Connect with Deadline online!
https://www.facebook.com/deadline/
https://twitter.com/DEADLINE
https://www.instagram.com/deadline/
https://www.facebook.com/deadline/
https://twitter.com/DEADLINE
https://www.instagram.com/deadline/
Category
š¹
FunTranscript
00:00Alright, next up we have The Last Showgirl from Roadside Attractions, directed by Gia
00:14Coppola. At the Toronto premiere for this film, the audience were cheering for Pamela
00:21Anderson during the screening. It's that impressive and inspiring. Pamela plays Shelley, a Vegas
00:29showgirl whose long-running show has closed, and she has to face what's left for her without
00:35the dancing job she loves so much. Jamie Lee Curtis plays her cocktail waitress friend
00:41Annette, Dave Bautista is the show manager, Kiernan Shipka and Brenda Song play fellow
00:48showgirls. Now, please welcome to the stage, director Gia Coppola and Pamela Anderson.
01:07Before we start talking about the film, let's roll a clip.
01:10You know, you should have told me a hundred years ago to quit this stupid bullshit!
01:16You saw it happening! You saw me losing Hannah, you didn't even say anything, you were there!
01:21We didn't know what was going on! We didn't know what was going on with Gia!
01:25Yes, you did! You and Jodi want me to be your mother, but I already have a daughter, I have one!
01:30No, Shel, look, we love you!
01:32I don't love you! I don't care! I don't care, look what I have to show for the last 30 years of my life!
01:39I don't even get to keep a piece of my costume!
01:43Shel, where are you going?
01:45And I don't have to tell you!
01:47The only reason I can drive, Shel, you shouldn't be driving!
01:49I'm not going home!
01:56So, you guys almost didn't meet each other. This almost didn't happen the way we see it.
02:03Because, Gia, you had seen Pamela's documentary, and you sent the script to Pamela's then-agent.
02:13And then, that agent passed on that script without telling Pamela.
02:22So, Gia, just tell us what happened next.
02:26I got turned down within an hour, so that's like record time.
02:32Which meant, I mean, in a way it was a blessing, because then I knew that she didn't read it,
02:38and that I had to find an alternative route to get to her.
02:43I saw that her son was an executive producer on the documentary, so I had to find,
02:49I just asked anyone and everyone, how can I meet Brandon?
02:53And he's very protective of his mother, for right reasons.
02:57And I pitched the movie to him, and he read it, and he was like, great news, she loved the script,
03:02she wants to talk to you.
03:04And it was a really exciting call.
03:06I was so excited and nervous, and then she was so excited and selling herself to me,
03:10but I was like, but I'm selling myself to you, you have the role!
03:17Pamela, you told me a little bit before about that conversation,
03:21that you just had this really strange discussion, as Gia said,
03:26where you're like, but I can do this, and she's like, yes, I know.
03:32But at the Toronto premiere, I remember you saying afterwards on the stage,
03:37I've been preparing for this role my entire life.
03:41What can you tell us about how you felt saying that in that moment,
03:45and why you feel that way?
03:49Well, I do feel like I couldn't have played this character
03:53if I didn't have the life that I've had, and that I had to draw from.
03:58So I just thought, you know what?
04:00It was all worth it, if I can do something like this,
04:03and be able to express myself in a piece like this.
04:08Yeah, so that's what it felt like.
04:10It was such a relief to do a film, and to be able to do a real film.
04:15I mean, this is the first script I ever read that was a good one,
04:19that no one was giving me scripts like this.
04:21And so I just felt, and also Gia was so decisive in her thinking,
04:26and saying, no, I know you can do this.
04:28Because I kept going, you know I can do this.
04:30And she goes, no, I know you can do this.
04:32This is why I've been looking for you.
04:34And I really believe that you're my Shelley.
04:36So I just poured everything I could into it,
04:39because I thought, what if this is the only film I ever get to do?
04:43I've trained in the past, and I've took everything that I've learned,
04:48and I put it into this film, just as an experiment.
04:51So I'm glad it resonated, and I'm glad we trusted each other,
04:54and we worked really hard, and people are responding to it.
05:05Gia, I believe I'm right in thinking that you had had
05:08this kind of lifelong fascination with Vegas.
05:13And that you connected with Kate Gersten, who wrote the script.
05:17And she was working on this story of showgirls,
05:19and was very immersed in a particular show in Vegas,
05:23and had kind of spent time with the women.
05:26Tell us why you envisaged this as the subject of this film.
05:34Well, during college, I went to college in upstate New York,
05:37and I would drive cross-country to get to school,
05:40and I'd stop in Vegas and just be really fascinated
05:44with what day-to-day life must be like there.
05:47Who are the people that make this world of illusion come to life?
05:53In fact, what happened is, my boyfriend at the time,
05:56he got pick-pocketed, which led us to the police canals
06:01behind the casinos, and I saw, like, employee of the month.
