CMU School of Drama


Friday, February 18, 2022

How Pam & Tommy Recreated Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee’s Iconic Looks

IndieWire: Though “Pam & Tommy” may take some creative license in telling its story, the recreation of Tommy Lee (Sebastian Stan) and Pamela Anderson (Lily James) at the height of their fame/infamy is unimpeachable. More than any of the needle drops or the script’s wide-eyed wonderment at VHS and the internet, it is the work of the hair and makeup teams that bring the entire era to life.

2 comments:

Maureen Pace said...

This was so interesting!! As a Marvel fan, it was kind of hard to miss Sebastian Stan playing Tommy Lee– social media has been flooded with content about the new show. Lily James and Stan look phenomenal in every clip or photo I’ve seen from the set/show, so I was immediately intrigued by this article when I came across it this morning. It’s super interesting to hear about how meticulous and detailed the hair, makeup, and costume department had to be to get this right. And, I loved learning about how they came up with Pam’s hair on James: they had to adjust the length to fit James' body, making the proportions identical to Pamela’s. For Stan, he had to have tattoos applied every morning (I can’t imagine how long that took), and just those being accurate helped recreate Tommy so well, I think they did a great job.

Andrew Morris said...

Okay, first off, I have to say that Hulu really finessed this show. I decided to start watching it last week and was really drawn in because of the complete absurdity of the story of Pamala Anderson and Tommy Lee’s sex tape which was stolen and released online. I was so excited to see one of my favorite producer actor comedians Seth Rogen take up a more serious role in the show as the carpenter who steals the sex tape. The costume and production design for this tv drama really knocked it out of the park, especially given the fact that not a lot of time pieces have been made for the 90’s which was pretty recent. All of the characters of the show get amazing hair styles that are really indicative and iconic of their characters, from Pamela Andersons golden Bay Watch hairdo to Tommy Lee’s Motley Crue grunge black hair. The makeup teams really highlight Andersons iconic 90’s looks which is so incredible. The article talks about how Tommy’s character had to apply temporary tattoos every morning and had to be specific to what Tommy Lees tattoos look like. This level of attention to detail was definitely evident in the final product of the show.