Over the past few years, Pamela Anderson has had more time to contemplate life.
That is, until things kicked into high gear againbut more on that later.
She hunkered down with her two grown sons, Brandon and Dylan.
Credit:Ditte Isager
She bought her grandmothers old motel, renovated it, and set up her parents there.
A lifelong cook, she perfected her baking skills.
When youre not there, what do you do to make yourself feel at home?
Credit:Ditte Isager
Thats what sustains me and gives me a feeling of home while Im here.
Im always taking inbanana breadand muffins to the set for the crew.
Ive also created a new sourdough starter hereher name is Vixen, and shes doing so well.
Credit:Ditte Isager
I have another one back home called Astrid, and shes in the fridge waiting for me to return.
This bread thing is such a meditation for me.
Youre always on the search for the best loaf and it never comes.
Credit:Ditte Isager
Theres something about it that I compare to giving birth.
If all those other people have done it, then so can I. Baking teaches patience.
Ive come to realize theres so much about cooking that is good for you.
If you like to cook, youre good at lots of things.
It was such a responsibility.
It’s a responsibility, but I like responsibility.
Credit:Ditte Isager
It’s good for me.
I need a bit of a routine.
But it wasn’t a lockdown thing.
My son’s girlfriend taught me and then it was off to the races.
Presentation is everything for me.
Little things like that are helpful when you’re working such long hours and working nights.
Credit:Ditte Isager
The Journey Home Planted New Seeds
The return to Vancouver Island inspired many new projects never foreseen.
Q: How and why did you return to Canada?
A few years back, I kind of gave up at some point and needed a change.
Credit:Ditte Isager
I thought,Well, I guess thats just what people think of me.
I was not in a good space when I moved back to Canada.
I felt very sad and lonely.
I came to a point where I decided to move home and disappear and get into my garden.
And when I startedbuilding the garden, it was really like a metaphor of putting my life back together.
I began planting seeds, and the smallest things became really profound.
Q: How did your love of gardening begin?
It comes from my grandfather Herman.
He was really interesting and the closest person to me as a child.
I have a little collection of marbles and little toys that I still find in the garden.
There were nine cabins, and we lived in cabin six.
This is the first place my feet touched the actual soil.
Q: So you moved during lockdown?
That was a period of transformation for a lot of people.
It was at the very beginning and during lockdown.
I bought the property and started renovating it.
I mean, you should see the before pictures.
It was decayed and rotten to the ground.
I lived in another little house on the beach that I had that was livable.
But I thought,OK, Im going home, and I dont know what Im doing.
It took me a couple years of transitioning and thinking.
I was finally able to sit with myself.
There was nothing else to do but write a lot.
I wrote my memoir on that property.
Brandon was with me coproducing the Netflix documentary and helping me put the pieces of my former life together.
We were going through all my journals, which were in storage.
That was painful to me.
I didnt plan on this whole healing experience, but as the days went on, its what happened.
That brought everything rushing back.
I slowly started working through it while putting all my heart and soul into my garden.
Q: Youve mentioned how the ethnic heritage of your ancestors influenced your cooking.
Is it mainly Finnish?
Yes, Hyytiainen is my real last name.
My grandfathers father came over, so it was a while ago.
They were all loggers and danced on treetops 100 feet in the air.
I even spoke Finnish with him.
I cant tell you a word now.
Q: What motivated the cookbook?
The cookbook started out as a housewarming gift for my sons.
I remember my mom used to have these recipe cards in a box.
I decided I had to find the ultimate recipe card box.
I found one and started printing out these cards of all our family recipesbut I made them plant-based.
Ive taken a lot of my family recipes that come from my parents Northern and Eastern European backgrounds.
A lot of probiotics andcabbage rollsand soups andpickled things.
These are things I love; these are my comfort foods.
Of course, my son Brandon, being the businessman, said, This is a book, Mom.
And so we did it and titled the bookI Love Yousince that was engraved on the recipe box.
Obviously, Ive never done a cookbook before.
I wasnt sure if anyone would even buy it.
Im a positive person, I am.
But I also played into the image that was created around me.
Im glad I did all that, but Im really glad Im where I am now.
I think the most important part is, I made it through all of it.
And now its such a relief that I get to be myself and enjoy this time.
Q: Doing a cookbook is hard.
Its a mountain, right?
What was the hardest part for you?
There were so many things I didnt know about writing a cookbook.
I wrote my memoir without a collaborator or ghostwriter, only my editor.
I had a million recipes, and then we tested and edited them down.
Shes now like my soul sister and the whole book team was really wonderful.
Q: How do you describe the recipes in the book?
Do you call them vegan or plant-based?
Im trying not to call them anything.
Because I feel like that limits us to the vegan section of the cookbook shelf.
Also, I dont want to tell people how to eat or what to do.
Credit:Ditte Isager
This is the food that makes me feel the best.
I think its a little bit intimidating for most people to think theyre going to change their diet.
But things are changing, and people are getting more comfortable with veganism.
Q: Who were your primary food influences as a young person?
I remember reading in your memoir that you always wanted to cook for yourself from an early age.
A: My Auntie Vie was a great influence on me because she always had the zest for life.
She even wrote a little book called From Pickles to Pearls a few years ago.
Shes really funny and wanted me to do Dancing with the Stars for the longest time.
I promised her I would do it.
When I told the producers, they filmed her and she became kind of a local star.
Back when I was a kid, she knew how to set a beautiful table.
She knew how to have fun.
She’d spike everyone’s drinks with Bailey’s.
There was never a bad time.
She had that kind of style where her outfit would match her car.
Q: Was she someone who taught you about style and that presentation matters?
A: Yes and about having a good time and being kind and funny.
But I also had a neighbor family who influenced me a lot.
That was when I saw a salad for the first time.
Don’t vegetables come from a can?
They seem very supportive of you.
Yes, my kids are old enough now to understand the big picture.
They look at me and say, Mom, this is your time.
They told me, Whatever youve created by being you, just keep being you.
you’re able to create a life.
it’s possible for you to keep writing.
you’re free to keep doing all the things you love.
My sons are young, bold, hardworking men.
Theyre ambitious, theyre talented, theyre creative, theyre gentlemen, and theyre good cooks.
Q: I remember a scene in your documentary where you brought out boxes of journals.
Have you written in notebooks your whole life?
There are yellow legal pads everywhere.
I write all the time.
Dylan came up with the idea to get it out of my system.
Its helpful for me to write, and I do it every morning.
I get up at 4 or 5 every daythats my time.
I like to write with the sunrise.
Its very peaceful, and Im always baking bread then.
So I keep bakers hours.
Q: Is a garden book next?
Maybe…you have to ask Brandon, he seems to know [she laughs].
He has it all mapped out.
Q: It sounds like youre listening to him.
You also have your Sonsie natural skincare line and you’re doing movies again.
Tell me about that.
Yes, I did a film directed by Gia Coppola calledThe Last Showgirlthat is going to festivals soon.
And then I’m co-starring inThe Naked Gunwith Liam Neeson, which were filming right now.
It’s funny, it’s so much fun.
I was so scared to work with himhe’s such a legend.
But we’re having a ball.
I’m so blessed and lucky.
And the director, Akiva Schaffer, is hysterical.
And then I have mySonsie skincare line, which I do with my kids.
Its all based on how I handle skincare.
Looking forward, are you the punch in of person who has a five-year plan?
Oh gosh no, I like living in the mystery.
I can see the future, but I live in the moment.
There are things percolating, a couple more films.
I’m not trying to control everything.
I have a lot of freedom now and I owe a lot of it to my kids.
You don’t have kids and expect that they are going to grow up to create businesses with you.
They have their own lives, their own things that they do.
This is just kind of like a hobby for themMom’s become a hobby.
Sonsie is their own brand and it’s a lot of work for them to run it.
Im always trying to figure out what Im good at, to discover what natural talents I have.
Q: I enjoyed the moments of your poetry in your autobiography.
The cookbook has them, too, with handwritten lines along with your illustrations.
Yes, I did all the illustrations.
I dont say Im a perfect drawer.
I mean, I took some drawing lessons when I lived in France.
I learned how to draw animals.
Im always trying to figure out what Im good at, to discover what natural talents I have.
I dont know, maybe Im just a really hard worker.
