Lake Bell Breaks Silence on ‘Humiliating’ Nude Photo Leak, How It Informed Pam & Tommy Directing

“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,” Bell told Insider. “When I got hacked I went, ‘F—!’ It feels gross.”

For the first time ever, Bell has confirmed that she was part of the massive 2014 celebrity photo hack that saw intimate and private images of more than a hundred celebs illegally acquired and distributed to the public.

“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,” Bell noted. “And for me, it was so personal.”

That intimate understanding of what it’s like to have something so personal and private not only stolen but disseminated to the public gave her a more authentic understanding of what Anderson went through as arguably the first viral sex video of the internet era.

As such, she used her own experience with intention to be sure she was respecting Anderson’s experience and story, as presented through Lily James’ portrayal.

“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,” she said. And while the series has a dark, twisted sense of humor — perhaps best exemplified by Sebastian Stan’s Tommy Lee having an animated conversation with his own penis — it’s not just a farcical take on a well-known story.

“Reading through the series, I realized this is shockingly intelligent in its way of addressing exploitation,” Bell said. “While allowing for the viewer to laugh and enjoy.”

“Pam & Tommy” dropped its first three episodes this past week, which set the stage for the exploitation to come. In it, fans get the point of view of the disgruntled carpenter who stole the tape, as well as the newlyweds in love and oblivious to just how much their lives were about to change.

The trio of episodes culminated in the creation of the sex tape, leaving all of its players on the cusp of chaos. It was at this moment that Bell entered the narrative, taking the helm for the upcoming fourth installment. She also directs the seventh episode.

For Bell, her own understanding of how many copies of her private photos were distributed across the internet gives her an intimate understanding — albeit on a different scale — of what Anderson was going through. One difference, though, was that hacks of this sort were nothing new when it happened to Bell. For Anderson, this was something unprecedented.

“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,” said Bell.

She also emphasized that just because someone makes a conscious decision to pose nude does not give the public carte blanche access to their body. “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 also gained a new appreciation for Anderson, who was vilified and slut-shamed for a video that was never intended for public consumption. “The biggest takeaway for me was Pam Anderson is not a pushover,” she said. “She was a person who made strong choices and understood what her boundaries were and those boundaries were compromised.”

New episodes of “Pam & Tommy” drop ever Wednesday on Hulu.