Image Source: IMDb, Newsweek

Wonder how Lily James was turned into the spitting image of Pamela Anderson for the latest Hulu film drama miniseries, Pam and Tommy? The miniseries by the actress is a story detailing the infamous leaking of Pamela Anderson and her former husband Tommy Lee's sex tape.

While the actress, Lily James, looks pretty much like Pamela Anderson in the series, she was not really the one to bear her the most resemblance. In fact, the actress herself admitted that she was 'shocked' when she learned that she was approached for the phenomenal portrayal of Pamela Anderson by Hulu, first and foremost because she being a natural brunette was being asked to play the celebrity, so famous for her blonde locks. 

And yet, if you see Lily James in the costume of Pamela Anderson today, you will be barely able to tell the difference between the two. James credited her incredible makeup team for making her look like the Baywatch hottie. She detailed that her complete transformation into the celebrity took about four hours dedicated to her hair, makeup, prosthetics, and wardrobe that changed her into Pam's identical twin. 

James shared, "I have to give all the credit to David Williams on the makeup side, and Barry Lee Moe from hair, and the prosthetic team, and my day-to-day makeup artist Abby Lyle and Mo Meinhart, who are the greatest people ever and just so dedicated, so full of love and attention to detail." "And Kami Lennox, our costume designer, is out of this world," she added. 

The actress shared the entire process of changing from Lily James to Pamela Anderson with Entertainment Weekly and took them on a wild ride where she shared each detail that made her more like the blonde celeb. 

To get into shape and a physique like Pamela Anderson, James had to hit the gym six months before she was to appear on the sets as Pamela Anderson. 

Giving the inside details of her body workout, she said, "I worked with this amazing trainer, Matt Bevan, who worked with Daisy Ridley as well." "He worked me so hard and I got really fit. I lost a ton of weight. I've put it all back on again though, unfortunately. But I felt really athletic, which I hadn't done for a long time and there was great confidence that came from that," she added. "I feel less self-conscious on a beach now."

Once she was done with the body, she felt like the 90's hit comedic actress and felt more at ease to portray her. Being in a body like Anderson, it was easy to play her, and hence, James tapped into Anderson's inner strength for her part in the series. "It was really wonderful to feel like that, to feel so in my own body," said the actress. "It was really tough though, but it was rewarding."

The training was to be done regularly so that she could keep just as fit and keep on looking her part. Hence, the actress said that she incorporated other parts of readying for the character into her daily exercising routine. "He would make me do all my work and read my script on a running machine," she said, referring to her trainer. 

Now that James' body was to the point, it is time to put in the actual resemblance where the actress' face was subject to long hours putting on makeup. Because the team had to put in a lot of work for the face, James needed to begin the work even before the sun had risen. 

"I was in the makeup chair at 3:30 a.m., and there would be this four-hour process to get me into the Pamela look," she revealed.  "Eyes, wig, teeth, there was just a whole process." To get more into character, the actress paired her makeup time with listening to 90s music. 

Once she was done and her wig was finally secured, the team would begin their work on getting her prosthetics right. While she did not resemble Pamela a lot, the actress shared that they did not have to do a lot of prosthetics. "We explored tons of different prosthetics like nose, chin, eyebrows, forehead, but in the end, we stripped it back as much as possible," she revealed. "We didn't want there to be too much of a barrier between me and my expressions. I think they did a really great job. I was really pretty shocked by what they were able to do."

The actress only used two pairs of nose prosthetics for the role. 

Another key process to look like Pamela was to get the right prosthetics for the breasts. "The breast piece was amazing," she admitted "You would never, never know it wasn't me. It was shocking."

"In the end, because it took so long to put on, I didn't wear it as much as I wanted to," said the actress. "We sort of cheated with my own boobs and figured out outfits and stuff to camouflage or hide and faked the illusion they're bigger."

"It would be boiling hot — I got really sweaty and my boobs were coming off," she joked, adding how difficult it was to manage the prosthetics. "I'm English, it's too hot!"

"I just couldn't believe how pale I was before," James said about being spray-tanned to imitate Pamela's bronze skin tone. "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."

The actress also had to learn to imitate Pamela's voice "I would watch a lot of interviews of Pamela from that time. And I have this great dialect coach, Liz Himelstein, and she would do these weird tongue twister exercises with me and we'd work on my voice."