Lily James took a long time to accept Pamela Anderson didn't want to speak to her about the TV show Pam & Tommy.
The British actress portrays the Baywatch star in the Hulu miniseries which chronicled her marriage to Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee and the period in which their unauthorised sex tape was made public in the mid-'90s.
Lily reached out to Pamela in the run-up to the production, however, the blonde bombshell refused to return her calls.
"That was really difficult, honestly, particularly given what the show is about (a reframing of Pamela's story to expose the misogyny she endured)," she said during a Drama Actress Roundtable for The Hollywood Reporter. "And I really, truly believed she would be involved, and once (I recognised that she) wasn't, I battled a lot with everything about the show, from the challenge as an actor to what I was trying to say and my reasons, personally, for why I wanted to explore the things within it. It felt deeply personal, and I think that's why I became fiercely protective."
Lily went on to note that the producers of Pam & Tommy, including Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, were receptive to her ideas for the portrayal.
And the experience made her realise that she wants to do more behind the scenes work in the future.
"I can't just stop thinking about a project and go, 'OK, next job.' I'm still itching to know how it's taking shape. But yeah, on some shows, actors say it's actually great not to have the person involved because you want your imagination to skyrocket and you don't want someone necessarily breathing down your neck. Like, you want to do them justice, but you also want to be free. But I wish it had been different," the star added.
Pam & Tommy aired on Hulu earlier this year.
