Onetime “Baywatch” babe, reality star and ’90s sex symbol Pamela Anderson (also: activist, best-selling author and mother) has spent much of her career shoved into boxes beyond her control. But the Pam-aissance she’s undergone in recent years,

Anderson plays an aging Vegas showgirl in the new movie from Gia Coppola. For so many reasons, it's a role only she could meaningfully deliver.

“I’m beautiful,” she says before a friend walks her offstage. “I’m 57, and I’m beautiful, you son of a bitch!”