How fake breasts, nipples, penis transformed Pam & Tommy stars Lily James, Sebastian Stan into iconic ’90s couple for Hulu show

Lily James and Sebastian Stan were unrecognisable when photos of them as Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee surfaced – it’s all down to hair, make-up and prosthetic

The stars spent hours getting ready daily, from James donning a prosthetic chest sculpted ‘three or four times to get them perfect’ to Stan’s prosthetic nipples

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Sebastian Stan (left) and Lily James in a still from Hulu series Pam & Tommy. The transformation into Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee took hours every day for the stars. Photo: AP

Published: 4:15pm, 6 Feb 2022

The task: transform actors known for playing Cinderella and Marvel’s Winter Soldier into a buxom blonde Playboy cover girl and her tattooed rock star husband.

The resemblance of stars Lily James and Sebastian Stan to Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee was shocking when streaming service Hulu released images from Pam & Tommy in May. The eight-part dramedy chronicles the four-day courtship between the Baywatch actress and the Mötley Crüe drummer before they wed in 1995 on a beach in Cancun, Mexico, dressed in bathing suits. Anderson was 27; Lee was 32.

Pam & Tommy mainly focuses on the fallout after an electrician (Seth Rogen), unpaid by Lee, obtains an intimate tape between Anderson and Lee and sells it on the internet.

“Nobody wanted to take the short cut or compromise on anything,” Jason Collins, special make-up effects designer for Pam & Tommy, says. “It’s one of those rare projects where everybody is firing on all cylinders and lightning strikes.”

James and Stan in a still from Pam & Tommy. Photo: TNS

Emulating Anderson and Lee is a tall order when you consider how their looks are fixed in the public consciousness. Most people of a certain age can conjure the image of Anderson in her Baywatch one-piece, so Lennox knew the correct cut and colour would be vital for the one they created.