ENCOURAGED BY HER SON TO ACCEPT BIG COMEBACK ROLE PAMELA ANDERSON ON PUTTING HER LIFE INTO HER ART AND LEARNING WHO SHE REALLY IS

Her glamour, curves and turbulent love life once dominated the headlines, but Pamela Anderson is embracing a new chapter in her life.

Having ditched her red swimsuit long ago, along with her image as an international sex symbol, the former Baywatch babe has become better known as an animal-rights activist, as well as a champion of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Now, she has reinvented herself again – this time as a serious actress who is being tipped for an Academy Award for her latest film role.

Sitting down at the recent San Sebastián International Film Festival in Spain, where her new movie The Last Showgirl received a standing ovation and rave reviews, the 57-year-old actress tells hello!: “I think being a woman in your 50s is inspirational.

“I’ve got off the rollercoaster of emotions over the past few decades. I barely even remember them, but here I am, and with all this experience,” she says in a soft, girlish voice that barely rises above a whisper.

When we meet Pamela in an elegant hotel, she is still processing the ecstatic reception for her film a day earlier, when she had stood amid the crowds looking both triumphant and slightly bewildered, dressed in a floor-length pink gown.

Today, beneath severe black spectacles, her face is free of makeup – and, dressed in a crisp white blouse and long black skirt with her blonde hair scraped back, she looks every inch like a woman who now demands to be taken seriously.

“You know, I’m 57 years old,” she says. “A lot of my career was about physicality, and it’s been a journey, but it’s also been part of the reason I’ve done this experiment with myself; to peel it all back, remember who I am and not be defined by what people do to me, but defined by what I do, and to have passion for the work and not become bitter or jaded – still finding joy in the process, in life and in this business.”

Pamela’s life became a series of headlines following her ill-fated marriage to rocker Tommy Lee, father of her sons Brandon, 28, and Dylan, 26.