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It's a bit hypocritical.
By Nia Tipton — Written on Jul 14, 2022
Actor Sebastian Stan is facing heavy criticism for the statement he released following the multiple Emmy nominations Hulu's limited series "Pam & Tommy" received.
In a lengthy post on his Instagram, Stan, who played Tommy Lee, voiced his excitement over the ten total Emmy nominations the show got, including Stan's own nomination for Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie.
“So grateful and thrilled to be a part of this EPIC PAM AND TOMMY recognition!!!” he began, thanking the show's creator, directors, hair and makeup team, and costume designers. Stan also thanked his costar, Lily James, who played Pamela Anderson on the show.
“My partner till the end of the line,” he said of Lily. “I was blessed to be opposite you, couldn’t have, wouldn’t have done it without you! Thank you for holding my hand on this journey!” he wrote.
It wasn't until the final part of his post that readers started calling the actor out.
“#PAMANDTOMMY is about a crime that took place without Consent. It was a crime on privacy, a crime on love, a crime on family, and a crime that we were ALL a culprit of, as media and audience combined, and it’s now more timely than ever.”
“I hope this can only help continue the conversation we had hoped to bring to light,” Stan added. “And that we can remember to re-examine our projections and our salacious attitudes not only towards [Pamela Anderson] and [Tommy Lee] but also towards ourselves and our exploitation of one another. SEE YOU AT THE EMMYS!!!”
Sebastian Stan is being labeled a 'hypocrite' for calling out Pamela Anderson's exploitation.
The show heavily focuses on the 1996 unauthorized release and sale of Anderson and Lee's sex tape shortly after the two got married.
The tape immediately went viral before Facebook, YouTube, and Google existed. Anderson was the true victim in the tape's release — facing backlash, losing out on roles and having her reputation forever tarnished by something she had no control over.
While the series did highlight the media's exploitation of both Anderson and Lee after the tape was released and the misogyny Anderson faced in her career, it also introduced an entirely new generation to the scandal, effectively putting it back into the spotlight.
In a Reddit forum where the post was shared, it was met with mixed feelings, though most of them were heavy criticisms about Stan's statement.
"He also tagged Pamela Anderson who allegedly finds reliving this traumatic. Also, mind you, this show introduced a whole new generation of people to look up that sex tape. So, in short, they’re complicit. That’s their contribution to the conversation," one user wrote.
Another user added: "I love when actors do this thing of pointing out the problems of the project they did, but those problems didn’t stop them from doing the project…you added to Pamela’s pain, dude."
Despite Pamela Anderson never explicitly speaking about the show, she did seem to hint that she wasn't on board with the project in an Instagram post shared shortly before the first episode of "Pam & Tommy" was released.
In the post, Anderson revealed that she was working with Netflix to make a documentary about her life, which she said would tell the "real story."
“My life. A thousand imperfections. A million misperceptions. Wicked, wild and lost. Nothing to live up to. I can only surprise you. Not a victim, but a survivor. And alive to tell the real story," the post read.
Without Anderson's approval of the show, it was just another way for her to be violated by the media once again, a fact that was pointed out by Courtney Love, Anderson's close friend.
In a since-deleted Facebook post, Love called the show "so f-king outrageous," adding that the show's creation would only cause Anderson more "complex trauma."
Nia Tipton is a writer living in Brooklyn. She covers pop culture, social justice issues, and trending topics. Keep up with her on Instagram and Twitter.