Since the start of 2022, Pamela Anderson has starred in Broadway’s Chicago; she was the focus of a Netflix documentary—functionally the antidote to the unauthorized Hulu dramatization of a much-exploited period in her life, which premiered the year prior; she has fronted a number of high fashion campaigns, including a stint as the face of Proenza Schouler; she released her memoir, a New York Times bestseller; and she leads The Last Showgirl, Gia Coppola’s upcoming drama, with a performance early reviews consider her all-time best. But a few years ago, the Hollywood icon was feeling aimless. Unsure of what was next professionally, she went back to her roots: Arcady, her family’s plot in Ladysmith, Vancouver, where she was raised.
It needed some work. A few of the cabins on the compound had rotten floors, some had to be torn down completely. Her homecoming marked a restorative time for both the estate and the actor, who is now heralding a full-fledged career renaissance. “I wanted to peel it all back, to really check in with myself, to remember who I am and not what everybody else is telling me I am,” Anderson tells AD. “And then, of course, when I’m [home], comfortable, everything is looking good, and I’ve spent some time alone, I got a call to do Broadway, and then I got a call to do The Last Showgirl, and then I did [the] Naked Gun [sequel], and now I’m doing another film, so I guess this is just happening! I’m really good at going with the flow, and this is just the best time in my life, my career. I’m so excited.”
Lucky for Anderson, that fallow period granted her time to nurture some hobbies outside of showbiz—like gardening and cooking with fresh homegrown produce—before it all ramped up again. Her new cookbook, I Love You, a culinary love letter at least nominally to the reader but explicitly dedicated to her two sons as they get started in their own first kitchens, is filled with both Anderson’s favorite plant-based recipes and soulful anecdotes. She ruminates on bathing her kids in rose petals when they were babies, experimenting with overnight oats, and working in the garden (where, she is convinced, fairies visit and leave behind little baubles and treasures). As the homebody embraces a much busier time away from her domestic delights, she sat down with AD to discuss the comforts of life at Arcady with her family.
