doesn’t want to “chase youth.” 

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“That’s just been fed to us to look as young as we can as long as we possibly can and I don’t know, I think it gets more interesting,” she said.