2020s: Critical resurgence and plant-based cooking
Anderson made her Broadway debut playing Roxie Hart in the Broadway production of Chicago for eight weeks from April 12, 2022 to June 5, 2022 (her first time performing since 2019). That same year, she expanded her presence on television with the reality series Pamela's Garden of Eden, which premiered in November 2022. The show followed Anderson as she left her Hollywood life behind to return to her roots on her family's Vancouver Island property, where she undertook the extensive restoration of her grandmother's legacy estate and embraced sustainable design and gardening.
The series proved popular enough to return for a second season in 2023, in which Anderson continued the renovation but also assisted her sons, Brandon and Dylan, with transforming their newly purchased home in Los Angeles, giving viewers a deeper look at her life, design philosophy, and family dynamics. Anderson described the second season as a more authentic reflection of where she is in life, emphasizing sustainability and her growing sense of self-acceptance.
A few months later in 2023, Netflix released a documentary directed by Ryan White on her life from childhood to the 2022 appearance in Chicago, called Pamela, a Love Story. It was also produced by her son Brandon Thomas Lee, who received his first Primetime Emmy Award nomination as a producer in the 2023 Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special category for his work on the film. Its release coincided with Anderson's autobiography, Love, Pamela, which debuted at number two on The New York Times Best Seller list within its first week of release.
After watching Pamela, a Love Story, Gia Coppola expressed interested in casting Anderson as the lead character Shelly in her 2024 drama film The Last Showgirl. She sent the script to Anderson's then-agent who turned it down within the hour without letting Anderson know about it. Coppola then reached out to Anderson's son Brandon through mutual friends, who passed it along to his mother. While Anderson had given up on acting by this point, she accepted the role. She was officially cast in February 2024, starring alongside Jamie Lee Curtis, Dave Bautista, Brenda Song, Kiernan Shipka and Billie Lourd. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2024, with Anderson calling it "the role I have been waiting for my entire career". Caryn James of the BBC called Anderson "a revelation" and wrote: "The low-key devastation Anderson has captured is the real acting triumph." David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter said Anderson's "transformative performance is undeniably affecting, offering illuminating insights into both the character and the actress playing her, who has had to struggle to be taken seriously. This role should mark a turning point on that front." Anderson received a nomination for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama for her performance in the film, marking her first Golden Globe Award nomination and the first major industry acting nomination in her career. She was also nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role.
Anderson appeared in the November 12, 2024 episode of the Criterion Closet, where she discussed her lifelong interest in cinema. The films she selected included Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless, David Lynch's Blue Velvet, Federico Fellini's La Strada, and David Lean's Summertime. In 2025, Anderson appeared in the Williamstown Theatre Festival's production of Camino Real (Tennessee Williams), and is slated to appear in Karim Aïnouz's Rosebush Pruning.
In the early 1990s, Anderson was offered the role of Tanya Peters in the 1994 film, Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult, but turned it down due to scheduling conflicts (the role eventually went to Anna Nicole Smith). Over thirty years later, Anderson co-starred in the 2025 legacy sequel, The Naked Gun (Beth Davenport) alongside Liam Neeson (Lt. Frank Drebin Jr.)
Anderson's 2024 plant-based cookbook I Love You: Recipes From the Heart, was nominated for a 2025 James Beard Award. The work of her photographer, Ditte Isager, was recognized in the "Media: Visuals" category. Actress and talk show host Drew Barrymore has noted that "as a cookbook collector" she found I Love You: Recipes From the Heart to be "the most beautiful cookbook I've ever seen - it is stunning." VegNews listed I Love You: Recipes From the Heart as one of "The Best Vegan Cookbooks of 2024," Chowhound referred to it one of the "15 Best Vegetarian Cookbooks Of 2024," and SHE Media listed Anderson as one of "22 Celebrity Moms Whose Cookbooks Will Solve Your Dinner Problems." During her interview with Anderson for Elle, Martha Stewart stated that I Love You: Recipes From the Heart is "very nicely done," and that Anderson drew from French cuisine "in the most simple, beautiful way." In addition, after testing a salad recipe in the book, Jessica Wrubel wrote in Parade magazine that she was "completely smitten with I Love You as a whole. Pamela's journey into this softer, more personal territory—whether through her recipes or her stories—makes the book feel like an extension of her heart. If you've ever doubted the staying power of Pamela Anderson's influence, let this cookbook—and this salad—prove you wrong."
In 2025, she began hosting Pamela's Cooking with Love (a plant-based cooking show), when it debuted on Canada's Flavour Network. The show was greenlit in February 2023.
