A Portrait Of Pam Grier (1999) | Narrated by Richard Roundtree

[Music] next on intimate portrait Pam Grier is one of the most popular actors of the last three decades in the 1970s when roles written for strong women were rare Pam Grier broke barriers and made movie history with her image as a tough sexy woman who could take on any man Pam was always the number one female action star and she was actually you know beautiful and sexy at the same time so she becomes just like wonderful kind of icon for us all some people are expect me to walk into a room wearing platform she was in a big fro and a halter top saying get down sucker you know the same woman you saw with the you know doing her thing and kicking and beating up people comes out in such a different way in the 1980s Pam faced one of her greatest challenges when she was diagnosed with cancer I go for it just a regular checkup I was then I've got like in a vase of cancer and I have 18 months to live and the closest person to me abandoned me he was gone Pam bounced back to beat the odds both personally and professionally by making an unbelievable comeback with a starring role in a Quentin Tarantino film Jackie Brown one I always liked pimping - I thought she could do a good job and actually tell you the truth ray just wanted me to today Pam is once again one of the most sought-after actors in the business coming full circle and a real-life success story to rival any Hollywood script I'm Richard Roundtree please join me for an intimate portrait of an American icon Pam Grier [Music] [Music] Pamela Suzette Grier was born on May 26 1949 in winston-salem North Carolina she is the oldest of her two siblings Rodney and Gina Pam's father Clarence was an enlisted maintenance mechanic in the Air Force while Pam's mother Wendelin played a large part in shaping Pam's independent spirit my mom was a military wife and taking care of her you know three kids and went back to school she was very ambitious and she was a woman she was part of the women the moms that help the women into the 70s power movement saying that you could do anything to be anything she was a surgery nurse and our mother always instilled the value of being independent not not depending on anyone for anything developing our career is being the best we can be in whatever we do in 1957 when Pam was 8 years old her father was transferred to a military base in Swindon England and Pam had an opportunity to experience life abroad Pam had no trouble fitting into her new environment of course all that they of my schoolmates wanted to know about American music they wanted to know the dances they want I would bring my records you know to class and they just had such an acceptance because I had an acceptance of myself and I s the way I was brought up maybe in the military maybe and the way my mom brought me up bein have respect for yourself and enjoy yourself love yourself and other people will enjoy and love you also so I made friends very easily after three years abroad degree has returned home to the state settling in Denver Colorado where Pam was introduced to her first creative outlet singing I was in a gospel group called the echoes of youth where we had some of Earth Wind and Fire i philipbaillie under one foot never done and I played Oregon a piano and that's how I started really singing in August of 1965 when Pam was 16 the gospel group found itself in the center of one of Los Angeles's most violent civil unrest the Watts Riots the experience was one none of the teenagers would ever forget we went to Los Angeles to to tour and all that the church is James Cleveland's church and a few others and the riots started and we were in watts and I mean all week all I could remember was they told us to dug down cars were in the middle of the street on fire they were shooting it was just a mess you know just kids you don't know it's like wild and exciting to us until we really found out what's going on then we had to sleep in some people's apartment you know we couldn't get back and and that was our first political experience and my first real professional singing experience although Pam enjoyed music and singing she was also fighting an increasing battle with shyness which made performing difficult as she began to plan her college career she decided to capitalize on her aptitude for science by becoming a pre-med major however an unexpected offer from the denver broncos that the self-conscious co-ed back into the limelight a friend of a coach said we've got this this athletic kind of attractive could be attractive with the little makeup here and there Cheerilee because they wanted a black cheerleader on the squad because of the black athletes so they asked me to do it I said okay it could be fun you go to the games free you know and I love doing the cheers I loved the physicality of them the makeup I had to work on one so cheerleading stint was over Pam happily returned to her science studies at school but her mother was worried that Pam's awkwardness about her looks was becoming a serious problem my my grandmother had this theory because all of her all of the children all the kids siblings my cousins first cousins second cousins we had such a mixture of other races and in our society we had these stigmas where african-american people who were light-skinned were treated better she didn't want us to have those insensitivities a society happened so I didn't have a sense of beauty because she didn't say oh you're so beautiful or she never and she wouldn't allow us to say that and so my mom had me enter the Miss Colorado Universe beauty pageant it and help maybe she thought it would help me break out of this this backwardness about my looks so I had all the subliminal conditioning and now I'm trying to break it and I was like so scary my heart's racing now is just thinking about it and I remember going and I remember seeing her perform you know the the music or the talent section and then the response and then the dance and you know all that the swimsuit and I remember that she was she was just so beautiful and she she won both of the the two side events after that pageant it really did help because there was a confidence no one made fun of you and so I started like blossoming because of it the beauty pageant proved to be a turning point of a different sort when Pam was approached by a man who would play a very significant role in her life I was approached by a man who is he was became my like my surrogate father the late David C Baumgarten it was the president of a major theatrical agency in Los Angeles at the time the agency for the Performing Arts and he said you know if you speak so well you know and you're so bright and so beautiful you know and have you ever thought of being an actress Pam's mother encouraged her daughter to consider the proposition and although Pam's family was distressed about her leaving home they realized this was an opportunity she couldn't refuse next thing I knew she was leaving and to me that was probably one of the worst times because she was kind of like my the person I was gonna follow and look up to and spend time with and and I knew that it was gonna change actually I didn't have enough money to stay I had $33 in a bucket of chicken that is it and I said this'll last a week and I'll be back in Nimr back in school Pam had no idea she was in for the ride of her life in a few short years she would become one of Hollywood's hottest commodities 1968 was a volatile troubled year our nation's history when Pam Grier arrived in Los Angeles to meet with her mentor David Baumgartner she found her radical political agenda at odds with the climate in Hollywood was own separate society outside of Hollywood was the real world in which I was a part of when I drove in I wasn't that beauty queen as he remembered I was loved rugged looking raggedy jeans Timberland boosts a flannel shirt down vest I was a radical student in my heart and my soul David Baumgarten encouraged Pam to stay in Los Angeles and she agreed taking classes at nearby UCLA as well as working several odd jobs she was also able to put her vocal skills to good use I got a job singing background vocals for Bobby Womack and I was on as I can understand an album and hairy hippie and all of that and and then the next day he got me another job singing backup for this mysterious group at CBS records and he wouldn't tell me who it was but his triple scale just hang in there what do you mean hang in there what's gonna happen you know so I go and turns out to be sliding a family stone but eight miles on drums and in walks Jimi Hendrix to jam with slide and I was like oh my god pinch me you know but it was still the time the the drug revolution the drug culture and I thought it would be my demise if I continued hanging around with everybody it wasn't long before Pam benefited from another important introduction I'm working at APA and one of my daily jobs I had three and one of these you know Pam you know Roger Corman's looking for an in-your-face actress which he can't seem to find b-movie king Roger Coleman had made a name for himself directing films for American International pictures which was founded by Sam arkov and James Nicholson who had cornered the exploitation of film market his Roger Corman with a ip's biggest director and so he started new world pictures in the early in the very very early 70s he put me in a row where I came up with my radical self and everyone reacted in a way that it worked and it became box-office for you and film magic cause the big bird cage now where's jungle don't you think I tell you before I let the fat pansy slap me around the big bird cage starring Pam Grier and they said I'm so good they kept me there to do another one and I was just stocking it away cuz that was tuition and after I did their three films for him and went back to school while at UCLA Pam became involved with a young basketball player Lewis Alcindor jr. the two became engaged but the romance in demand Lewis who changed his name to Kareem abdul-jabbar converted to Islam and won a pan to do the same Pam was devastated by the break-up but had little time to lick her wounds the blaxploitation era was in full swing and Pam was about to play an integral role in this emergent new cinema exploitation movie in general all right a lot of people don't understand it's like you know who's being exploited alright and actually it's just an industry term it meant basically you didn't have Paul Newman in your movie what you were you had so in order to get people in the theater you had exploitable elements whether that be naked girls or it be a motorcycle gang and the term blaxploitation was just as it was coined by variety it was just thinking they always came up with with kind of cutie little names to describe specific subgenres alright they coined blaxploitation they were films made for the urban black market and and you know they dealt with urban subjects AIP or American International pictures was moving into the blaxploitation market with films like the Mack and super Blood and we're looking for ways to expand that genre Pam Grier was just the woman they needed black mom and white mama and opened the door for me to meet Sam Markoff at AI p and they knew Roger and said will they feel that you're at an another level Pam what would you like to what do you have in mind and I was talking about the women's movement so next you know I'm introduced to a direct named Jack Hill and so he had a kind of a formula and I said well if we use your formula we got to use a real of my community so he had the formula I had the flavor and we merged and that's when we did you know started the films and then coffee came out of it in 1973 Pam Grier made history as coffee the middle-class nurse been on avenging her younger sisters destruction by a nefarious drug ring Coffee promoted an off-road gun-toting bad midriff Pam with the caption she's the godmother of the mall the baddest one chick hit squad to ever hit town they were right coffee made the $700,000 went on to make 10 million in Assen issue release and the star was born black and stacked and packed with fury with both barrels zeroed in on the mobs top killers she was getting her revenge all right and she wasn't getting it you know she was using you know her femininity as a weapon all right against the bad guys all right okay this is how I'm gonna get in I'm gonna pretend to be a hooker okay I will all right but it's all for this purpose I write of getting the pusher who destroyed my sister's life I'm gonna use it all right this is what I have this is my weapon I'm gonna use it and I'm gonna bring a sawed-off shotgun with me too all right and then she blows away everybody you want me to crawl what are you doing put that down you want to spit on me and make me cross coffee godmother of them all the baddest once it hits blood that ever a good town no one sleeps when they mess with coffee and all of a sudden it's just like beautiful buxom black woman who's kind of Amazonian and exciting and very vigorous on-screen oh man we had the hots for her all across the country and she was she was at that time our pinup you know every every generation has them and Pam was certainly one of our major major pinups there was four basically huge stars and was a lot of other other level stars all right and they were Jim Brown Fred the hammer Williamson and Jim Kelly and Pam Grier Pam Grier came along and fit right in the genre that we had created which was the action hero the action star and she was actually doing the same thing that those guys were doing in those films you know defeating the man and doing that whole thing outsmarting them and being you know beautiful and sexy at the same time so she had a lot more appeal yeah she was like for a lot of people you know my age she was the most important thing on the big screen she was like a superhero Pam's success was not solely due to her appeal as a sex symbol she was also just as popular with women around the country who appreciated her image as a strong feminist architect a lot of women supported the films across the the racial board they were responding in fantasy they were responding in reality because coffee was based on my mother if she had five dollars in her pocket and she has six kids two feet nobody's gonna take that five dollars from her she is just amazing strong and you know here's this woman using her womanly wiles you know get the things that she wants and you know just they just okay they can call it's exploitation if you want to I call it independent woman who's just got it going on between 1973 and 1975 Pam Grier starred in seven more films including Foxy Brown Sheba baby and Friday foster leaving The Hollywood Reporter to call her one of the three most bankable female stars in Hollywood alongside Barbara Streisand and Liza Minnelli Pam became more than just a movie star at 25 she was an icon MS magazine features her honest cover as the ultimate symbol of a liberated movie heroine and a relatively conservative New York magazine also ran Pam on its cover in 1975 dubbing her the sex goddess of the 70s Pam was at the settlement of a complete cinema movement but it was not without its share of controversy didn't become famous by being in sounder alright they went interviewing Cicely Tyson I write that or even Diana Ross and Lady Sings the Blues alright she was starring in cheap exploitation films mainstream film audiences actually looked at those films as like B movies number one and then when the black intelligentsia people like the n-double-a-cp and other group started to speak out against them then it created sort of a stigma this came from the black press this came from organizations like the n-double-a-cp and cool who you think want to get behind you you know and push you and say make make more because as you as you make films they get better and they get better they constantly you know say well what are you doing making movies about pimps and about privatized and hookers enough of this this is detrimental you know to our image yet people went to see their very successful because we were heroes and heroines and at no other time and cinema were we real true heralds and not just romantic figures Pam Grier and others before her set a precedent for us they helped the people like me to do the things that we're doing now so it was very confusing at that time and basically the dollar won the green not black Green has always want over any other color green rules by the late 1970s Pam Grier had starred in over a dozen films and was a household name but she longed for a more challenging creative outlet she realized that it was time to move on basically now after I made a statement the filmmakers wanted to make money continue to make money forget the statement and everything was being redundant I was getting the same scripts from you know all other you know companies and like this is just inverted this is just a different color this is there's nothing really new here and I said well I'm not doing you know I'll go do something else and when she stopped making those movies that left all right there was nobody to fill that void and nobody has filled that void ever since that's a very strong place in cinema history to hold and she held it ward on her shoulders Pam Grier was the undisputed queen of 70s cinema but the young star needed some breathing room she's about to embark on a deeply personal and painful chapter in her life as the 1970s began to wind down Pam Grier was less than impressed with her newfound superstar status her career changed you know our lives became more public you know than they were private people were clamoring to meet me and and they would screen the films at their homes or big mansions and I'm sitting with Elizabeth Taylor and you know all these people and I didn't feel I was this actor this star because was box-office gonna is supposed to make me a star I hadn't earned it I didn't know what it meant they were giving me titles and they could take it away that's not empowerment in 1977 Pam made a departure from her tough chick roles when she played opposite Richard Pryor and greased lightning a big-budget studio picture Pam played Pryor's wife in the film and finally felt as though she was being challenged as an actor in greased lightning I'd age from a young woman to an old woman I was working with Richard Pryor and it was about the first black racecar driver that was a fun film you know and I still think you know I did okay but I'm not there yet after filming greased lightning Pam and Richard began a romantic relationship which eventually ended due in part to prized well-publicized addictions Pam realized that she needed a break from the glare of Hollywood's bright light and took a much-needed hiatus from motion pictures it was doing this time to Pam at R&B sensation Minnie Riperton the two women became fast friends we just hit it off so so perfectly she was like became my first woman friend and she you know I was battling cancer I learned so much from her about strength and surviving and humanity because she she was so open about it so revealing and painfully honest that you know you could do a thing oh my god I think I'm going through it with her Pam and Minnie Riperton had forged a special bond however Pam was unprepared for how quickly it would end I called the house and they told me that she'd passed away my wife oh yeah well if those have lunch that she's not supposed to about she was healthy yesterday I talked her all day yesterday we didn't get she hands say goodbye but yet we kind of knew if it happened we had kind of had her like a subtext going on underneath the words and she gave me such a gift just an incredible gift so she still as a part of her lives in me many riperton's death was a serious blow to Pam's psyche and went haunt her and he used to come she would drew even more as fate would have it opportunity knocked once again through a chance meeting with in the the Hollywood agent in 1980 there was this Asian named David Moss but a small companies but he was very prolific he'd been in the business a long time and he ran by him when he stopped he says hey aren't you family and I go oh god not today and I turned I said yes he says well it should be working David Moss told Pam that casting was under way for a new Paul Newman film called Fort Apache the Bronx and that a pivotal role had yet to be cast when we were getting ready for it we were very very anxious to get the best possible cast built around Paul Newman that we could I've read I think almost every black actress in New York City at the time and there was a difficulty the difficulty was that the character had to be beautiful but also had to really be able to act so they flew me to New York and I did the research and was on 9th and 10th Avenue watching the hookers being picked up by the truckers I went to shooting galleries you know it was