Cult Actors #7: Pam Grier - A Chick With Drive, Who Don't Take No Jive
Shes wearing a short dress that barely covers her curvaceous brown body. Her hair is styled in an impressive afro. In the darkness of the bedroom she purrs in front of us sexual and wanting. But as she turns we see she is no longer so willing. Her eyes become steel, we see a gun:Have no fear; Pam Grier is herea chick with drive, who dont take no jive.
The trailer for Coffy (1973)
This is the end of your rotten life you mother fucking dope pusher, says Coffy and a squeeze of the trigger sprays the gangsters head all over the wall.Pam Grier had arrived. 1973s Coffy didnt just make Grier a star; it turned her into an icon. Written and directed by Jack Hill, the film offered one of the blaxsploitation genres first female protagonists. Indeed here was a rare action hero, a woman just as powerful as the men but one without the masculine trope or gender amalgamations that screen writers often associate with girl power. As a result Pam became a role model for Black women who identified with her onscreen independence and a pin up for men who wanted her body (but probably wouldnt be sure what to do with her if they got her).
Intent on vengeance for the 11 year old sister who pushers turned into a junkie, Coffys a woman who will use everything at her disposal to hunt her prey. Her body is bait for lusting men, she fights with broken bottles, hides razorblades in her fro (Pams idea) and gets down to some epic cat fights with any bitch that stands in her way. Coffy is a hellcat but in Griers hands shes also erudite and impassioned, her acts of revenge always followed by guilty regret. is a woman who knows how to handle herself in high society and also on the streets, explained Hill. She could discuss philosophy in one scene and hit someone with a stool in the next. That was Pam.Grier was born at the tail-end of the 1940s to a father in the army and a nurse mother (whom her performance in Coffy was partially based). She was one of four children and her dads job in the air force kept them constantly on the move. To the family education was important and Pam would appear on stage and in beauty pageants to raise money for college. She mustve liked the attention because being in front of camera got to be a habit. Her first film role came in 1971 with the women-in-prison movie The Big Doll House (for which Grier sang the title track) a film also directed by Hill. He was so impressed by Grier that he wrote the part of Coffy just for her. Following the movies remarkable success, Hill began writing a sequel, Burn, Coffy, Burn which became the basis for Foxy Brown in 1974. The film abandoned realism early on and turned Grier into a full on Superwoman a Bond girl who doesnt need James Bond. In an array of exotic 70s outfits and with a stub-nose gun hiding in her bra, Foxy takes on the man after her cop boyfriend is killed by gangsters. There was a feeling of empowerment to Foxy, taking on the stupid white men who always appear to be in control. In order to get a pink ass, corrupt honkey judge, to throw the book at some dealers, she poses as a high-class hooker, gets him undressed and then humiliates him by tossing him out of the hotel room in just his briefs.
She aint gonna take no shit from a man, just because its a mans world, as rapper T.I. explained.It is easy to see why Grier was embraced by black female audiences. She was a star in a world that still struggles with race and sexual politics. In American cinema you can still count the number of black female leads on one hand and everyone from Halle Berry to Vivica A. Fox owes a debt to Pam.
In 1975 Grier took the lead in Sheba, Baby; the story of a female PI who must protect her father from the mob. Armed with a .44 Magnum, as Sheba, Pam is still kicking ass and taking names: Im not going to sit on the sidelines just because Im a woman, she tells her father before proceeding to blow the gangsters back to hell.By the mid-70s the Blaxploitation genre was beginning to peter out. The movements crime milieu offended some, and audiences grew tired of seeing black people portrayed as drug dealers, pimps and crooks. Grier herself was in two minds over the impact of these movies:
The stereotypes that we have are often what we perpetrated ourselves, she explained. I broke some of them but I also created some.Nonetheless, the genre turned Grier into a pop culture icon, a position that very few actors survive. James Dean crashed and burned, Brando ballooned and Bruce Lee perished by misadventure. Rather than believe the hype, Grier took the most sensible option available to her she went to work. Over the next 20 years she honed her craft, transforming herself into a skilled character actress. In 1977 she stared opposite Richard Pryor in Greased Lightning (and the two had a brief affair). She was in Fort Apache: The Bronx (1981) with Paul Newman, played a witch in Disneys Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983) and guest stared in TV shows, everything from The Cosby Show to Miami Vice. In the late 80s Grier was wrongfully diagnosed with having terminal cancer but somehow found the resolve to carry on. Over the following years she returned to acting with a newfound determination and in 90s began to creep back towards the mainstream with cameos in Bill & Teds Bogus Journey (1991) and Tim Burtons star-studded Mars Attacks! (1996) In the same year Grier showed a willingness to send herself up, portraying a transsexual with a baritone voice in John Carpenters Escape from LA. Here she was a former partner of Snake Plissken and just as tough as the real men around her. The more things change the more they stay the same. These films showed audiences what a versatile performer Grier had become, but it was Quentin Tarantinos Jackie Brown (1997) that proved she could still carry a movie.
Based on Elmore Leonards novel Rum Punch Tarantino (always unable to make a movie that isnt about movies) decided to turn the picture into a full blown homage to Blaxploitation cinema. The lead character Jackie Burke was switched from white to black and, in a nod to Foxy, her surname became Brown. Tarantino only had Grier in mind and she did not disappoint, still displaying that old take-no-shit fire, taking on those in her way with a pistol and fierce temper: Shut your raggedy ass up and sit the fuck down, she tells a kowtowed Samuel L. Jackson.But she is also older and more worn. Jackie worries about her appearance (though she still looks fine) and her own future. The film ends on a single close up of Jackies face, driving away having outsmarted both the cops and crooks. Her eyes go over everything shes done and there is a bittersweet mixture of strength and sadness there. Tarantino had cast Grier the icon, but had gotten an exceptional movie actress in for the bargain. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BWA1T78WpI Since Jackie, Grier has gone back to acting for a living and can be seen bringing dignity to whatever film/TV show she finds herself in. Shes been a regular player in TVs acclaimed The L Word (2004-2008) and will soon be seen in RZAs directorial debut The Man with the Iron Fists. See in 40 years of acting Grier is still as cool as ever and she still dont take no jive. Cult Actors #6 Lee Van CleefCult Actors #5 Peter WellerCult Actors #4 Yaphet KottoCult Actors #3 Rutger HauerCult Actors #2 Adrienne Barbeau Cult Actors #1: Brad Dourif