As soon as the previews started up for Hulu’s Pam & Tommy miniseries, I nope’d out of there. It looked like they were trying to make a comedic story out of a terrible story about how Pamela Anderson was violated. Lily James played Pam and Lily tried to promote the series while side-stepping the issue of the fact that Pam herself wanted no part of the series and did not give producers her blessing whatsoever. Sebastian Stan, who played Tommy Lee, wasn’t under the same pressure to talk about Pam and how she still feels violated. Well, now the series has been Emmy nominated and Sebastian Stan decided to say words about “consent.” Here’s part of what he wrote on his Instagram:
#PAMANDTOMMY is about a crime that took place without Consent. It was a crime on privacy, a crime on love, a crime on family, and a crime that we were ALL a culprit of, as media and audience combined, and it’s now more timely than ever. I hope this can only help continue the conversation we had hoped to bring to light, and that we can remember to re-examine our projections and our salacious attitudes not only towards @pamelaanderson and @tommylee, but also towards ourselves and our exploitation of one another.
“…A crime that we were ALL a culprit of, as media and audience combined…” Like, there was the initial crime and the waves of trauma experienced by Pam as she fought for years to remove the stolen video from all platforms. Then there was the series, which was done without her authorization, consent or blessing, in which her story wasn’t authentically told and which, in fact, was massively exploitative of Pam’s experience. While this issue is a lot bigger than Sebastian Stan – clearly, this series would have been done with or without him – I would absolutely appreciate Sebastian and Lily acknowledging that that they should not have said yes to this.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- Sebastian Stan on the red carpet for the EE British Academy Awards 2022 at Royal Albert Hall in Kensington, London, United Kingdom.,Image: 670966667, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: To licence this image, email info@sidetrack.london for more information., Model Release: no, Credit line: Cat Morley / Avalon
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- LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – March 27: Sebastian Stan Arrivals for the Vanity Fair Oscar Party hosted by Radhika Jones at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Los Angeles, California, on March 27, 2022.,Image: 673638465, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Sebastian Stan, Credit line: Jeffrey Mayer / Avalon
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- Sebastian Stan poses for photographers at Departures from The Mark Hotel to The Metropolitan Museum Costume Institute Gala on May 2, 2022 in New York, New York, USA.,Image: 688679223, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Sebastian Stan, Credit line: Robin Platzer / Twin Images / Avalon
How tone-deaf and an extra slap in the face that he tagged her. It’s not like Pam has been silent about her non-consent to this series. “Let’s talk about consent unless it makes me money and then lol whatever” is what he may as well have said.
File under “How to completely drain yourself of credibility and attractiveness in one tone-deaf offensive dumbass post”.
I can absolutely see why Pam didn’t wan’t the tape brought to the attention of a new generation, but at least the series really made the point that this was a crime against Pam and Tommy, and that the media at the time ignored that.
The show asks big questions and is intelligent and thought provoking, Stan’s performance is really brilliant, so is Lily’s.
Yeah, the show really did show how Pam was a victim in all of this and how awful it was. It was really well done, and Lily James was so good as Pam.
This^^^ I thought the show really brought home how fucked over PA was over the situation.
How about how she still getting f*cked over by having her trauma being used for people entertainment and awards.
Agree. The show was actually really good, and both Stan and James were phenomenal.
It never should be been made. Period. No matter if it made her “look good”. Taking the decision out of her hands and retraumatizing her was not the way to go.
@SilverCharm exactly. Which is why I did the same as Kaiser and refused to watch it (just like I refuse to give money to any movie including Tom Where’sShelly Cruise). I side-eye everyone involved in the making of the movie and frankly, I also side-eye everyone watching it. It was made very public that Pam is opposed to this. People knew, but considered their own entertainment more important than the pain that this women is being subjected too (again).
If you haven’t seen the series I don’t know how you can lambast it. The series was entirely sympathetic to Pam. She was the only redeemable character. Everyone else came off like idiots (even Tommy) and the whole point seemed to be that this gentle person has basically been screwed over by everyone around her. The series is wholly pro Pam. I’m kind of sad Anderson herself didn’t watch it because this made her into a martyr. It was all about the violation of women starting with her. It was like an entire series meant to say I’m sorry this happened to you for her. If anything I came out with a new sense of respect for her as a person. I was only 8 when this happened so I vaguely remember it and I k know how she was portrayed in the media throughout her career so this definitely changed her entire perception for me.
I follow Sebastian on Instagram and am a huge fan of his. However I saw this post and yeah, kind of an awkward post and not sure why he had to tag Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee in it. Movies/TV shows about scandals where the actual people involved don’t give their blessing happen all the time, for better or for worse and I don’t see much difference in this project so I’m not really outraged on anyone’s behalf. I haven’t watched Pam & Tommy because I just didn’t think this was that interesting a story for a mini series. I know this was a huge story when it happened but I was so young and have no recollection of it
I finished watching the series and all I felt was sadness. I was too young when it all happened but my God, the way Pamela was treated! She was consistently betrayed, shamed and berated. The deposition scene was disgusting and mysoginistic. Every single male failed her.
I hope there’s justice one day for the stress and shit she went through.
Rather than jump on the accusing train , I prefer to think that Stan is proud of his work and the series and would really love Pamela Anderson to feel vindicated by it. Like she wasn’t ever in her life.
She, of course, is absolutely entitled to not give a f*ck and consider that she didn’t need to be redeemed.
It’s a conversation between two people whose positions are defendable.
Ya no that’s like saying it’s ok do this was against her wishes and for her trauma to be used as entertainment and for her to go through that pain again.
But Pamela should feel vindicated by it because he’s proud of his work. Her voice doesn’t matter and she should just be ok with it.
Wow Coco! You really said it! 👏
No Sebastian, ‘we’ are not all a culprit in exploiting Pamela. Many people chose to never watch that tape because it was clearly private. *You* chose to watch it for research and you chose to participate in a series that brought the tape back into public consciousness. Twenty decades and change after it hit the internet, long enough Pamela to not be thought of ‘the woman on that tape’. When you take a role playing a real person it can never be all about you. The backlash from his tone deaf Kerrigan joke really didn’t teach him anything.
@aephra and @coco this site really needs an upvote button. I keep saying this. Please consider this comment an upvote of yours.
I can’t get over the fact he tagged her. She has wanted nothing to do with this, has had to watch these people use and exploit her for months, and will have to sit thru more while he campaigns. He’s rubbing her face in it.
Absolutely. That was a very sh!tty move. The irony really hurts here.
Exactly. She didn’t want to be involved, she said so over and over again, Lily James, who never seems to be the brightest bulb in the box kept hassling her to get involved. Why don’t they say ‘ we got paid a lot of money, we didn’t really care what the people involved thought and now we’ve got emmy award noms’ instead of still trying to justify it and tagging Pam especially into Stans self serving comment? Tommy loved being relevant again. Pam was the one who never wanted it shown.
He’s such a douche.
Nobody should have said yes to this project. It’s sad anyone watched this, they’ll come up with more projects if this was a hit. Forcing Pamela and her boys to relive that trauma for this project’s filthy lucre and now awards. Hey, let’s traumatize her again and her sons who put themselves between them in order to shield her. Tommy was a rich white guy and he still was sentenced to 6 months. I don’t want to see another project with Sebastien or Lily, you show your character with your choices.
I’m saddened by women who watch this and think it’s ok because it was so “well done”