Why you should watch Pamela’s new Netflix film

Pamela Anderson was always a bit of an open book in interviews. No one ever told her not to be, or because she talked about some things that she didn’t have to talk about everything. She didn’t know that she could draw her own line in the sand if a question made her feel uncomfortable.

And so she answered all questions about her — partially because she was gracious, partially because her body was, in some ways, her meal ticket and partially because the people asking these questions were more often than not respected journalists working for respected outlets. Pamela, a Love Story, a new documentary from filmmaker Ryan White, gives Anderson the chance to tell her story her own way. She is still that open book, disarmingly funny and candid and uncynical. It’s a captivating watch, especially for those who never thought much about her. Anderson’s life was and is immensely complex. Her parents’ relationship was volatile and sometimes violent. They lived on welfare for a time and she still remembers the taste of the powdered milk. She had a female babysitter who molested her for years. She learnt early to leave her body and make her own little world, she says, and she knew from a young age that she had to get off of that island.

Anderson doesn’t think of herself as a victim. She used her image for a cause she cared about: PETA. She even sat through a roast under the condition that a sizeable donation be made to the organisation. She is a hopeful romantic who’s hard not to root for.

The documentary reminds Anderson is still right here. She’s not some deceased figure who needs to be speculated about or saved by miniseries.