Pamela Anderson Is Cooking Up Something Special at Her 100-Year-Old Farmhouse

Since the start of 2022, Pamela Anderson has starred in Broadway’s Chicago; she was the focus of a Netflix documentary—functionally the antidote to the unauthorized Hulu dramatization of a much-exploited period in her life, which premiered the year prior; she has fronted a number of high fashion campaigns, including a stint as the face of Proenza Schouler; she released her memoir, a New York Times bestseller; and she leads The Last Showgirl, Gia Coppola’s upcoming drama, with a performance early reviews consider her all-time best. But a few years ago, the Hollywood icon was feeling aimless. Unsure of what was next professionally, she went back to her roots: Arcady, her family’s plot in Ladysmith, Vancouver Island, where she was raised.

It needed some work. A few of the cabins on the compound had rotten floors, some had to be torn down completely. Her homecoming marked a restorative time for both the estate and the actor, who is now heralding a full-fledged career renaissance. “I wanted to peel it all back, to really check in with myself, to remember who I am and not what everybody else is telling me I am,” Anderson tells AD. “And then, of course, when I’m [home], comfortable, everything is looking good, and I’ve spent some time alone, I got a call to do Broadway, and then I got a call to do The Last Showgirl, and then I did [the] Naked Gun [sequel], and now I’m doing another film, so I guess this is just happening! I’m really good at going with the flow, and this is just the best time in my life, my career. I’m so excited.”

Lucky for Anderson, that fallow period granted her time to nurture some hobbies outside of showbiz—like gardening and cooking with fresh homegrown produce—before it all ramped up again. Her new cookbook, I Love You, a culinary love letter at least nominally to the reader but explicitly dedicated to her two sons as they get started in their own first kitchens, is filled with both Anderson’s favorite plant-based recipes and soulful anecdotes. She ruminates on bathing her kids in rose petals when they were babies, experimenting with overnight oats, and working in the garden (where, she is convinced, fairies visit and leave behind little baubles and treasures). As the homebody embraces a much busier time away from her domestic delights, she sat down with AD to discuss the comforts of life at Arcady with her family.

Architectural Digest: What city do you live in?

Pamela Anderson: I live in Ladysmith on Vancouver Island. I’m on my vegetable farm, Arcady, with my three dogs, Lucky, Lola, and Zouzou. I miss them so much!

How would you describe the style of your home?

I think it’s kind of like a wildflower sanctuary: mystical, very romantic. I live in a rainforest, so it just feels very, I don’t know, healthy. Of course I love neutral colors. I love all the linen, and everything is very earthy and wood and white and concrete, and I love that too. It’s eclectic, I like to have fun. It’s bursting with memories of my childhood, so it’s triggering! [Laughs.]

What would you say is your favorite home gadget or appliance?

Oh my goodness, I don’t know if it’s my favorite, but I obviously use my espresso machine quite often, I can say that! That’s my go-to every morning, it’s part of my ritual. Then I start writing, and I have my life, my walks. I walk outside all the time.

What is your bedtime ritual?

I take a bath with salts and oils. And then I do my whole skin-care routine with my Sonsie skin stuff and read a good book, watch a movie. What’s the stack of books on my bedside table? Maybe something by Anaïs Nin or Dorothy Parker. I’ll watch a French film like Godard or maybe even Fellini, depending on how I want to dream that night. That’s kind of where I go into my little Criterion Channel. Very cozy.

Which room in your house is your favorite and why?

Well, the kitchen of course! It’s where everybody gravitates to. My kitchen has a lot of memory in it too, from my grandmother. It’s just very farm, very relaxed, lots of French cutting boards and old wood bowls and things that I’ve collected in my travels, lots of big, old wood tables, because I like to do big spreads of food. I’ll do a whole roast of cauliflower, and I bake a lot of sourdough too, so I need big counter space because I’m rising bread. And I have my sourdough starter (named Astrid; you have to name a sourdough starter). When I’m home, I’m up very, very early—baker’s hours—and so I’m always in my kitchen. I miss it! I’m on the road. I haven’t been home for a couple months, so you’re making me homesick!

I’m homesick for your house, it sounds spectacular. On that note, what object in the house has some extra sentimental value to it?

My grandmother’s upright piano. I had to refurbish it, refinish it, and, yeah, it holds a lot of meaning. I remember my grandfather [and] my father playing piano. I can play the simplest of things, but my son Dylan is a great piano player. Self-taught! Really beautiful.

Describe an item in your home that you brought back from a trip.

This latest thing that I brought back is crazy. It’s a vase, but it’s very Gaudí-inspired. I was just in Barcelona. I went to the cathedral, the Sagrada Familia. I was obsessed with Gaudí buildings and was going to all of them really early in the morning before everybody else got up. The pottery has all this lavender kind of growing out of it, so it’s quirky and eccentric.

If you could change an item in your house or any feature of your home, what would you choose?

I’d want to finish my greenhouse. I have a beautiful place to eat in the garden, but there’s a lot of weather there, so I want to be able to eat throughout the seasons close to my garden.

What are the oldest and newest things in your house?

The oldest thing in my house is just the house! The house is 100 years old, and it has a lot of the original doors and hardware and everything. I can’t think of anything new. I don’t really buy a lot of stuff. I think I have everything I need.