Pamela Anderson reacts to ‘The Last Showgirl’ Oscars snub

Before the Oscar nominations were announced Thursday, Pamela Anderson’s performance in The Last Showgirl was in the conversation for Best Actress. Still, she says she wasn’t surprised she didn’t end up as one of the five nominees in the category.

“Oh my gosh, it’s not something I ever expected,” she told Elle.com hours after Bowen Yang and Rachel Sennott read the names. “Doing the work is the win. That’s what I like to do, and I think we can lose sight of that sometimes in this whole crazy awards season, but it’s nice to be recognized, and it’s all a bonus.”

The former Baywatch actress’ absence among the nominees, however, was cited as a snub by many, including Entertainment Weekly.

“I couldn’t imagine [it] anyway,” Anderson said, noting that she was recognized by the Screen Actors Guild. “I’m happy for the SAG nomination, that’s [voted on by] your peers. That’s really cool. This has been a long road promoting this film.”

Along the way, critics have raved about Anderson’s turn as Shelly, a Las Vegas showgirl whose world is rocked when her longtime revue shutters. After spending 30 years in feathers and sequins on that stage, she’s unsure what comes next.

The actress and model has said that she took to the Gia Coppola-directed project from the start.

“I’ve never read a script that I responded to like that before — no one was sending me anything like this,” Anderson told EW in November. “I read it and I thought, I have to do this. It’s life or death. It’s really important.“

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The character really resonated with Anderson, 57, and the film, which costars Jamie Lee Curtis, Brenda Song, and Kiernan Shipka, challenged her.

“I knew I was capable of more than I’d done in the past, and I kind of had given up and went home and thought, oh well, it’s too bad,” the Barb Wire star said. “I screwed up. I didn’t work hard enough or people just see me a certain way because I fell into the trappings. I want to be defined by what I do and not what has been done to me.”

The 2025 Oscars air Sunday, March 2, at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT on ABC.