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"Your sexuality is weaponized."
Hulu’s newest limited series, Pam & Tommy — starring Lily James and Sebastian Stan — came out today, and there’s already a lot of important discourse around it!
Erin Simkin / ©Hulu / Courtesy Everett Collection
The show details the events surrounding Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee’s honeymoon sex tape, which was stolen from their Malibu home in 1996 before being released without their consent.
While both Pamela and Tommy appeared on the tape, it was Pamela who faced an enormous amount of undue criticism — but, in the year of our lord 2022, Lily is pointing out that it’s time we, as a society, come to terms with our role in the scandal.
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"That was very much our intention with the show, to hold a mirror up to make people look at their own culpability in perpetuating this unhealthy viral internet behavior," she told IndieWire. "We are all complicit and we have to become more aware and sensitive."
Hulu / Everett Collection
Lily expanded on that “toxic” internet behavior, adding that — even if this scandal were to happen today — she thinks it’s possible the response would be the same: "I do think everyone has a voice on Twitter and no one is really held accountable, so it’s really dangerous. You can use it to just publicly destroy someone. It can be a really toxic environment."
Hulu / Everett Collection
“Maybe there would have been more information about the fact that this tape was stolen, that it was a crime against a married couple,” Lily said. “But then perhaps there wouldn’t have been because the narrative is created by whoever’s writing it, and you get in your own echo chamber and the truth is distorted.”
She added that modern-day social media has given more "access" to others' lives. "Now, with social media, there’s just so much more access. There’s this compulsion to be on them, to be sharing, to be oversharing, to give away our privacy, to comment without any consequences," she said. "In a way that’s desensitized us much more so now than it was in the ’90s."
Hulu / Everett Collection
Lily also said that, as a woman, she can identify with a lot of what Pamela went through. "You can relate to a lot of things purely as a woman because, unfortunately, whether you’re Pamela Anderson [or not] there are moments of sexism, or misogyny, or double standards where you’re not treated the same as your male co-worker," she explained.
Hulu / Everett Collection
"It’s sort of an age-old story. You’re undermined or you’re patronized. Your sexuality is weaponized."
English (US) ·