‘Pam and Tommy’: The Story Behind Sebastian Stan and Lily James’ Prosthetic Privates for the Hulu Series

Lily James and Sebastian Stan transform into Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee with the help of prosthetic private parts in the eight-part Hulu series Pam and Tommy. Find out how hair, makeup, and wardrobe departments came together to turn these actors into one of Hollywood’s most iconic couples.

‘Pam and Tommy’ creators didn’t want a ‘caricature’ version of Pamela Anderson

As special makeup effects designer Jason Collins discussed with USA Today, the team working on Pam and Tommy, including makeup department head David Williams, hair department head Barry Lee Moe, and costume designer Kameron Lennox, were careful about turning James into Anderson. “[Moe] really wanted to make sure that we weren’t making a joke out of this,” Collins said. “[That] we weren’t doing Pam drag.” Instead, they wanted to honor Anderson as the “beauty icon” she was at the time. 

Lily James took four hours to get ready with hair, makeup, and prosthetics

James spent four hours with the makeup, hair, and costuming team to become Anderson. Williams used a prosthetic forehead to cover James’ natural eyebrows and create more space between her eyes and hairline. From there, Williams applied lace eyebrows to mimic Anderson’s thin eyebrows. 

James also had dental pieces to help create Anderson’s smile and push James’ top lip out, which helped her talk like the Barb Wire star. James also wore contacts to mask her brown eyes.

“After that, it’s ‘a little paint’ll make you what you ain’t,'” Williams told the outlet. “Highlights, shadows, contours that enhance the prosthetic, that change structure.” 

Lily James and Sebastian Stan both wore chest prosthetics

Perhaps the most important element of James’ costume is the prosthetic chest that recreates Anderson’s physique. Per Collins, the breasts were sculpted “three or four times to get them perfect.” 

Surprisingly, James’ co-star Stan also had prosthetics on his chest while playing Lee. His prosthetic nipples took about 45 minutes to apply and allowed Lee’s iconic nipple rings to adhere to the actor. Stan also got to work with a prosthetic penis for that scene from Pam and Tommy episode 2. 

Sebastian Stan’s tattoos in ‘Pam and Tommy’ aren’t exact copies of Tommy Lee’s 

The Marvel Cinematic Universe star took three hours to transform into the Mötley Crüe drummer for the Hulu series. Replicating Lee’s many tattoos took the most time — about two of the three hours it took to get Stan camera ready. 

Stan had more than 30 tattoos on at a time while filming Pam and Tommy, but none of them were exact replicas of what’s on Lee’s body. According to Williams, there were legal reasons they couldn’t use Lee’s actual tattoos. Instead, they used variations of them approved by the legal team. 

Outside of the tattoos, Stan maintained stubble on his face, colored his eyes with contacts, and darkened his eyebrows, soul patch, and hair to embody the rocker. Moe styled Stan’s hair in a way that helped elongate his face and better resemble Lee.

Watch ‘Pam and Tommy’ on Hulu 

Anderson’s relationship with Lee is at the center of Pam and Tommy, but the show is also about Rand Gauthier (Seth Rogen), the man responsible for exploiting the infamous sex tape. Four episodes are available on Hulu now.

New episodes come out every Wednesday at 3 a.m. ET/12 a.m. PT on the streaming platform.