Tuesday night at the Gotham Awards, Pamela Anderson ascended onto the red carpet in a strapless champagne-hued satin gown by Oscar de la Renta. As the "Baywatch" actress turned towards the wall of photographers, an oversized bow could be seen poking from the back of her dress. But the major accessory was her fresh face, made up with the bare minimum.
Pamela Anderson did her last celebrity glam gesture more than a year ago. The one-time queen of smokey cat-eyes and a fierce line of lips made headlines in 2023 when she turned up at Paris Fashion Week with but a dab of moisturizer. She said she didn't want her traditional glam to steal the show and is planning to go barefaced for the Isabel Marant show, while there was a more important point too. "I know I wasn't making strident steps towards world peace, but I was making a statement. He was asking in one of his interviews with Vogue in October 2023: "In this day and time, do we even know what a face looks like anymore? This is it."
Since then, Anderson has become something of an innovator for the no- or barely-there makeup look, even fronting magazine covers, appearing on talk shows, and, yes, even winning awards this week for the Outstanding Lead Performance for her role in Gia Coppola's much-anticipated film, "The Last Showgirl."
After all, a year later, it seems that Anderson has indeed changed her aesthetic for good. At 57, while most of her contemporaries would be cowed into presenting a certain polished image of themselves, Anderson, instead, is paving her own trail. "Isn't that freeing?" Anderson asked Drew Barrymore as the pair chatted on the actor's talk show back in October. "I feel so free." The segment also featured Barrymore and guest Valerie Bertinelli removing their make-up onstage. "We all are our own worst critics," added Anderson.
But this isn't the first beauty discussion or 'makeup-ffree' routine she's established because she has no qualms about doing so. From being centerfold glamour models to TV's leading prime-time performers, Anderson, according to external appearances, carries both her craft and fair play public commentary. Her reducing down-the-line types of radical decisions is similar to her current choice dynamic: stripping.