Pam & Tommy, starring Lily James and Sebastian Stan, the much-awaited Hulu series directed by Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya, Cruella), explores the relationship between Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee and is an account of their stormy courtship and paparazzi-plagued marriage. The first celebrity couple to fall victim to a sex-tape scandal, the series chronicles the circumstances leading up to the shooting of the video on their honeymoon, and its aftermath following the theft of the tape and illegal distribution to the public.

It was 1996. The Baywatch actress and Motley Crue drummer were at the top of their game; however, the leak of the infamous tape containing the couple’s most intimate moments caused much misery, particularly for Anderson given the sexist and misogynistic culture back then. It also marked the end of Internet privacy as we knew it. Although it negatively impacted Anderson’s career, the sex-tape scandals that followed have, in many cases, launched careers, the likes of Paris Hilton’s and Kim Kardashian’s.

With the application of prosthetics and hours of sitting in the makeup chair each day, the resemblance thereby created between the two actors and the characters they are portraying is truly striking

Lily James says of how she felt when she first saw herself in the mirror as the famed bombshell: “It was shocking … but in a good way,” she laughs. “I spent three or four hours a day [transforming into Anderson], sometimes longer.” Sebastian Stan added, “To me, once I saw myself, it felt like, this is actually going to happen. We’re not just talking about it anymore.”

For Stan, because of the many required tattoos and piercings, he spent considerable time transforming into the quintessential rock god. James glances at Stan and offers, “For a dude, he spent a long time in the makeup chair.” Stan agrees. “Yeah, I had two men applying tattoos at the same time.” Adjusting to the nipple piercings was one of the less pleasant realities Stan had to endure. “It’s a strange sensation when a 45-year-old man is applying things to that area at 4:00 in the morning, so yeah, it took a minute,” he laughs.

The actors came together to answer questions on IMDB.com

Recreating the wedding scene, replete with James’s replica of Anderson’s bridal string bikini as she frolicked with Lee on the beach in Cancun, and as they ran into the ocean together, conjures a familiar image, one which was replayed countless times on TV and in the tabloids throughout the mid-90s.

Stan says, “I remember shooting that day. It was so freezing, and we were told we had to go in the water.” James adds, “Yeah, I felt the dread just rising. We had to run into the sea, and it was one take. It’s funny because it looks so romantic, but we were surrounded by people screaming at us, ‘Go, go, get in the water!’”

Tommy Lee is widely regarded as one of the great rock ‘n’ roll drummers of his generation, and Stan had to rise to the challenge of appearing authentic while playing the drums. “I learned as much as I could for the first three months while we were preparing. I had drums at home, and I had someone come over [to teach me] on a regular basis.”

Stan considers which of Lee’s tattoos, replicated on his own body, is his favorite. “There were so many. There was Mighty Mouse, and that leopard on my arm, but probably it was the MAYHEM tattoo (across his torso).” He grins. “That was pretty epic.”