“I find her to be a very interesting human being,” director Gia Coppola told said of Pamela Anderson

From L: Pamela Anderson in The Last Showgirl (2024); Marilyn Monroe circa 1954. Photo: Zoey Grossman; Hulton Archive/Getty

Pamela Anderson has shades of another Hollywood “it girl” that came before her, according to The Last Showgirl director Gia Coppola.

“She is the Marilyn [Monroe] of our time,’ ” Coppola said of Anderson, 57, in a conversation with Entertainment Weekly published Friday, Nov. 8, revealing that she came to the realization while watching the star’s 2023 documentary Pamela, a Love Story.

Coppola, 37, went on to praise Anderson as “very intelligent” and an “interesting human being” while noting her “art background, and I could see she was a woman that was really craving to express herself as an actress creatively.”

“I saw a lot of parallels with [her character] Shelly, but I also saw this was a person that was really hungry to show her talents,” the director added, recalling of considering who would play Shelly, “It was all these actresses from the past I would dream about: ‘Wouldn’t this be an interesting role for Marilyn Monroe?’ “

Pamela Anderson in The Last Showgirl (2024).Roadside Attractions/Courtesy Everett Collection

Anderson was first announced as leading The Last Showgirl — which also stars Jamie Lee Curtis, Dave Bautista, Brenda Song, Kiernan Shipka, Billie Lourd and Jason Schwartzman — back in February. The movie was written by Kate Gersten, and marks Anderson’s first film role since 2022.

The Last Showgirl follows a seasoned performer in her 50s (Anderson) whose Las Vegas show abruptly closes after a 30-year run.

She begins to struggle with what her future holds, all while she attempts to repair her relationship with her daughter, played by Lourd, 32.

It was “the first time I had seen myself up on a big screen doing a movie,” Anderson told EW, calling the experience of seeing The Last Showgirl in a theater “so hard.”

But even so, “I feel like this is what I’m meant to do, so I hope to get to do more,” she added. “I feel like this is just the beginning of my career.”

Pamela Anderson at the premiere of The Last Showgirl during the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 6, 2024.Kayla Oaddams/Getty

During a post-screening Q&A at The Last Showgirl‘s premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival back in September, Anderson said she believes she has “been getting ready my whole life for this role.”

The Baywatch alum jokingly said it was the first time she’d ever been given a script that was “coherent,” and she realized she was the “only one who could do this.”

“I’ve never felt that strongly about something,” Anderson continued. “So after that, I thought, ‘You know what, I have nothing to lose. I’m just gonna do it, just be it.’ “