Lily James has opened up about feeling “liberated” playing Pamela Anderson in Hulu’s upcoming Pam and Tommy.

The eight-part mini series focuses on real-life former couple Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee as they are faced with the scandal surrounding the 1995 leak of their sex tape.

Speaking about morphing into the Baywatch bombshell for the role, actress James, 32, said: “And then, of course, there was the physical transformation. Slowly, our incredible team found a balance where I resembled Pamela but also felt like I could act through it.

“I’ve never done anything where I look very different from myself before. And I’d really like to continue in this vein, because I felt there was something very freeing and liberating in it. There was a bravery that came from that. A courage that came from… disappearing.”

It wasn’t just the asthetics that the Cinderella star found challenging as she admitted to putting in a lot of research hours too.

“I’ve never worked so hard. I’ve read all the books [Anderson] has written, I read her poetry, I can parrot along to all her interviews,” she added to PORTER magazine.

All of her hard work clearly paid off as James’ co-star, Sebastian Stan - who plays Tommy - recently admitted that he didn’t recognise the actress when he saw her out of costume for the first time.

He said: “It’s really wild, with Lily, because the first time I saw her as herself was actually at the end of the shoot five months later,” he said, “and I was like, ‘Who are you?’ That’s when we actually formally met.”