From Downton darling to Baywatch babe.
It took a village to turnLily JamesintoPamela AndersonforPam & Tommy.
“And Kami [Lennox], our costume designer, is out of this world.”
Lily James stars as Pamela Anderson on ‘Pam & Tommy;’ Anderson on ‘Baywatch’.Erica Parise/Hulu; Kypros/Getty Images
“He worked me so hard and I got really fit.
I lost a ton of weight.”
She adds with a laugh, “I’ve put it all back on again though, unfortunately.
Erin Simkin/Hulu
I feel less self-conscious on a beach now.”
“It was really tough though, but it was rewarding.”
Despite the long hours on set, James made sure to keep up with her training all throughout filming.
Erin Simkin/Hulu
“Eyes, wig, teeth, there was just a whole process.”
After getting her wig cap in place, she’d get her prosthetics applied.
“We didn’t want there to be too much of a barrier between me and my expressions.
Erin Simkin/Hulu
I think they did a really great job.
I was really pretty shocked by what they were able to do.”
The boobs
One prosthetic piece did a lot of heavy lifting, however.
Erin Simkin/Hulu
“The breast piece was amazing,” James says.
“You would never, never know it wasn’t me.
It was shocking.”
Erin Simkin/Hulu
There was one massive downside to the chest prosthetic whenever she did wear it, though.
“I’m English, it’s too hot!”
“I just couldn’t believe how pale I was before,” James says.
“I was like, how am I this translucent?
I’m so unhealthy.
Because I can’t tan, no matter how hard I try.
I go freckly and a little brown but not really.
So I became very good friends with my spray tanner.
We were really up close and personal for that job.”
“I would watch a lot of interviews of Pamela from that time,” she says.
Eventually, James resorted to less proper methods to hone her voice.
“That wasn’t such a healthy way to do it but it worked.”
“I loved it.
It was so wild,” she says.
Only very so often I would start to be British again after drinking a glass of wine.
I’d be like, ‘Oh,that’sme.
She even adopted Anderson’s blond hair in her daily life too.
“I bought myself a blond wig and I wore it out and about,” she says.
“I was going to CVS in my blond wig.”
“They stayed.”
Pam & Tommypremieres Feb. 2 on Hulu.
