Pamela Anderson Thinks She "Had Depression for a Couple of Decades" After Baywatch Ended

Pamela Anderson might be everywhere these days, but it turns out there was time after '90s hit Baywatch ended that she questioned her career trajectory. While accepting an award at the Zurich Film Festival on Friday, Oct. 4, she told Variety that being on the beachy show was "a blessing and a curse."

“I look at it now and it feels like I went from Baywatch to Broadway. I don’t know what happened in between, it’s all a big blur," Anderson said at the event. "I am just happy to be here, in this moment, because I think I have had depression for a couple of decades.”

While the TV star and Playboy model kept a relatively low profile after leaving Baywatch in 1997, she's recently had a major career renaissance, writing a bestselling memoir and starring in everything from Smashbox cosmetics ads to the new Naked Gun movie. The Canadian native is also launching a cookbook, I Love You: Recipes From the Heart, on Oct. 15.

"I always knew I was capable of more," Anderson said. "It’s great to be a part of pop culture, but it’s a blessing and a curse."

The Love, Pamela author attended the premiere of her latest movie, The Last Showgirl at the Zurich Film Festival and also received the Golden Eye award for her career. The movie's director, Gia Coppola, told WWD that Anderson is "such a wonderful, beautiful person inside and out. And, you know, I saw her documentary, and that really proved to me that she was the only person that could play this character.”

The actress, who has made plenty of headlines in the past year for going makeup-free at fashion events and on the cover of magazines, recently told Glamour that you "hit a crossroads in your 50s."

"I’ve nothing against makeup, but I felt like it just looked better on me in my 20s than it did now," she said.

Speaking of her time wearing the iconic red one-piece on Baywatch, she mused, "People fall in love with you because of a bathing suit. It has taken a long time, but I am here.”