Why Pamela Anderson Wanted to Go Makeup-Free in ‘The Last Showgirl’ (Exclusive)

Pamela Anderson often chooses not to wear makeup — and so does the woman she plays in The Last Showgirl.

In a new interview with PEOPLE, Anderson, 57, explains why her character, Shelly — a Las Vegas dancer whose long-running show is coming to a close — eschewed cosmetics for the most part, unless she was performing on stage.

“I wanted to just how Shelly would be if she’s going to the grocery store,” explains Anderson. “I just wanted it to be raw and real, and I was ready for that and prepared for that and excited about that.”

While getting ready to film each day, Anderson said she turned away from the mirror. “I didn’t want that to be in my head at all about the way that I looked, unless it was in the showgirl mirrors [in the movie],” she explains. 

Anderson, the former Playboy model and Baywatch icon, is earning critical acclaim — and awards recognition — for her role in director Gia Coppola’s bittersweet drama about a woman at a crossroads. 

The actress says she was hungry for an opportunity to really dig into a role like Shelly, which Coppola hoped Anderson would take. 

She tracked down Anderson’s son Brandon to get her the script after the former Barb Wire star’s agent passed on the movie without even telling his client.

“Then I read it and I just knew I had to do it. It was very exciting. And I also changed agencies,” she says.

“I didn’t have a real strong agent or anyone with any vision or belief in me. Now I do, but only because I did The Last Showgirl. You have to get a project that you can sink your teeth into to show people that you’re more than where you’ve been pigeonholed,” she adds.

“And I just didn’t think it was ever going to happen. And I felt like, ‘Boy, I really blew it,’” says Anderson.

Once she signed on to the movie, “I prepared for it like I would a play,” she continues. “I knew the script from beginning to end inside and out and backwards before I even got to Las Vegas. But then you throw it out the window and you just let Gia direct you.”

The Last Showgirl, which costars Jamie Lee Curtis, Brenda Song, Billie Lourd and Kiernan Shipka, is in theaters Friday, Jan. 10.

For more on Pamela Anderson, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE.