“I have a ballet barre, I have my Technogym, my treadmill. I have all these different pieces and I just look at it and I haven’t used it yet.”



By Lane Florsheim

In our series My Monday Morning, self-motivated people tell WSJ. how they start off the week.



Even discussing the most prosaic parts of her life—her wake-up time, what she eats for breakfast—Pamela Anderson paints pictures with her words. She describes the colors of the sunrise and the stacks of small, produce-filled glass containers in her fridge in a way that makes you feel almost like you’re at her scenic six-acre compound in Vancouver Island, British Columbia, where she’s quarantining with only her dogs for company. It’s fitting then that Anderson, 53, who first came to national attention for her TV acting roles in Baywatch and Home Improvement, was discovered for one of her latest jobs in part because of the poetry archive on her website, after the company Jasmin’s CEO and co-founder Karoly Papp found it and read her poems. “They thought I really had something to say,” Anderson, who is also known for being an activist, film producer and author, explains. Jasmin, the new, tamer offshoot of LiveJasmin—a mostly X-rated site where viewers can watch live streams of models—hired Anderson as creative director in May. Jasmin allows celebrities like Anderson, as well as influencers and sexologists, to talk to and create non-explicit content for their viewers and fans. On a weekly basis, Anderson chats with her subscribers about what’s on her mind and sometimes answers the many questions they have for her. Anderson thinks that in addition to enduring the coronavirus pandemic, our world is suffering from an “epidemic of loneliness” right now, and she wants to help. “There are limitations when it comes to technology, but…instead of romanticizing the past, we need to make it more about now and the future, which involves technology,” she says. Here, she speaks to WSJ. about her love of solitude, not working out during quarantine (or ever) and the importance of reading and writing.



What time do you get up on Mondays, and what’s the first thing you do?

Every day to me is like a Monday. Everything’s a little bit blurry in this business. If I’m shooting a film or a photo shoot or depending on how late the night is…I have no set schedule. So if I get to sleep before midnight on a Sunday, I’m definitely up at 5 a.m. with the dogs, watching the sunrise, feeding them and hanging out with them, having some quiet time on my own.

So you’re not one of those people who need eight hours of sleep a night?

No, no. I mean, sometimes I like to sleep all day. It depends on the day and where I am, if it’s raining. Where I am, there’s a lot of rain, and it’s nice to be curled up in bed and reading a book all day. I’m lucky I get that luxury. I don’t have a strict schedule. But I am an early riser. I live on the water, and the sunrise is different every single day where I am. The blues and the purples and the pinks, it’s just magical.

What do you eat for breakfast to start the week off right?

I drink way too much coffee, way too much cappuccino, I have my almond milk cappuccinos. I have my little Nespresso machines, I have a little kind of compound—different buildings. And I have a different machine in each building, so I have different kinds of coffees wherever I go. That’s about it to start the day, and then I pick at fruit. I’ve always been one of those food prep girls where I get lots of fresh fruit, lots of fresh vegetables, and then I cut them all up and put them in little glass containers and I stack them all in my fridge. My fridge is always beautiful.

Do you set an intention for the week?

It depends on what I’m doing. I always think of my properties as my art projects, so I always want to make sure that I’ve done something to improve my surroundings, the surroundings of my family. I’m always planting flowers and gardening. I always want to make sure that I’ve done something creative, something good for the environment, something positive each week. That’s my intention. And to make sure that I’m continually writing and reading and not ever getting away from that, because when I’m not reading, I’m just not happy.

Do you have any recent favorite books?

I read a lot of Anaïs Nin, I read a lot of poetry. I go through all my crazy stuff, my Joseph Campbell, my He, She and We by Robert A. Johnson, Individuation in Fairy Tales by Marie-Louise von Franz. I have Carl Jung books I read over and over and over again. I’ve always been interested in psychology. I love Naomi Klein and she’s a friend of mine; I [was a co-executive producer] on a film with her called This Changes Everything.

Is gardening a longtime hobby?

I’m on my place in Vancouver Island now. I have six acres on the water and lots of places to garden. I canopied a lot of trees, and I’m putting in a vegetable garden and a greenhouse. I keep on dreaming up new things to do. But my mom is an amazing gardener and an amazing canner. She has that green thumb, and she also wants me to have a beautiful rose garden. I have an obsession with Yves Piaget roses, and I’ve already ordered 75 that are coming in December.

What else do you do on Mondays?

I’m always trying to think over the weekend about what’s going on in my head, what have I watched on the news, what are people talking about, and then try to talk about that a bit when I do my Jasmin postings and talks. It’s hard because on Jasmin there’s so many questions that go flying by on the screen, so I just ramble on my own sometimes about whatever’s on my mind. A typical Monday would be kind of just preparing and thinking about what I want to talk about and then getting on Jasmin. The last couple of times I’ve just been holding my cellphone and running around my property giving little tours and talking about whatever’s going on in the world. I do have pretty strong opinions about a lot of things. I feel like I’m talking to my kids sometimes, because we’ve had the most incredible conversations [on FaceTime] over the last few days. It’s really great when you know that your children have empathy and are engaged in the world. The romantic struggle, I like to call it.

Are you doing any documentary work right now?

There’s a couple in the works. David LaChapelle wants to do a film so we’ve been brainstorming. He knows what he wants to do but we’ve been talking about different ideas. I’ve actually partially written a book called Saving Feminism From Feminists. I’ve always had a lot going on. I have such great friends who are such great accomplices in my life when it comes to things I care about.

Have you shifted your routines during this stay-at-home period?

Not much, no. I came to the island—this is my sanctuary. I love solitude. I get a lot more done when I’m alone, except I wish I could see my parents more, my kids more. I have a few friends that I get to see. But I prefer just being with my dogs. I love my children as much as my dogs, but that’s about it.

What’s your exercise routine like?

I have a gym but I don’t use it. I keep looking at it. I need to use it, that’s one of the things I need to do. I’ve never worked out. I’ve never been a workout person, but I do love to dance. In my head, I’m a great dancer. I do ballet. I wish I was a dancer when I was younger. I have a ballet barre, I have my Technogym, my treadmill. I have all these different pieces and I just look at it and I haven’t used it yet.

What about your beauty routine?

If you could see me now. I have on this long, vintage slip that’s tattered and a big flannel shirt over it, and I’m running around barefoot in the rain. If you saw me right now, you’d think, She has no beauty regimen. This is not beauty, this is madness. I don’t fall for all that stuff. I’m not a big product person. I love getting facials. I love getting massages. I love all that. But if someone told me what I had to do first, second, third, I’m just not going to do it. I fall asleep in my makeup, I have mascara all over my pillow. That’s how it is.

What’s one piece of advice you’ve gotten that’s guided you over the years?

Just that we can paint our own picture of our lives, and to not fear doing something different. My grandfather was very influential in my life. He always told me, You’re a brand-new life put on this planet to do whatever you want; you’re not an extension of your parents or the small town you grew up in. You have just as much opportunity as anyone else. He was Finnish, so he spoke Finnish when I was young. That really made a lasting impression on me—not that I can do whatever I want, because I think you have to work hard if you want to be successful at anything. But I like to work hard, I like the challenge. I love interesting people, I love eccentric people. My grandfather and father were super intelligent, they were big influences on me, [as well as] my mother, who’s the funniest person I know.

via wsj.com