‘A horrible thing to say’: Pamela Anderson reflects on controversial #MeToo comments

Pamela Anderson has addressed her previous comments made during the early stages of the #MeToo movement, in which she claimed that female actors in hotel rooms know what they’re “getting into”.

The former Baywatch star released her memoir, Love, Pamela, as well as her Netflix documentary film Pamela, A Love Story, earlier this week.

While promoting her new projects, Anderson has discussed several aspects of her life and career so far.

In a recent interview, the actor was asked about her 2017 comments made on the Today show about predatory people in Hollywood being “common knowledge”, in the wake of actors opening up about Harvey Weinstein’s pattern of sexual abuse.

At the time, she told host Megyn Kelly: “It was common knowledge [which] certain producers or certain people in Hollywood or people to avoid, privately. You know what you’re getting into if you’re going into a hotel room, alone.”

Anderson received pushback for her comments at the time, with some questioning her view about how much power the victims held.

Speaking to journalist Ronan Farrow for Interview magazine, she explained why she had felt this way.

“I could even take it a step further. My mother would tell me – and I think this is the kind of feminism I grew up with – it takes two to tango,” Anderson said.

“Believe me, I’ve been in many situations where it’s like, ‘Come in here little girl, sit on the bed.’ But my mom would say, ‘If someone answers the door in a hotel robe and you’re going for an interview, don’t go in. But if you do go in, get the job.’”

She continued: “That’s a horrible thing to say but that’s how I was. I skated on the edges of destruction, I just had this sense of value and self-worth.”

However, Anderson says that she now holds a different outlook and credits the #MeToo movement for helping to change these harmful practices.

“But I think a lot of people don’t have that or they weren’t taught that,” she continued. “Thank god for the #MeToo movement because things have changed and people are much more careful and respectful.”

Elsewhere, Anderson recently also named the one man she thinks has treated her with “complete and utter respect”.