Lily James is learning from her own mistakes.
More than a year after dealing with the media storm that came after the Pam & Tommy actress was photographed kissing married actor Dominic West, Lily is still reeling with the effects of how she was portrayed in the scandal.
"Women in the public eye at some point experience some sort of difficult situation in that relationship between privacy and your life being in the tabloids," Lily said in conversation with Rolling Stone. "It was a lot. It's a story as old as time."
That's a feeling that Lily knows all too well. In October 2020, paparazzi captured the Cinderella star and Dominic, who has been married to Catherine FitzGerald since 2010, in the middle of a heated kiss in Rome. He was also photographed kissing Lily's neck while at lunch. Despite the tabloid frenzy, Lily decided not to speak on the incident until several months passed, saying in a 2021 interview with The Guardian that there was "a lot to say, but not now, I'm afraid."
A source close to the London-based actress told E! News in 2020 that she was "mortified and embarrassed by the entire thing," adding that she "wants it all to go away and is just laying low hoping it will pass quickly."
Lily has since focused her energy into her role as Baywatch star Pamela Anderson in the new Hulu limited series Pam & Tommy. The show, which premiered last week on the streaming platform, takes a deep look into Pamela and Tommy Lee's tumultuous relationship.
The 32-year-old actress told Rolling Stone she felt a weight on her shoulders to portray Pamela in the right light. "I felt the pressure of trying to do justice to this woman," she said. "What happened to her was so unprecedented and so wrong."
It's no doubt that Lily's role as Pamela began to take a toll on her mentally and physically. Transforming into the blonde bombshell took three to five hours every morning before filming started. Lily told Rolling Stone that the role caused her to start to lose perspective of herself and said she felt "burnt out" after filming wrapped.
Check out Lily's full Rolling Stone interview here.