Pamela Anderson Documentary Director Defends Actress as Tim Allen, Sylvester Stallone Deny Her Claims

Between the Netflix documentary “Pamela, A Love Story” and the memoir “Love, Pamela” from HarperCollins, Pamela Anderson has been spilling plenty of tea, including some embarrassing, ’90s-era anecdotes about Tim Allen and Sylvester Stallone. And while both actors have emphatically denied Anderson’s claims, director Ryan White is pushing back in defense of his leading lady.

“Of course, I totally believe Pamela because I think she’s always honest in everything — about her own shortcomings, but also about other people’s,” White tells Variety in response to Allen and Stallone’s denials. “That was our conversation at the beginning of this [process]. She was, ‘I spent so much of my life protecting other people. And I’m not I’m trying not to do that as much anymore.’” 

Anderson’s candor has ruffled feathers. In the memoir, which hits shelves Tuesday, she says that Allen flashed her on the set of “Home Improvement” in 1991. “[He was] completely naked,” Anderson writes, which Variety reported exclusively. “He said it was only fair, because he had seen me naked. Now we’re even. I laughed uncomfortably.” (Allen told Variety in a statement, “No, it never happened. I would never do such a thing.”)

Similarly, Stallone has denied an even milder claim from Anderson that appears in the documentary in which she says the Rocky star “offered me a condo and a Porsche to be his ‘No. 1 girl.’ And I was like, ‘Does that mean there’s a No. 2? Uh-uh.’”

Stallone’s attorney Marty Singer tells Variety: “The story is a complete fabrication. It never happened. Sylvester Stallone never made any such statement.”

White, who spent a good chunk of the pandemic following Anderson in her native British Columbia for “Pamela, A Love Story,” which also launches Tuesday, says Anderson didn’t attach much weight to either incident. “Pamela doesn’t see these as huge junctures in her life. They’re just moments that she tells you about as she’s rattling off a story.”

In a cover story with Variety, Anderson expanded on the encounter by saying: “Tim is a comedian, it’s his job to cross the line. I’m sure he had no bad intentions. Times have changed, though. I doubt anyone would try that post #MeToo. It’s a new world.”

The documentary represents a big swing for Netflix. Sources say the steaming giant plunked down an eight-figure sum for the package, which included hiring Anderson’s son Brandon as a producer as well as access to rich trove of archival material and never-before-seen footage. In an ironic twist, Netflix beat out none other than Hulu for the rights. Anderson has slammed Hulu and the producers behind the limited series “Pam & Tommy” as “assholes” for delving into a painful episode in her life — the theft of a sex tape belonging to her and former husband Tommy Lee — without her consent.

White’s involvement wasn’t a forgone conclusion. When documentary sales agent Josh Braun began representing Pamela, A Love Story back in 2021, he quickly zeroed in on White as a potential director. White, who has tackled movies on other iconic women including Serena Williams and Dr. Ruth, was intrigued. White agreed to meet for lunch with Brandon, Anderson’s eldest of her two sons with Lee. Brandon told White that Anderson had moved back to the tiny town on Vancouver Island called Ladysmith, where she was born and raised.

“I’m a child of the ’80s and ’90s, and I was always really enchanted by Pamela as a little boy,” White explains. “But I didn’t know any of this. I didn’t even know Pamela was Canadian. Like, I assumed she was American because she was this the American sex symbol. Brandon told me that she left fame and celebrity behind many years ago.”

White asked to read the memoir, which was still in manuscript form. He was blown away by the cinematic quality of her poetry and minimalist prose, written without the help of a ghostwriter.

As White tore through the pages, he was riveted. Braun had found the right person to direct, someone who could drill through the surface layer and explore a woman who is incredibly well read, able to quote everyone from Walt Whitman and Noam Chomsky. And it was only fitting that Braun was serving as an executive producer on the documentary. He first met Anderson when he was a young executive at Fremantle and worked on “Baywatch.” He remembers her generous spirit, even when there was zero upside for her.

“I had a TV show on Sci-Fi called ‘The Anti-Gravity Room,’ and she agreed to go on the show to promote [her 1996 movie] ‘Barb Wire,’” Braun recalls. “It was a tiny show. She could so easily have turned it down. But she was always willing to help the underdog.”

White signed on, made the trek to Ladysmith and began reading her journals and watching her home movies, far more illuminating than any sex tape. He found Anderson to be preternaturally candid.

“When making a celebrity documentary, you don’t want someone who’s really reticent or really controlling of their self or their brand or their image,” White explains. “She did not really give a shit about any of that. She’s been through so much shit in her life and been spit up and chewed out by the public, by the media. But she’s at a point in her life where she just is who she is, unapologetically. She’s incredibly smart. She’s very in on the joke. And she’s very funny. And I don’t know if that [bombshell image] was a persona that she created or that we — pop culture — created.”

As for the Allen and Stallone anecdotes, White says Anderson isn’t trying to make a political statement. She just wants to recount her life in a manner that is honest and open.

“Pamela is just very matter of fact with her storytelling,” he says. “It’s like, ‘This is what happened.’ And she’s not easy to categorize. She doesn’t live in a binary world where this is right and this is wrong, or this is good and this is bad. Pamela lives in a gray area. And so when she tells stories like that, they don’t always come with sort of judgments that we would expect today, especially in like the post-#MeToo era. So everything’s very nuanced with the way she looks at things, and I think it makes her that much more believable.”

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