Lake Bell has a personal connection to the new “Pam & Tommy” TV series starring Lily James and Sebastian Stan.
The actress, who directed two of the episodes, was one of many celebrities to have their nude photos hacked in the 2014 “Celebgate” scandal.
The likes of Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton and Kaley Cuoco were also victims of the leak.
“It was an unreal tsunami in the industry for private property being stolen by a hacking, and I was one of those people,” Bell told Insider.
“I remember having to talk to an FBI recovering agent for a week or so about that property being stolen and it was so humiliating, and for me, it was so personal.”
READ MORE: Sebastian Stan Was Told To Put Two Steel Balls In His Pants To Get Into Character For ‘Pam & Tommy’
“Pam & Tommy” follows “the story of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee’s relationship, going back to their whirlwind romance that started with them marrying after only knowing each other for 96 hours in 1995,” as well as focusing on their stolen sex tape.
Bell told the publication, “Reading through the series, I realized this is shockingly intelligent in its way of addressing exploitation while allowing for the viewer to laugh and enjoy.
“The disorientation that Pam Anderson felt when her stuff went viral, which wasn’t even the word at the time, I just have that knowledge. When I got hacked I went, ‘F**k!’ It feels gross.”
She added of James, “Lily and I just connected about it and it became about how do we take this story and do it justice by not allowing for exploitation to yet again be the focal point.”
Bell, who said that being a part of the series has “elevated her storytelling style” and “been therapeutic in dealing with the scandal she lived through,” shared, “I can only speak to my own experience of the exploitation of my own personal property, and so I just kind of connected through that.”
She said of Anderson’s stolen tape being distributed, “When the hack happened I wasn’t like, ‘I don’t even know what you’re talking about,’ but with Pam, she says, ‘There could be hundreds of copies out there,’ and it’s just like, ‘Bless.’ Because in reality, even back then, it was millions.
“The biggest takeaway for me was Pam Anderson is not a pushover. She was a person who made strong choices and understood what her boundaries were, and those boundaries were compromised.”
“Most actors can connect with the idea that just because I posed on the cover of a magazine naked, which I have done a couple of times, it doesn’t mean you can take naked photos that I took on my wedding night and put them out on the internet,” she concluded.
