Look of the Week: Pamela Anderson’s still repping her bare face

By Leah Dolan, CNN

(CNN) — At the annual Gotham Awards on Tuesday night, Pamela Anderson arrived on the red carpet in a strapless champagne-hued Oscar de la Renta satin gown. As the “Baywatch” star turned to pose for the wall of photographers, a larger-than-life bow peeped out from the back of her dress. Yet her main accessory was her fresh, barely made up face.

It has been over a year since Anderson publicly gave up her typical celebrity glam. Once synonymous with smokey cat-eyes and a fiercely lined set of lips, the actor made headlines in 2023 after she attended Paris Fashion Week wearing little more than a dab of moisturizer. The decision was born out of Anderson’s desire not to overshadow her outfit for the Isabel Marant show, but there was a bigger point, too. In an interview with Vogue published in October 2023, Anderson reflected “I know I wasn’t making strides towards world peace, but I was making a statement…” and added: “In this day and age, do we even know what a face looks like anymore? This is it.”

Since then, Anderson has become something of a pioneer of the no or barely there makeup look, fronting magazine covers, appearing on talk shows and even accepting awards with a fresh face earlier this week she scooped the Outstanding Lead Performance for her role in Gia Coppola’s forthcoming film, “The Last Showgirl.”

So perhaps, a year on, Anderson’s aesthetic change is here to stay. At 57, when many of her peers will undoubtedly be facing pressure to maintain a certain type of highly polished appearance, Anderson is ploughing her own path. “Isn’t it so freeing?” she asked Drew Barrymore, while appearing on the actor’s talk show in October. “I feel so free.” The segment also saw Barrymore and guest Valerie Bertinelli remove their make-up on-stage. “We all are our own worst critics,” Anderson added.

But the former Playboy bunny is no stranger to having her looks discussed — and has long been comfortable going bare. From her days as a centerfold glamour model to a prime-time TV actor, Anderson’s external appearance has been considered both part of her craft and fair game for public commentary. Now, her decision to strip back — in a different way — is equally radical.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.