‘Pam & Tommy’: Sebastian Stan Carried Around a Bizarre Item in His Pants to Become Tommy Lee
For Sebastian Stan to become Tommy Lee in Hulu‘s Pam & Tommy, he went through hours in the makeup chair. The actor soon became unrecognizable, covered in Lee’s famous tattoos, black hair, eyeliner, and rocker look. Fans have seen Stan dedicate himself to his on-screen roles meticulously. Stan revealed the one bizarre item he carried around in his pants while filming Pam & Tommy to feel as well endowed as Lee.
Who is ‘Pam & Tommy’s’ Tommy Lee?
Tommy Lee became a celebrity as the founder and drummer of the heavy metal band Mötley Crüe. In the age of hard rock, Lee was a wild child and a notorious bad boy. According to Cosmopolitan, he also founded the rap-metal band Methods of Mayhem. The story of Pam & Tommy takes place when Lee meets Pamela Anderson during a night out and is based on a Rolling Stones article.
Only four days after meeting each other, they got married in a private beach ceremony in February 1995. The series chronicles their love story, marriage, and becoming victims of a crime when their private sex tape was published online.
The scandal in the rise of the internet affected Lee and Anderson’s marriage and her public image. For Stan to embody Lee’s looks, persona and bring the story to life, he used a certain item to feel the gravity of Lee’s well-endowed nether regions.
Sebastian Stan used steel balls while filming ‘Pam & Tommy’
In an appearance with Lily James on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Stan revealed his secret to fully immersing himself into his role as Lee for Pam & Tommy. On the topic of James’s bleached blonde eyebrows, Kimmel brings up a behind-the-scenes video of Stan in his trailer in full costume.
The video show’s Stan making short movements while standing. When listening closely, a small metal clanking noise comes from his pants. Pam & Tommy’s Stan had to explain what was going on. The actor explains his acting coach Larry Moss told Helen Hunt, while working on As Good as It Gets to put nickels in her shoes. That way, she feels the weight of standing on her feet for hours.
Stan being a dedicated actor, needed a similar trick to understanding his role as Lee. “We came up with this idea for the duration of the shoot. You know Tommy was a big man. So I wore these bare steel balls,” explained Stan.
He then proceeds to take out a pair of metal balls and gives them to Kimmel as a gift saying, “Just in case you need a little weight when you walk into a room.” In Pam & Tommy, audiences get a full view of Stan as Lee naked in a questionable penis scene.
Sebastian Stan wore a prosthetic during ‘Pam & Tommy’s’ most graphic scene
So far, Pam & Tommy have not skimped out on sexual scenarios. Audiences could not help but be bewildered during a solo scene where Stan is fully naked and talking to his penis after consuming a drug. The scene is one of the few graphic scenes where audiences see it all. It led people to question if what they saw of Stan was the real deal or Hollywood magic.
According to Men’s Health, the scene was inpsired by Lee’s 2004 memoir Tommyland. Showrunner Rob Siegel told Entertainment Weekly the appendage is not actually Stan but a puppet-like animatronic penis prosthetic.
“If we were showing full-frontal male nudity, that would be a different issue, but it’s almost so silly that it makes it maybe less [of an issue]. I can’t think of a more fun and cuddly way to get away with extended full-frontal male nudity. It’s a puppet, it’s like Yoda,” said Siegel.
Makeup artist Jason Collins explained the process to GQ UK and said they lifecast Stan to make for a seamless look and used medical-grade silicone. When it came time for Stan to film for Pam & Tommy, the actor had to “saddle’ himself into the appliance like a sleeve.” A crew member had to manually puppet the prosthetic for the scene.
