Pamela Anderson Reveals Why She Stopped Wearing Makeup

When Pamela Anderson showed up in Paris two years ago with her face completely bare, she looked like a different person. Now, the former blonde bombshell is a makeup-free icon, and she’s ready to explain the reason for her bold move.

In her cover story for People magazine, Anderson opened up about not wearing makeup anymore, her ever-changing hair color, and serving as a role model for women and girls. The Golden Globe nominee spoke about her newsworthy decision to go makeup-free at Paris Fashion Week in 2023.

“I remember thinking, ‘Nobody’s even going to notice’—and people noticed," she said.

Anderson explains that going makeup-free—particularly after being known for her overdrawn lips, heavy eye makeup, and big, 1990s blowout for so long—was “part of peeling back the layers.”

“I look like my Instagram photos every day. That’s where it stemmed from,” Anderson told People, adding that she felt inspired by the young women in her life, including her sons’ girlfriends and her nieces. “I just want to make sure that they feel confident in who they are...and to not worry so much.”

Now, she hopes to inspire other women and girls to feel comfortable in their own skin. (This is especially fitting, as Anderson recently entered the serum game when she and her sons acquired the beauty brand Sonsie Skin in 2024.)

Anderson has little nostalgia for the look that skyrocketed her to stardom 30 years ago. When discussing the types of roles that she portrayed early in her career, the Baywatch alum said, “There’s always been a vulnerability and a humanness and making mistakes and embracing life, and being in love, and heartbroken, all those things that make you human.”

Still, she doesn’t plan to return to the blonde-bombshell archetype that transformed her from an unknown Canadian actress into a household name in the 1990s. “That girl is dead,” Anderson told People. “It feels like a lifetime ago.” That period of her life, she said, is “the ancient past.”

Anderson recently went red for Love Is Not the Answer, an upcoming project directed by Michael Cera—a look she admits she is still getting used to, though she’s still open to shaking things up again soon. “I’ll be blonde in no time, or maybe a different color,” she said. “Who knows?”

Even more notable for beauty-obsessed Pam fans, though, is her role in Rosebush Pruning. The upcoming drama, a remake of the 1965 Italian film Fists in the Pocket, co-stars Elle Fanning and Callum Turner and will feature Anderson as the gray-haired matriarch of a dysfunctional family. (As much as we wish being a woman with gray hair in a lead role wasn’t newsworthy in 2025, it is.)

Anderson is enjoying a period of cultural and critical acclaim, with new roles on stage and the big screen. She notably starred in this summer’s The Naked Gun, garnering hit reviews for her comedic timing, and then followed that up with a run at the Williamstown Theater Festival, starring in the iconic Tennessee Williams play Camino Real. And, in a move more characteristic of journalists and authors than Hollywood leading ladies, she started her own Substack, The Open Journal.

Her press tour with The Naked Gun co-star Liam Neeson, 73, was the subject of much speculation as to whether the two were romantically involved after many noticed their red carpet chemistry. Anderson finally set the record straight in this interview, saying the two were better off as friends after a “intimate” week-long fling.