06:04And I was like, wow, that's so interesting.
06:08And I loved journalists like Dave Hickey,
06:11and people, and photos of Vegas.
06:13So that always really stayed with me,
06:15just this very visually interesting city
06:19that felt so much of a metaphor for America in a lot of ways.
06:24And Kate also has a deep fascination for Vegas,
06:29and she wrote this play ten years ago,
06:32observing the final years of the show, Jubilee.
06:36And I was just really struck with the play,
06:41because I was so interested to get to know
06:44what the world of showgirls was.
06:47I wasn't familiar with it yet.
06:49It's this icon of Las Vegas. It's everywhere.
06:52And these shows were so beautiful,
06:54and the production value of these shows just don't exist anymore.
06:57And so much of the kind of underlining theme
07:02was how our culture just discards so effortlessly.
07:06And even the landscape in Las Vegas,
07:08the Tropicana is being demolished, and now the Sphere.
07:11And it's just so much of this analog versus the digital
07:14that I think all of us can relate to
07:16in whatever industry we're in.
07:18But then it also had this heart of a mother-daughter story,
07:22which I really related to,
07:24because I was raised by a single mother,
07:26and then I also became a mother.
07:29And I relate to the story of the family
07:31that you create in your work environment.
07:33And so I just felt like it was a very beautiful story,
07:35and because it was a play,
07:37it allowed me to make a movie in an intimate way,
07:40which I was really craving to do,
07:42to make a movie like Cassavetes
07:45and have my creative autonomy.
07:48We shot this 16mm, and I...
07:52Yeah.
07:55And it was a mad dash.
07:57We made it in 18 days, and I...
08:00And again, because this was an intimate movie,
08:03I got to demand certain things,
08:05like I want just a little tiny clamshell monitor,
08:08and that's no playback,
08:10no Video Village or other monitors.
08:12It's just me.
08:16It truly is a Gia Coppola film.
08:19Pamela, I know you spent time with some showgirls.
08:22You had them over for tea.
08:24What did you learn that really helped you be Shelley?
08:30Well, there's some obvious parallels
08:32between me and Shelley,
08:34but that was just the jumping-off point.
08:36I really wanted to meet some of the dancers from the Jubilee.
08:39I had them over for tea.
08:41We talked about showgirls' do's and don'ts,
08:43and we talked...
08:45We did the showgirl walk.
08:47We just talked story,
08:49and really the pride and the joy of being a showgirl
08:53and how important that is
08:55and how different it is than, say, burlesque or anything else
08:59and how, you know, Kate tells the story
09:02of when she went to the final days of Jubilee or the final months
09:06and how there was 85 women on stage,
09:0845 crew members, and 15 people in the audience,
09:11which is heartbreaking.
09:13Which is heartbreaking in itself.
09:16And I just wanted to explore
09:20who were holding up these rhinestones
09:23in these 50- to 60-, 70-pound costumes and headdresses
09:27that every woman is a movie,
09:29every, you know, from...
09:31And I love the backstage banter.
09:33I just came off of Broadway playing Roxy in Chicago,
09:36and I heard everybody backstage saying,
09:38What am I going to have for dinner?
09:40What am I going to make for dinner?
09:42My son did this, and I was just like,
09:44When's my cue? I haven't done this for 18 years.
09:47So everyone's... Then they hear their cue,
09:49and boom, they're on stage, and then they go offstage,
09:52and they start talking about dinner again
09:54and start talking about, you know,
09:56so-and-so did this, and it's just...
09:58So I was really struck by that,
10:00and so it was just really amazing to play that
10:02and to put that into this role,
10:04which there's a choreography that goes
10:06even with these quick changes
10:08and taking off these headpieces and bangles
10:10and gloves and then the top piece
10:12and then switch, you know, quick changing
10:14and holding all these discussions
10:16and doing it multiple times in the same order.
10:18It was a very small...
10:20We were using the real backstage,
10:22and we had to be out of there in a certain time
10:24because there was another show coming in.
10:26So we were just...
10:28You know, it was challenging, I'm sure, for you.
10:30I was just trying to get my rhinestones together.
10:33But, you know, it was like doing a play,
10:36and it was choreography,
10:38which I really respond to musical theater.
10:40I love theater and musicals,
10:42and it was a musical element to this movie
10:44that helped carry it through
10:46because we were shooting...
10:48We shot in 18 days, so we were shooting,
10:50you know, multiple pages a day
10:52and multiple scenes,
10:54and you did such a great job
10:56in kind of doing my Jamie scenes first
10:58and Dave Bautista scenes second
11:00and the girl scenes next and then all of our scenes.
11:02It was just really well organized,
11:04and I was able to bond with each of those characters,
11:06plus I didn't really have anything else
11:08to compare this to.
11:10I was just, you know, doping headfirst.
11:12I love that.
