Lily James "felt the pressure" playing Pamela Anderson in 'Pam and Tommy'.
Lily James wanted to do justice to the role of Pamela Anderson
The 32-year-old actress felt anxious about playing the 'Baywatch' star in the new drama series, which focuses on her whirlwind romance with Tommy Lee and the release of their sex tape.
Lily told Rolling Stone: "I felt the pressure of trying to do justice to this woman. What happened to her was so unprecedented and so wrong."
The actress recognises playing Pamela is a distinctly different challenge to most of her previous roles.
But Lily was determined to give it her best shot.
Asked about the challenge of playing the blonde beauty, Lily shared: “You come to understand how people think of you.
“That's very useful, what that fantasy idea of you is … I was ready for a transformational role, something I didn't really think I could pull off."
Lily thinks the leak of Pamela and Tommy's sex tape "collided with the huge change in the world", as it happened during the early years of the internet.
In fact, the actress believes the sex tape and the controversy that it sparked has influenced the "kind of culture we have today".
Lily - who previously played Lady Rose MacClare in the TV drama series 'Downton Abbey' - said: "A lot of people don't know the true story of what happened. And within that, the bigger themes of privacy and sexism and exploitation into the birth of the internet. It sort of simultaneously collided with this huge change in the world - the point of no return - and impacted the kind of culture we have today."
Tagged in Tommy Lee Pamela Anderson Lily James