like a nightmare living nightmare and I went up and bought this blonde wig and cut one of my skirts real short put on a red garter belt stockings and and some got some real cheap sandals off 42nd Street and a baseball jacket and a halter top made up gaudy very hard and for three days I practiced this character doing a whole monologue of all my scenes in the room I cleared out all my furniture in the hotel room they thought I was crazy and I said Abba make the biggest fool myself and I'll never work again don't know I can't do it she read for us and it was very moving very touching very true and there was no question as to who would get that roll you up in partying baby yeah I've been planning on a cat I'm a party girl well audio home they take a little rest that read don't need no riff I'm on the case you know y'all wanna come party with me not now baby now all my jail would be to just like you an important job y'all just take a look when Fort Apache was released Paul Newman was not the only one getting accolades for her role Pam Grier received rave reviews the queen of blaxploitation has successfully reinvented herself other people are saying you did a great job it's like thank you you know I really worked hard for it and I felt yes I was reinvented although she was no longer receiving top billing for the features in which she appeared Pam was once again working at a furious pace between 1985 and 1988 Pam appeared in six features including above the law Steven Seagal's first film but Pam was looking for a new challenge she found it in the theater I said let me learn some theater let me learn have some meaning in my craft let me do some plays and that's when I really when I did a play and I said okay now am i valid as an actor but I'm not a star but I'm an actor Pam's performance and Sam Shepard's fool for love at the Los Angeles dealer cynic got at her a 1986 n-double-a-cp Image Award and reinforced her desire to test the boundaries of her craft she challenges herself in specific kinds of ways so that she can get better mainly in the theater and she's spent time defining herself and refining her craft in that way in a sum of 1988 just as Pam was once again gaining momentum in Hollywood from her numerous acting assignments she went in for a routine physical exam and received some devastating news I just finished above the law and I go for it just a regular checkup I listen I've got like invasive cancer and I have 18 months to live in us as a very powerful moment in my life I could only think about the next hour so I had family and friends and the closest person to me abandoned me he was gone but I had everybody else and my doctor saying Pam just think of getting well just think of you know you and then everything else what happened and go if many couldn't make it as wonderful she was how why am I gonna get you know the chance to make it and so I just didn't think I would but what it does for you and your philosophy and life is you don't take a lot of things for granted and yes things are a little sweeter clearer sharper you slow down a little you look at things things you have what you come away with a totally different attitude in life about life after five years Pam's cancer was declared to be in remission however she emerged from the experience a changed person she's been through so much in her life on a personal level professional level her career there have been ups and downs you know her it's it and it was like a roller coaster when you have something like that either to a friend family and they get through it it really you really look at the world a whole lot different I'm gonna go for it I don't have any half-stepping I come out little harder little firmer a little stronger and that's kind of my attitude now as the 1990s began to unfold Pam Grier recovered her personal life and slowly got back to work she was also on the verge of a very different kind of comeback in the early 1990s as she recovered from her illness Pam Grier ease back into on-screen work accepting cameo roles in a variety of films including the package Bill and Ted's bogus journey and Posse a 1993 Pam received call to audition for a new movie that everyone in Hollywood was buzzing about Quentin had had called me in for an audition for pop fiction I said well let's let's bring in a Pam Grier they have her coming one I always like Pam Quinn - I thought she could do a good job and I should say the truth fray just wanted meet her alright so I get there and I go in and he's got all these posters of me in his office so I had a Foxy Brown poster on my wall in my production office all right I had a coffee poster on my wall I had you know a big birdcage poster on my wall and I'm like did you put these up because I was coming and they go actually I almost took them down just you were coming in because I didn't want to appear like a geek but I made her sign them Pam read for the role of Jodi Eric Stoltz wife in the picture and although her dishing was a good one Quentin realized the match would not be the best for the movie and ultimately cast or then Arquette in the park I knew I did want to work with her sometime so I said look you know after the fact I said look I don't know if it's gonna work out but you