Pamela Anderson says Chicago role came when she ‘really needed’ it as she prepares for Broadway debut

‘The story and my life are so parallel’

Anderson will star in ‘Chicago’ this spring (Getty Images)

Pamela Anderson has said that she was cast in the Broadway production of Chicago at a time when she “really needed” it.

The former Baywatch star will play the role of Roxie Hart, a woman who becomes a Jazz Age celebrity after going to jail for killing her lover after he tries to leave her.

Producer Barry Weissler first approached Anderson about playing Roxie more than a decade ago, but said that it was now “more opportune” and “timely” for her to take on the role.

In a new interview with US Vogue, Anderson said that she’d been “rehearsing my whole life” for this role, pointing out similarities between her life story and Roxie’s.

“The story and my life are so parallel,” she said. “I always say… 30 years of therapy or just one Broadway show, then I’ll be fine.”

Anderson said that she’d been “shocked” to have been offered the part, adding that she’d taken it as a “leap of faith” to push herself and prove that she could do it.

“The fact that they gave me a shot to do it is really shocking for me,” she said.

“I always thought I got away with murder in a bikini. I never had to apply myself to anything and at this point in my life, this was something I really needed.”

With Barry Weissler (Getty Images)

She will appear in Chicago from 12 April to 5 June at the Ambassador Theatre.

Anderson will be releasing a memoir and her own Netflix documentary series in the near future.

It follows the release of Pam and Tommy, a Disney Plus series about the leaking of her and Tommy Lee’s sex tape in the Nineties.

Anderson was not involved in the creation of the show, with Lily James (who played her on the show) claiming that she personally reached out to Anderson with no response.