11:14APPLAUSE
11:18Pamela, you told me
11:20that in the script,
11:22there's a scene,
11:24and this was a scene
11:26in the introduction to this panel
11:28I talked about how at Toronto
11:30people cheered in the film,
11:32and the scene that led to that
11:34is you're standing on a stage,
11:36your show is closed,
11:38you're auditioning
11:40for Jason Schwartzman's character,
11:42the director,
11:44and he's sitting in the seats
11:46in the spotlight,
11:48and he says,
11:50what you were selling was young and sexy.
11:52You aren't either anymore.
11:54And in the script,
11:56you were to say,
11:58I'm 50 and beautiful,
12:00and in that moment,
12:02as a woman,
12:04you told me that you had decided,
12:06oh no, I'm going to say my real age.
12:08I'm 57 and beautiful,
12:10you son of a bitch.
12:12And everyone cheered.
12:14APPLAUSE
12:18I'll just say one thing.
12:20When he said,
12:22you were young and beautiful,
12:24in my mind I was saying,
12:26yeah, I'm more than that.
12:28APPLAUSE
12:30What I was really curious about,
12:32as well as the conversation
12:34between the two of you about things like that,
12:36about in the moment,
12:38you feeling that way and saying it,
12:40you're on a really tight schedule,
12:42and so there's so much trust,
12:44because you just went ahead and were like,
12:46I'm going to lean into that.
12:48And you have the kind of flexibility
12:50to be like, I trust you to do
12:52what you feel is right in the moment.
12:54So that's like
12:56an amazing relationship that you two had.
12:58Did you talk about
13:00that decision afterwards?
13:04I was just,
13:06after she said it, I was like,
13:08are you really 57?
13:10And you were like, yeah.
13:12And I was like, wow, you're amazing.
13:14LAUGHTER
13:16Another thing that I remember
13:18from the premiere
13:20is Jamie Lee Curtis crying.
13:22Because you had made everyone wait.
13:24You didn't let them see it
13:26until the premiere.
13:28So the cast come up on stage with you
13:30and everyone's just crying.
13:32Jamie Lee Curtis is saying,
13:34you know,
13:36myself, I've been
13:38victimised by
13:40the industry discarding me
13:42at a certain point, or trying to discard me.
13:44And then Billie Lord, who plays your daughter,
13:46was crying because the film
13:48had helped her understand
13:50her mother,
13:52which was extraordinary.
13:54Tell me what some of the best
13:56feedback both of you have had
13:58from people that have seen the film.
14:02Yeah, I mean, it was a
14:04really amazing experience to watch it
14:06with the cast, and having that reaction
14:08was really
14:10fulfilling.
14:12And just having
14:14other people come up to us
14:16and say, you know, I'm
14:18a working mum, and I hope my daughter
14:20will see this one day, or my child
14:22will see this one day.
14:24But also for me, I mean, it's
14:26exciting when it inspires
14:28the next generation of filmmakers, and
14:30for them to feel like you can be
14:32a little film with a big message.
14:34And it's
14:36extra, extra exciting
14:38for Pamela to get her long-deserved
14:40accolades.
14:50Pamela, what would you say
14:52has been the impact of making
14:54this film on your life?
14:56I feel
14:58like I can breathe now.
15:00I feel like I've been carrying this secret
15:02along since I was a little
15:04girl. I mean, when I,
15:06I don't know, I just felt
15:08like this was, I needed
15:10to do this for my soul, I needed to do this.
15:12I wanted to know what I was made of.
15:14I'm still looking, because I feel like
15:16I hope this is just the tip of the iceberg.
15:18I feel like I've just begun.
15:20And I'm still processing
15:22it all, but it's just
15:24been such an incredible experience
15:26to feel rooted for, and to be,
15:28and to have people feel what I feel,
15:30what we were portraying on screen, to have people
15:32come up and say,
15:34you know, I really wanted, I was so happy to see this
15:36with my mother, you know, because now I can have that,
15:38I had that conversation with her.
15:40And I think that that's the
15:42beauty of doing these things,
15:44and expressing yourself,
15:46because it is,
15:48it's so relatable on so many different
15:50levels. I felt like I got to know myself
15:52too, in this film, and I was
15:54thinking about all of the
15:56similarities, but just the challenges, and
15:58being able to really dive into those
16:00pieces of my life that
16:02were, you know, disappointments, or
16:04whatever it was, and bring that to the character, and
16:06kind of grow with the character. So, it was
16:08cathartic in many ways, and
16:10also just great to be able to perform,
16:12and to be able to, this is what
16:14I love to do, and so I'm so happy, even though
16:16I love making pickles, and jams
16:18in my garden, that can wait.
16:22Well, congratulations,
16:24this is a wonderful film,
16:26thank you so much for being here to talk
16:28about The Last Showgirl. Thank you.
16:30Thank you so much.