know someday I hope it does Pam moved on to other projects and in 1996 we had the pleasure working together on a feature film called original gangsters the picture capitalized on the resurgence of interest in 70s black cinema by reteaming Ron O'Neal yours truly Pam Jim Brown and Fred Williamson who also wrote and directed the movie in essence the Oliver movie Foxy Brown chef Superfly slaughter all in one movie I wanted all the people to see how good we still looked that nothing was hanging off of us that should be hanging that my stuff was still strong Jim was still stand-up guy router you hadn't gone ball Ron O'Neal still had his long hair and Pam Grier had now become a woman so I wanted Hollywood to see that they think that when you're over 40 you're dead and I wanted to show them that we were alive and well and we're trying to show the old school like helping the new school to redefine themselves and uplift themselves and you know and stand up if you want to get rid of the violence in your community the community has to unite all the people have to come together as one and become a force that drives the bad element out of your community that was really basically what it was about and also if you mess with my mama you got a major problem coming down on you meanwhile Quentin Tarantino was hard at work on his latest project an adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel rum punch and was trying to think of actresses who could handle the lead character in the story a stewardess in her mid forties named Jackie Burke so I started thinking of actresses in their mid 40s that look like they could be in their mid 30s alright they still look great but you know that they they've lived something and looked like they can handle it look like they could handle anything thrown at them and upon coming to those conclusions I said it to myself that sounds like Pam Grier kind of makes it a Pam Grier movie Hey that kind of makes it worth doing and so without telling Pam I just started going about writing my own version of a Pam grandma once the script was finished Quentin sent it to his perspective leading lady who had no idea the part was written for her and a loving tip of the hat to her earlier seventies films Quentin even changed the name of the character to Jackie Brown he really did a great job of this and I said you did a great job you know I don't know what to say so kind of like you know so which role is my and he says well Jack you found your Jackie Brown when the entire ensemble was assembled Jackie Brown featured Pam samuel l.jackson Michael Keaton Robert De Niro Robert Forester and Bridget Fonda Pam's co-stars were as excited about working with her as she was with them I always dug her obsessed she's just thought she was it's really striking you know great looking real strong she had this real strong presence about her well I'd met Sam and when he comes in with doing his thing with his hat on backwards and I'm going I had to go to the phone line guess who's here guess what he looks like was pretty exciting um and kind of awesome to walk into a space with somebody like Pam that when I was just another ticket buying audience member you know I'm sitting there looking at her on the screen never imagining that I would eventually end up on screen with her let alone the same room with her so the first day of rehearsal you know where they're doing it and I'm kind of in the scene and all of a sudden in the middle of the scene I realized I had my hands around you know coffees neck you know I'm sure Quentin saw it on my face and she saw it I was sharing the same excitement with him and it's actually nothing really actually almost ever gets to Sam Sam is pretty unflappable all right so to see him actually have you know almost a little kid moment all right like that was actually really great all right then you got it put it in check and moved on and when Robert De Niro walked in Raging Bull himself down to earth going to all the rehearsals going to the locations and there Robert Forrest everyone's coming Michael Keaton everybody all these big stars that you heard had you know big heads and didn't rehearse and you had this e and none of them had that none of them had the ego and they were all there rehearsing dealing with Quentin Quentin you know everyone really enhancing each other what Jackie Brown one thing and that's what you are willing to do for me I guess your lawyer I don't know let's be realistic now sooner or later they gonna get around to offering me a plea deal and you know that that's why you came here to kill me thank you yes okay now I'll forgive you if you have the chance and walk off a half marathon yeah they're all chasing a half million in cash half a million dollars we'll always miss who's playing who let's make a deal yeah so what she didn't give us are you gonna offer to set them up yeah I thought doing something stupid embraer Quentin Tarantino Jackie Brown I was like pinch me this can't be happening land it was it was wonderful it was really wonderful once Jackie Brown was released Pam could rest assured of a job well done she received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a comedy musical as well as an N double ACP Image Award nomination