Hulu's wild new series Pam & Tommy has officially premiered, telling the story of the tumultuous marriage of actress and model Pamela Anderson (played by Cinderella and Mama Mia! Here We Go Again's Lily James) and Tommy Lee (Marvel star Sebastian Stan), and the role the media's sexism and misogyny played in one of the internet's earliest celebrity sex tape scandals.
Out got the chance to speak to Pam & Tommy's stars Sebastian Stan, Lily James, and out Orange Is the New Black alum Taylor Schilling about the show, and what has changed since Anderson and Lee's tape first leaked back in 1995.
"I think it was the reason that was worth relooking at this story, to tell it through our lens now," James told Out when asked about bringing Anderson's story to life, and the tragedy of having a private, intimate moment brought to the attention of the media without her consent. "In this way, we sort of are looking back at different events from that time in the '90s and before and reframing what happened, and looking at our own culpability, and trying to learn, and do better, and grow from that. The media are the media, and they do what they do, but when you look at this story from the headlines, it's completely misleading. It felt very timely."
"I really am so excited about the retelling of Pam Anderson's experience. We need the conversation to be updated," Schilling, who plays queer adult actress Erica Gauthier, added about what excited her the most about joining Pam & Tommy and getting to share Anderson's story with viewers. "Like so many conversations I guess, but this one specifically, the saga of Pam is a really interesting microcosm of a much more macro thing that happens to a lot of women. And I just loved it. It felt like it was just an ode to her bravery and her courage in the face of much misogyny."
The first three episodes of Pam & Tommynow streaming on Hulu, with the new episodes dropping weekly.
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