Pamela Anderson has opened up about her family heritage and how, in an ideal world, she would change her name.
The Baywatch star has reflected on what her childhood was like learning Finnish from her grandfather Herman in Canada.
In an interview with Vogue Scandinavia, the 58-year-old said Herman 'was the closest person to me in my life' when she was younger and that she'd 'love to go back to Finland' with her two sons. She shares Brandon Thomas Lee and Dylan Jagger Lee with her ex-husband Tommy Lee.
Anderson would carry around a Finnish dictionary everywhere she went, attempting to pick up the 'magical language' she thought only her family could understand.
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When her family arrived in Canada, Herman's last name Hyytiäinen was changed to Anderson, as the former Playboy model revealed that being able to speak Finnish fluently at 11 'kind of left' when he died.
“Sometimes I don't want to be Pamela Anderson. I want to be Pamela Hyytiäinen,” she admitted.
“I would like to change my name, but they won’t let me.”
Of her love of Finland, she said: “I just wanted to go to feel that connection.
“I’d love to go back to Finland, maybe with my sons. To find out more about myself, to explore that side of me.
“Maybe we will change my name and go back, to answer to my roots. It feels distant, but it’s a part of me.
“I’ve always been proud to tell people I’m Finnish, even before I knew what that really meant.”
Incredibly, Anderson said she still lives in that same house, which is 'triggering and crazy'.
“Even though I’ve renovated, I’ve kept a lot of the charm of my grandparents’ place. I feel him there,” she said.
“Herman was very tall, six foot three. I can see him sitting in his La-Z-Boy chair, and I can hear him, he had such a low voice. He still has such a strong presence in the house.”
In a previous 2015 interview with Esquire, Anderson claimed her grandad was 'a healer' who changed his name because 'maybe something bad happened in Finland'.
"All of his brothers changed their names, too," she reflected.
Anderson stars in Michael Cera’s directorial debut Love Is Not the Answer, a comedy where her character is 'a wonderful portrait of a woman who is interesting and layered'.
“Pam's response to the script and character, the place she is at in life right now personally and professionally and creatively speaking, her appetite to push herself and dismantle the perceptions that people have of her as an actor, all of that felt like divine cosmic timing with the emergence of this movie and this role,” Cera told the outlet, as Anderson appears alongside Liam Neeson.
There isn't yet a release date for the film, which follows an aging actress balancing 'a new movie role, her needy son, romantic possibilities, and past regrets', according to IMDb.
Topics: Pamela Anderson, Celebrity, Celebrity News, Film
Anish Vij