The backstage of "Pam & Tommy": the details of the story that inspired the series by Pamela Anderson, Tommy Lee and the leaked sex tape

Lily James and Sebastian Stan will play former couple Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee in the new Hulu series. The actors will play the married couple (divorced in 1998) in the most difficult moment of their lives: the leak of their sex tape.

Lee is the drummer for Motley Crüe, and Anderson was the lead actress on the series Baywatch, which had been on the air since 1989. Tommy wasn't at the peak of his career, as the band had their hit with Dr. Feelgood in the 1980s and in the 90s he was trying to survive the crushing grunge genre.

They went out for four days and on February 19, 1995 they celebrated their marriage in Cancun. During their honeymoon, the newlyweds filmed the sex tape that would later be leaked.

Although it is a series, it is divided into three parts: how the tape got into the hands of a vengeful worker; the love story of two celebrities; and a social critique of the media and the judicial system that failed Anderson.

“It's an important story, I think, to understand what the impact of that media tornado really was,” Stan told Variety. “For them as a couple but particularly for her as a woman. I can't imagine what it's like to have a private home video stolen: how that wouldn't affect a newlywed couple."

Directing is Craig Gillespie, who has experience telling biographical stories related to tabloids and the distortion of public images, such as I, Tonya.

“I had the same preconceived notions that I think a lot of audience members will have, that they were, well, involved in some way, right?” the director said of the leaked video.

Behind the VHS

The story is based on the Rolling Stone magazine article (2014) by Amanda Chicago Lewis, who wrote how VHS came into the hands of Rand Gauthier (played by Seth Rogen in the series).

Gauthier was an electrician at Lee's Malibu property until he fired him and his team without pay. With the drummer denying the ex-workers entry to retrieve his tools, Rand devised a plan to rob Lee's safe. There was the sex tape on a VHS.

Because he had experience in the porn industry, he contacted his friend and porn producer Milton “Uncle Miltie” Ingley (Nick Offerman). They searched for some buyers on the insider World Wide Web, but were not very successful.

They eventually contacted Louis “Butchie” Peraino (played by Andrew Dice Clay) for seed money. But things turned out even worse: Rand never received the wealth he expected, and Peraino lost his capital. People started home recording and distributing it with their own hands.

“I wanted to play Rand as someone who has very little on her mind. Someone whose evil deeds are ultimately not due to some amazing, deep thought process, but rather a complete lack of thought and concern about how their actions would affect other people," Seth Rogen told Variety.

The marriage video is the first leaked celebrity sex tape and revolutionized the porn industry. Other celebrities later followed suit, such as Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian. Only this was without the consent of any of them.

Meticulous work

The Pam & Tommy had a very clear vision about the series and that is that they did not want to make a story that would ridicule the image of Pamela Anderson. At the same time, they wanted the actors to rescue the essence of the main characters as much as possible.

Lily James had to study Pamela Anderson perfectly. “She talks so fast, and I would watch her interviews over and over and write them down, learn them, and parrot them.” “I wanted to capture that energy, that impulsiveness, and that spirit that he has when he's on camera,” James said.

Stan, for his part, comes from Marvel's “Falcon and Winter Soldier”, a role totally unrelated to the one in this series. The actor watched the rocker's interviews on YouTube, read the autobiography "Tommyland" and also the Mötley Crüe book "The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band."

Outside of reading Stan also took drum lessons to imitate the characteristic movements of the drumsticks.

But without a doubt, the cast praised the wardrobe and makeup team for their painstaking work on the actors' looks. They perfectly emulated the drummer's tattoos and Pamela's makeup in those years.

“I was blown away,” Stan told the magazine. “The hair and makeup team deserves all the praise they can get,” he added.

The series about the crazy lives of Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson will premiere on February 2 and can be seen on Star+.

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