(CNN) — On a crisp spring morning in Manhattan, Pamela Anderson rehearses her lines for her Broadway debut. Her scripts are arranged on the coffee table in front of her; she pen in hand, she takes last minute notes. The bustling streets make her the buzz outside the windows of her hotel suite overlooking New York’s iconic Central Park, but she’s too busy to notice: she has work to do.
In just days, she’ll take the stage for what she says is the biggest role of her career: Roxie Hart in Bob Fosse’s musical “Chicago.”
“I just threw myself into rehearsals,” he told CNN. “And it was six, seven, maybe eight hours a day. I was doing four hours of dancing, one hour of voice, two hours of acting… Then I came to New York and got into this with David Bushman and director I’m like, ‘I’m doing it, I’m doing it!’”
“And it’s amazing because I didn’t realize, obviously, your voice, it’s a muscle, and every day my voice gets louder and louder, until I look behind me and think, who’s singing like that?”
Anderson says that 11 years ago he was first approached for the role, but the timing was not right. He says that she did not want to leave her two children, whom he raised without the help of a nanny.
“I couldn’t even imagine that that was something I could do,” he said. “Especially with young children. My children were teenagers at the time.”
But he says the stars aligned when he got the call from acclaimed Broadway producer Barry Weissler just a few months ago. Next Tuesday she will take the stage for the first time at the Ambassador Theater in the iconic role.
Anderson, who was born and raised in the small Canadian town of Ladysmith, started out in Hollywood as a model and became one of Playboy’s most recognizable stars, with her first magazine cover in 1989.
She made her acting debut on ABC’s “Home Improvement,” but then landed the role that made her a household name: CJ Parker on “Baywatch,” which she starred in for five seasons until 1997. Throughout her career, she had countless leading roles. television and in 1996 a leading role in the cinema in “Barb Wire”.
But when it comes to the boards, this is his first time.
“I’m going to be so nervous,” she smiles. “But I also love being live. I’ve been doing some public speaking in Oxford and Cambridge about veganism and things like that…so I think I’m really going to love it.”
Anderson’s name has been in the spotlight in recent months, with the recent series about an infamous video recording, and with everyone waiting for him to break his silence. But she hasn’t addressed it publicly yet.
Instead, she says, she is determined to get back into the spotlight with her craft.
“I was on my little ranch in Canada with my dogs and my garden and everything. It’s been a while since I’ve done anything, but I’ve never done anything on this level.”
Anderson stands up and walks over to two closets full of designer clothes. She begins to show dresses, jackets and blouses with a family air. And it’s because they have it. Anderson had her most iconic looks from the ’90s brought back to wear in New York.
“I never shop,” she says, holding up a Chanel jacket. “This is all stuff I’ve had forever. I’m just shopping from my closet,” she laughs.
Anderson says the preparation for “Chicago” has been all-encompassing; he even wakes up at night, reciting his monologue.
“I’m dreaming and I wake up talking. And then I’m like, okay, that was interesting. I go back to sleep and it’s like I’m dancing in my mind,” she said.
“I’m not a dancer. So I had to put this all together. I don’t even know how I did it. The show is very physical. I’m doing the original choreography, which I think doesn’t always get done. So they’re giving me everything, and you get a thing and they give you another one. I’m like, ‘No! I just learned this. Is there a whole exit dance now?’ My head is going to explode. But I do. And then I get it. I’m like, ‘Okay, I got it.'”
After about 30 minutes of answering questions, Anderson quiets down, staring at the huge stack of papers on the other side of his expansive hotel suite.
They are his long-awaited memories. He is also making a documentary with Netflix.
“When younger, I regained control in certain situations, and I feel the same way [ahora]he said. “It feels like one more step towards taking back my power and really taking it back. It is very empowering. And I feel like they’re supporting me. Feeling supported is something new for me. I don’t want to let anyone down, but I don’t want to let myself down either.”
As for all the attention she’s gotten recently, she says she thinks this Broadway role “could be the start of something really interesting for me.”
“And in a way that I feel respected, honored, all these weird things that I’ve never felt before. So it’s a very weird feeling… I always knew, even as a kid, I remember when I was five years old I thought that I was going to do something that was going to be unexpected… not to prove people wrong, but just to prove to myself that I was capable of doing something great.”
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