for Best Actress in a feature film I enjoyed it immensely and I said hey just to be nominated you recognized for my work that's that's great I don't have to win I've already won I got the job accolades to people like Quentin Tarantino who has vision enough to help her career and boost it up a little bit more because if John Travolta is the comeback King then damn it Pam Grier is queen Pam Grier was indeed back on the map with a host of new opportunities to choose from she was also ready to make her mark in a new arena the Pam Grier living up to the image of a sex symbol hasn't always been easy when it comes to romantic relationships it's hard to live after can you imagine can you imagine it's like sex symbol you got to have a lot of sex because as a kid when I saw her just like overwhelming you know she was this thing that you know every black man my age had to have been in love with and had to have you know aspired to one day meet she's still beautiful she looks the same she's gorgeous and she's just she's a smart lady too I guess you know everybody assumes you know a woman like that has someone so nobody's hitting on it cause you know some discomfort in the relationships I was kind of independent where a lot of women growing up in order to be accepted in society had to be married needed to be married needed a man in their life to be accepted when I just wanted to be loved and cherished so that I can love and respect a man I I don't think that she would ever succumb to society's an expectation that she should be married I think that as always she's gonna do what she feels best and you know if she hasn't felt in her heart that a person is that important and is that worthy of being married and equally so that person with her then that's that's fine although Pam enjoys her life as an independent woman she has not ruled out the possibility of raising children in the future sometimes I think God I could have had children earlier you know and why didn't I and I guess the time wasn't right it wasn't meant to be and there's sure enough a lot of children out there who are in in need of someone who could love them and care for them and so they're there and I'm here and maybe I'll find them Pam's Korea has always been a driving force in her life and between 1997 and 1998 she appeared in several feature films including the Jane Campion directed Holy Smoke with Harvey Keitel as well as the crime thriller into deep with Stanley Tucci and Omar Epps a 1998 Pam was delighted to accept an offer to star in her first television series when Lynx debuted on the showtime cable network Lynx is an incredible ensemble sitcom written by Tim Reed and Susan Phil's heel and takes place in a bar in Washington DC in a political hotbed of America and some people have equated it with being like a black Cheers Pam brings to the show a sense of of now I mean it's wonderful that Pam's careers had this sort of I can't say ii rivers is like I mean Pam is like she just keeps metamorphosis into something something at something and yet at all times she has a sort of a young audience and I'm working with her right now on links so you know next to Pam is the most ego boosting thing in the world you know what I'm saying I'm always like can you take me out of the profile shut it's a lot of fun it's just so much trying to sell real self refreshing so different Pam is enjoying her success and also exploring new avenues of creativity I'm at another level where I want to you know act and and submit screenplays and possibly you know direct so that's the Uncharted water shark-infested water I want to dip myself into one thing about Pam is that she transcends age she transcends all those things that a lot of actresses get stopped and careers are over because they buy into I'm not the right age or I'm not the right look or I'm not the right whatever Pam doesn't pay that any mind not only does she have a young spirit she just has something about her that's kind of magical to me the Pam that I know as a friend is one who is very spiritual and sweet and has this persona that when she walks in the room doesn't take over the room she softens it up she's a high-minded person you know and and she she's a real down she's very grounded and down to earth and you know sista you know we're together it's cool she's a strong fragile beautiful loving kind kind of person you want as a friend Pam Grier as a woman whose journey has been a reflection of our times comfortable in her image of the strong liberated woman Pam has finally reached the point where she allows herself to enjoy the fruits of her Labor's Wow the difference what I went through the 70s and the 80s and the 90s the difference in night and day and it's allowed me today to be more creative that I can bring you know that has developed me from a shy you know Wallflower to a crime-fighting adventurous to all of what we're about as women so it it takes a lot him don't have any regrets they're all wonderful lessons I'm blessed I'm very blessed I'm a miracle I'm here [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

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Id: lSECOOrDDX0

Length: 43min 57sec (2637 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 29 2019