Lake Bell says her 'humiliating’ nude photo leak influenced how she directed episodes of 'Pam & Tommy'

• Bell speaks out for the first time about going through a nude photo leak in 2014.
• "When I got hacked I went, 'Fuck!' It feels gross," she told Insider.

Lake Bell was one of more than a hundred celebrities who suddenly had nude photos of themselves leaked onto the internet in 2014. Now, eight years later, the actress is using that invasive experience as fuel to direct episodes about the mother of all celebrity nude leaks: the sex tape of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee.

The 2014 hack, known as "Celebgate," resulted in hundreds of nude images of 101 celebrities being posted on the imageboard 4chan and then spread quickly to other sites like Imgur and Reddit. Though some celebrities in the leak came out and confirmed their authenticity — like Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, and Kaley Cuoco — others, like Bell, stayed quiet.

"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, in her first public comments about being involved in the leak.

"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," she added, "and for me, it was so personal."

So when she was approached by her talent agent — who also represents Lily James, who plays Anderson on the show — about directing episodes for the Hulu series, "Pam & Tommy," Bell admitted that the memories of dealing with her own nude photo leak came rushing back. But she also knew she could now confront them head-on in her work.

"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 said.

Bell felt 'Pam & Tommy' was 'shockingly intelligent' when it came to examining a woman being exploited

Though on the surface "Pam & Tommy" looks like a comedic retelling of how a camcorder tape of the red hot love affair between Anderson (James) and Lee (Sebastian Stan) in the mid-1990s was stolen from them and plastered on the internet by a fired and disgruntled carpenter (Seth Rogen), it goes deeper than that.

"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," Bell said.

By episode four, directed by Bell, viewers of "Pam & Tommy" are already familiar with how the one-time couple, who divorced in 1998, met and how the tape was stolen. Now the show gets into not just how the tape got online and then was pirated endlessly on VHS tapes, but the chilling realization by Anderson that things aren't going to work out well for her.

Bell, who also directed episode seven, felt the aftermath story was where she could use her own experience to elevate the storytelling.

"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 said. "When I got hacked I went, 'Fuck!' It feels gross."

The only difference, Bell said, was that for Anderson, she had no one to compare her experience to and no concept of how many people would be interested in accessing a very private moment between her and her lover.

"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," Bell said.

Celebgate resulted in Apple announcing months after the leak happened that it was most likely hackers conducting spear phishing attacks. Since 2018, five individuals have been charged and sentenced to prison sentences, ranging from nine to 34 months.

Bell believes just because you pose nude for magazines doesn't mean you are fair game to have hacked images of yourself put online

Bell said that being a part of "Pam & Tommy" has not only elevated her storytelling style but has been therapeutic in dealing with the scandal she lived through.

"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 added.

"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," Bell continued. "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."

"Pam & Tommy" airs Wednesdays on Hulu.