The trailer for Pamela, a love story has arrived.
PEOPLE has an exclusive first look at the official preview for the upcoming documentary that tells the story of Pamela Anderson's storied life and career, hitting Netflix on Jan. 31.
Set to a slowed-down, haunting version of the Cardigans' 1996 hit "Lovefool," the 2-minute trailer opens with Anderson, now 55, addressing the controversy over her leaked sex tape with ex-husband Tommy Lee and saying of her image, "I wanna take control of the narrative for the first time."
"I had to make a career out of the pieces left, but I'm not the damsel in distress," the actress and model says later, adding with a laugh, "I put myself in crazy situations ... and survived them."
Speaking with PEOPLE, the documentary's director Ryan White (The Keepers) says of Anderson, "She's telling her story in her own words, finally, but she also doesn't know which archival videos and personal diaries will be used in the final film."
"She gave us carte blanche to use the archival [footage for] how we thought best told the story," adds White. "It's a sign of how authentically Pamela has lived her life. She owns every part of her life — the good, the bad and the ugly. It's an incredibly vulnerable but brave way to live."
Pamela, a love story is "an intimate and humanizing portrait of one of the world's most famous blonde bombshells" that "follows the trajectory of Pamela Anderson's life and career from small town girl to international sex symbol, actress, activist and doting mother," read an official logline.
It is produced by Jessica Hargrave and Julian Nottingham, plus Anderson and ex Lee's older son Brandon Thomas Lee.
Asked how much input Anderson herself had in the documentary, White says, "Pamela is very experiential and always on the move — I describe her like a fairy, always floating. So when it came to shooting, she was up for anything, because she loves an adventure."
"She told me, 'Ask me anything — nothing is off limits,' " he adds of the Baywatch alum. "But in regards to the edit, she didn't play any role at all. She has no interest in seeing the final film because for her it's all about the experience of making something and staying in that moment."
White admits that Anderson took him by surprise, and "ended up being the opposite of [a] preconceived notion" he had — in essence, "the iconic, larger-than-life caricature created by pop culture over the last 30 years."
"She cooked dinner for me at her little roadhouse the night before we began shooting," he recalls. "I remember asking her, 'How do you want to handle hair and makeup?' And she laughed and said, 'I live on an island in Canada. I'll do my own hair and makeup.' "
According to White, the former Playboy centerfold "even chose to shoot with no makeup for a lot of the filming. So she still very much has that small-town island girl in her — extremely laid-back."
As for what he loves most about her? Simply the fact that "Pamela is unapologetically Pamela."
"And that means, despite how many times she's been burned or traumatized, she's going to continue soldiering through life with that hopeful and romantic free-spirit attitude," White says. "It's infectious."
Anderson announced back in March 2022 that she would open up about her storied life in an upcoming documentary for Netflix.
The project has been in the works for several years but had just landed at the streaming service, Netflix said in a press release at the time.
In a handwritten note on Netflix letterhead and shared on Instagram, Anderson wrote, "My life. A thousand imperfections."
She continued, "A million misperceptions. Wicked, wild and lost. Nothing to live up to. I can only surprise you — Not a victim, but a survivor & Alive to tell the real story."
Pamela, a love story premieres Jan. 31 on Netflix.
