Pamela Anderson is Glamour's Global Woman of the Year

She is self-deprecating and funny. For example, when referencing a famous look she wore in the '90s—a huge fluffy pink hat, sequined sheer pants, and a white corset—she says, “Everyone asked me, 'Who was your stylist back then?' the pink?'“ Hat?' And I say, 'Do you think any stylist would have let me out the door (with that)?!'”

But the self-deprecating nonsense, as funny as it is (crazy is a word she often uses to describe herself), makes me sad sometimes. It may feel like their armor, a coping mechanism that is part of their protective, public-facing shield. And she shocks me more than once when she reveals that she struggles with deep insecurities surrounding her image.

As it turns out, the parsnip makes an appropriate icebreaker, because we're here to talk about, among other things, her first cookbook of vegetable recipes. I love you: recipes from the heartwhich will be available for sale later this month, is full of homemade recipes from her vegetable garden in the town of Ladysmith on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

“It’s not a vegan cookbook. “I don’t tell other people how to eat,” Anderson (well-known vegan) says hastily, clearly worried that he might come across as preachy. “I just have so many vegetables in my garden! I’m constantly canning, canning, making sauces and just trying to find cool ways to prepare vegetables.”

We're also here to talk about her vegan, cruelty-free skincare line, Sonsie, which she acquired earlier this year, as well as her renaissance as a movie star with the aforementioned The naked weapon, as well as The Last Showgirl with Jamie Lee Curtis, both coming out next year.

And this has been happening early on in the industry The Last Showgirl could well (whisper it) put Anderson on the path to awards season recognition. Which – and Anderson herself once again admits this self-deprecatingly: “This is hysterical,” she says with a laugh – is certainly a whole new era for the actor formerly known as Barb Wire.

But industry buzz aside, Anderson has definitely entered a new era. And perhaps for the first time in her five decades in the public eye, she is calling the shots and dictating how she is presented to the world. After a lifetime of objectification, she is now regaining control.

Anderson has clearly thought a lot about being one of them Shineare two global women of the year.

“It's really an honor to be selected… but I want to be careful about everything. I want to have integrity,” she tells me. “Why do you want me to be Woman of the Year? Because I live my authentic life, because I make these decisions.”

Therefore, Anderson would like to be involved in the creative process of our cover shoot. Most importantly (and unusual for a cover shoot), she insists on barely using any makeup or hairstyling. This is a radical new look for Anderson, one that has caused an avalanche of headlines since she debuted her bare face at Paris Fashion Week in September 2023. And we'll talk about this in more detail later.

Before our interview, Anderson took the unusual step of emailing me an essay she had written titled “The Roles I Have Played.” It's a kind of meandering stream of consciousness and is beautifully written, poetic and sometimes poignant.