Pam Grier is comfortable with being an icon

In the 1970s, the height of the blaxploitation era, Pam Grier was the undisputed queen of the genre and one of the few female action stars of all time. To the movie-going public, she was truly a one-woman hit squad — a gun-toting goddess who made her name in films like “Coffy,” “Sheba, Baby” and the immortal “Foxy Brown,” where she fought . against low-income drug dealers, It is the idea that a woman could not beat a man.

“Not many women have tried to imitate me, because it’s hard to shoot a gun – guns scare people. Standing up to authority, standing up to injustice is scary,” Grier said. “And I didn’t know anything, I guess!”

Pam Grier defeats some bad guys in “Foxy Brown”:

But she always seemed to win, and in a long career, she graduated to roles that didn’t involve breaking heads, like the one she played opposite Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks in “Larry Crowne.”

And now, Grier plays the mother of a Los Angeles homicide cop in the second season of the hit horror series “Them,” now streaming on Amazon Prime. Asked why she said yes to this series, Grier responded, “Insanity! Because I’m not good with night bumps. You know, I’m not good — I lock the doors, turn on the lights. Don’t sneak up behind me!”

But there were times when his real life was scarier than anything in a movie.

Pamela Suzette Grier was born 75 years ago today, May 26th. An Air Force brat, she was raised near bases from North Carolina to the United Kingdom. Her family eventually settled in Colorado, where young Pam learned some things that would help her later. . “I had this rawness, you know, since the neighborhood, that I didn’t have to learn how to ride a horse, I didn’t have to learn how to kick butt. throw a frying pan. You know, these things came with my crafts.

And to perfect that craft, she went to Los Angeles in the 1960s, where she was discovered and subsequently cast in a series of tough prison girl films, such as “Women in Cages” and “Big Bird Cage.”

As his fame grew, his love life also attracted attention. She never married, but Grier was romantically linked to several prominent men, among them comic book legend Richard Pryor, with whom she starred in the film “Greased Lightning.”

Asked if she thought she could have married Pryor, Grier responded, “For one day. I left relationships without losing love, but without being loved. And there’s a difference. Maybe my husband, partner, companion was making movies.”

By the mid-’80s, she was a fixture in Hollywood on the big (“Fort Apache the Bronx,” “Something Wicked This Way Comes”) and small (“Miami Vice,” “Crime Story”) screens. And then, her life hit a big hurdle.

In 1988, Grier received a stage 4 cancer diagnosis and was told she had 18 months to live. “My world literally came to a screeching halt that day at the office,” she said. “And that’s how we evolve. They couldn’t say cancer. They said the C word. ‘We have the C word.’ And I thought, ‘Uh, you can say cancer. And I’m going to give it my all.’

And all of that was enough. She recovered and began to get her career back on track.

Turns out Pam Grier had fans in high places, something she discovered by accident while watching the 1992 Quentin Tarantino film “Reservoir Dogs.” “In the car they mention a woman who is a crime fighter named Foxy Brown! And I was sitting there, and everyone, they turned around and pointed at me!”

Shortly afterwards, she met Tarantino in person, who told her he was writing a script with her in mind. “I didn’t believe it,” she said, “because he’s the leading filmmaker, pop filmmaker in the world. I mean, the world. And he said, ‘No, seriously, I’ll send it to you.'”

And it was bigger than she ever imagined: Grier was the title character in Tarantino’s “Jackie Brown,” alongside Samuel L. Jackson, Robert De Niro and Michael Keaton. Not surprisingly, the experience turned her into a huge Tarantino fan. “Man, I hope he doesn’t retire,” she said. “I will take care of his children so he can work. I don’t want him to retire. There is so much more for him. And he may not want to give that. But I was lucky to experience his lessons, his joy he shared with me.”

And the joy continues: in a store attached to the Vista Theater in Los Angeles, Tarantino built a coffee shop named after one of Grier’s most famous characters, Coffy. Inside the venue is basically a shrine, with Grier’s face on everything from posters to coffee cups.

Asked if it was a little overwhelming, Grier responded, “Yes, it’s a very very heavy!”

Pam Grier seems comfortable with being an icon as long as it means she can keep doing what she loves. Asked how long she thinks she will keep making films, she replied: “Until I’m about 100 years old. You take small steps. You still move forward. And my steps might get very small when I get older, I don’t know. ” But I never want to lose my curiosity and respect for what we have.”

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Story produced by John D’Amelio. Editor: Lauren Barnello.