I will admit, when I saw the first image of Lily James and Sebastian Stan in full costume for Pam & Tommy, I honestly had no idea it was them. They physically embodied the roles of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee so authentically that I was convinced I was looking at a real vintage photo of the since divorced celebrity couple.
James and Stan are not the only familiar faces in the Pam & Tommy cast who made themselves look a little less familiar to portray the most notable people involved with the titular lovers’ sex tape scandal for Hulu’s biographical miniseries. Allow us to help you spot who is playing whom (and what other movies or TV show you may recognize them from) in the following breakdown.
Lily James (Pamela Anderson)
As model and actress Pamela Anderson in Pam & Tommy is a completely unrecognizable Lily James, who joined the Downton Abbey cast in 2012 before giving a captivating lead performance in Disney’s live-action Cinderella remake in 2015. In 2017, she captured Ansel Elgort’s heart in Baby Driver after proving her worth as an action star in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies the year before.
Speaking of, period dramas are the British actress’ bread and butter, from the Oscar-winning Darkest Hour to Netflix’s Rebecca adaptation from 2020. She also starred in two flicks inspired by pop-music back-to-back - namely 2018’s Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again as a young Meryl Streep, and Yesterday in 2019.
Sebastian Stan (Tommy Lee)
Former Motley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee is the second real-life person involved in an infamous ‘90s scandal to be played by Sebastian Stan, after Jeff Gilooly in 2017’s I, Tonya (also helmed by Pam & Tommy director Craig Gillespie). The actor was also stealing scenes in movies like Hot Tub Time Machine and TV shows like Gossip Girl, before playing Bucky Barnes in the Marvel movies made him a household name.
Outside of superhero movies (and TV shows), Stan went to space in The Martian in 2015, drove for NASCAR in 2018’s Logan Lucky, and had a fling with Denise Gough in Monday in 2020. He would cross paths with fellow MCU stars in Netflix’s The Devil All The Time cast (namely Tom Holland) and in spy thriller, The 355 (Lupita Nyong’o).
Seth Rogen (Rand Gauthier)
Rocking a mullet as Rand Gauthier, who profited from stealing the titular couple’s personal footage, we have Seth Rogen, who also has a producing credit on Pam & Tommy. He has certainly come a long way from his debut in the Freaks and Geeks cast (which led to several more collaborations with series co-creator Judd Apatow), having become one of the busiest and most surprisingly versatile talents of his time.
For instance, Rogen has leant his voice to family friendly projects like Disney’s new The Lion King cast, but also to something as raunchy as Sausage Party. He has made fun of real people (himself included) as the star and co-director of This is the End and The Interview, but has also been known to honor real people - namely with his great performance as Steve Wozniak in Steve Jobs in 2015. The guy can do it all, which I’m sure no one expected to say about the dude on the Knocked Up poster.
Nick Offerman (Milton Ingley)
Another comedic actor who has greatly exceeded expectations is Nick Offerman, who plays porn producer "Uncle Miltie” on Pam & Tommy. He previously played a person from then past on Season 2 of Fargo, played a real person (the true co-founder of McDonalds) in The Founder in 2017, and donned one equally (or, perhaps, even more) wild hairdo on FX’s sci-fi miniseries Devs in 2020.
Offerman has made it look easy to naturally flip back and forth between comedy and drama or even combining the two, like he does in Me and Earl and the Dying Girl or Hearts Beat Loud. Of course, his most iconic claim to fame is, and may remain, his endlessly quotable role in the Parks and Recreation cast as Ron Swanson.
Taylor Schilling (Erica Gauthier)
As Rand Gauthier’s wife, Erica, we have Taylor Schilling, whose most iconic claim to fame to date is her Emmy-nominated role in the Orange is the New Black cast as Piper Chapman. Before joining the Netflix series, the actress played Zac Efron’s love interest in The Lucky One in 2013 and Ben Affleck’s estranged wife in the Oscar-winning, fact-based thriller, Argo, in the previous year.
Since OITNB had its final curtain call, Schilling played the mother of a possession victim in 2019’s The Prodigy, and the subject of a strange case of magical resurrection in Hulu’s original horror anthology series, Monsterland, in 2020. In 2021, she starred on a Covid-19-inspired zombie miniseries called The Bite.
Andrew Dice Clay (Butchie)
As an ill-tempered loan shark with mob connections named Butchie, we have Andrew Dice Clay, who rose to fame as one of the most unapologetically off-putting comedians of his day. His notable early film roles include a bouncer in Pretty in Pink and the title character of the cult action comedy, The Adventures of Ford Fairlane, in 1990.
After his acting career slowed down a bit in the early 2000s, he began to make a comeback by playing himself on Entourage in 2011 (just like he did five years later on his own semi-autobiographical Showtime series, Dice), which led to roles in acclaimed films like 2013’s Blue Jasmine, and TV shows like The Blacklist and Hap and Leonard. The performance that really showed Dice’s worth as a serious actor was in A Star is Born as Lady Gaga’s loving onscreen father, Lorenzo.
Pepi Sonuga (Melanie)
Playing Pamela’s best friend, Melanie, is former teen model Pepi Sonuga, who debuted in the Cuba Gooding Jr.-led drama Life of King, followed by a recurring role on General Hospital in 2013. However, her breakthrough came in 2016 with notable roles in both Freeform’s The Fosters and the Ash vs. Evil Dead cast - the latter of which set off her modest Scream Queen reputation.
Freeform made her a series regular on Famous in Love in 2017 and, the following year, she appeared opposite Andrew Garfield in Under the Silver Lake. Most recently, she played pop star Lil Muffin on the ABC dramedy, Queens.
Spenser Granese (Steve Fasanella)
As Rand and Miltie’s associate, Steve Fasanella, we have Spenser Granese, who made his major motion picture debut in the 2017 dramedy, Landline, after starring mostly in shorts. Several increasingly noteworthy TV guest appearances would follow, including an episode of Jessica Jones (which, supposedly, makes him MCU canon like his Pam & Tommy co-star, Sebastian Stan).
In 2020, Granese did two episodes of the Breaking Bad spin-off Better Call Saul, but the following year, he die a trio of huge spin-offs. He had a recurring role on Mayans M.C., a small walk-on role in The Many Saints of Newark, and a two-episode stint on Fear the Walking Dead.
Mozhan Marnò (Gail Chwatsky)
Playing Pamela Anderson’s publicist, Gail Chwatsky, is Mozhan Marnò, who made her major motion picture debut opposite a trio of Oscar-winning legends (Tom Hanks, Julia Robert, and Philip Seymour Hoffman) in 2007’s Charlie Wilson’s War. What followed was more notable TV guest spots, but 2014 saw her make a real breakthrough with three major gigs.
She starred in the acclaimed vampire thriller A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, joined Netflix’s House of Cards cast, and became a series regular on NBC’s The Blacklist. She also leant her voice to a DC animated movie (Wonder Woman: Bloodlines) in 2019 and has small parts on acclaimed TV series Madame Secretary, The Affair, and Ramy under her belt.
I am not sure if there has ever been a truer sign of how nostalgic the ‘90s have become than the extreme lengths the Pam & Tommy cast have taken to represent the decade with their physical transformations. See just what I mean by streaming the biographical miniseries, which is now available on Hulu.
