Sebastian Stan is channeling his inner rockstar as Tommy Lee for Hulu’s upcoming show Pam & Tommy. Playing opposite Lily James as Pamela Anderson, Stan will play the unpredictable drummer in the eight-part series his chronicling whirlwind romance Anderson in the 1990s leading up to the leak of their honeymoon sex tape. The show also stars Seth Rogen, Nick Offerman, Taylor Schilling and Andrew Dice Clay.
Stan opened up to Variety Thursday about having the first photo of him as Lee and James as Anderson go viral, revealing the shot was actually taken during their screen test. “I don’t remember who, I think it was probably [director Craig Gillespie], who said, ‘Hey, let’s go out in the sun and why don’t we do that?’ We were like, ‘Oh, that’s fun.’ And then we just did it.’”
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He’s relieved now that people have seen him in full Lee regalia. “Honestly, it was freeing because I was walking around in these hoodies and hats… just paranoid of being seen,” he joked. “I was like, ‘God, I hope they’re finally going to release something so you know what we look like, so we can go on with our lives.’”
While Pam & Tommy has been getting some serious buzz, neither Anderson nor Lee is involved in the production. The former Playboy model’s friend, rocker Courtney Love, slammed the show in a May 16 Facebook post, claiming she refused to sign off on production’s use of a December 1994 Rolling Stone cover on screen. “I find this so f—ing outrageous,” Love wrote at the time.
Looking back on when Anderson and Lee’s sex tape was leaked to the public in 1995, Love recalled being in the studio when the news broke. “And the lone women in many recording studios in [L.A.] Where all ALL! The staff engineers producers owners were watching the sex tape with huge [schadenfreude] . . Guffaws,” Love wrote of the moment. “It was disgusting. I banned anyone discussing it. . It destroyed my friend Pamelas life. Utterly.”
Love said she was “shocked,” to hear from production about the show and declined. “Gentleman [sic] don’t approve this sort of thing,” she added, saying that her “heart goes out to Pammy,” as the series was “further causing her complex trauma.” She ended her message with a strong few words for the actress portraying Anderson directly, writing, “And shame on lily James whoever the f— she is.”