Q: How do you quiet your mind and find solace and peace in your life?
You are a big reader.
What other things have you identified that bring you joy?
Im into candles and prayer and meditation.
This is what saved me as a kid and as a teenager.
As an adult, I write to know how I feel.
For me, its about getting over shyness.
I was painfully shy as a kid.
Q: Youve talked about how you come from a long line of strong women.
Is that a powerful thread for you?
Yes, but Id say resilient women; resilient is the right word.
It was important for me as a woman to break the family cycles as best I could.
Im not doing it this way.I see the family patterns, and then I get out of them somehow.
I dont want to keep running either.
I want to stay.
I still have a lot of growing up to do.
In some ways Im still a little kid trying to figure it all out.
Q: Youve been through a lot in your life, good and bad.
Are you naturally optimistic?
Well, I always tell my kids that challenges are the poetry of your life.
You wouldnt know hot if you didnt know cold.
You wouldnt have appreciation for the good times without going through the hard times.
Its all a roller coaster.
A lot of women at our office say they love that youre reclaiming your power and public image.
Tell me how that came about.
OK, that was fun.
But Im not that person anymore.It was a dance I was doing that I was only partly aware of.
And looking back, I can see why I did it.
But Ive always been into being a homemaker too.
All the kids were always at our house.
And it hurt them to think that those other things are the only things people think of their mom.
Yes, shes been inPlayboy.
Yes, shes done all these things, but we know who she is.
I dont think I was ever striving for perfection.
As soon as I took the mask off, the whole world opened up.
Im going to the Louvre.
And I felt like this little freckle-faced kid with a big, beautiful Vivienne Westwood hat on.
It was such a refreshing way to see everything, and I didnt think anyone would even notice.
And then it became this whole thing.
Q: Youre sharing with people a path that you love, right?
How does your current life on Vancouver Island reveal that?
Coming back to my childhood home has revealed a very magical path to me.
Its a romantic way of living in nature with compassion and sensuality.
I make my own rose hip oil, salt scrubs, and candles.
I harvest things Ive grown from my garden.
This year I planted everything from seed.I dont plant in straight lines.
I plant in patches.
It drives everyone crazy, but it looks beautiful.
My mother said, Can I help you plant?
I said, No, nobody can help me plant.
Now shes sending me pictures because Im not home.
And it is beautiful, exactly as I pictured it.
I know where everything is.
It may look confusing to some people, but it all makes sense to me.
Ive got every kind ofheirloom tomatoimaginable.
Oh my gosh, Im really excited to get home after filming ends.
Q: When you lived in Malibu, you had a big rose collection, right?
Tell me about some of your favorite varieties.
My favorite rose is Yves Piaget.
I remember getting 75 bare-root Yves Piaget roses before I even had my new Malibu garden planned out.
Now Ive got a ton of different roses.
I like roses that are deeply fragrant.
You cant even see the ground when the roses are all in bloom.
I bring them in my house over all the months that theyre blooming.
I tell everyone I want to be sprinkled in a rose garden when the time comes.
Q: Are you an organic gardener?
I use only myown compost, which is obviously purely vegetables, but Im also composting leaf mold.
I got that from watching Monty Don [on the long-running BBCGardeners WorldTV show].
Hes an incredible writer.
I love that hes such a poetic gardener, and I feel the same way.
Ive got all these collections of garden books about places like Virginia Woolfs garden at Monks House.
I think the best garden is a writers garden.
Ive got a beautiful table and mylittle pergolain my garden now where I can sit and write and read.
Q: Like a lot of our readers, you seem like youre a sandwich generation person.
Youre in the middle.
Is that informing a lot in your life right now?
It was important to me a few years ago to check that everyone was OK and settled.
Now, Ive done that.
I wouldnt say Im a planner, but Im a planner [laughs].
I needed to ensure my parents are OK. My mom has more energy than I do.
I think she likes it better when Im away and she can launch the ranch.
I need to trust that my kids are moving forward with their own thing.
Were all having parallel lives, but Im always watching out.
Hopefully, Ill be a grandparent one day, which will be fun.
Back then I needed to keep track of every sporting event and everything else.
Copyright 2024 by Pamela Anderson and photographs by Ditte Isager.
