I was 4-years-old when the blaxploitation film starring Pam Grier as “Foxy Brown” was released. I didn’t actually see the movie until I was in my early 20s and immediately I was taken with Foxy. She was bad (as in good). She was beautiful. And she was brown like me. That year for Halloween, I dressed up as Foxy complete with tube top, bell-bottoms and an Afro wig with a plastic pistol tucked inside.
But it wasn’t just the Foxy character who was the subject of my girl-crush, it was Grier herself. In my mind, she was a take-no-prisoners type of gal, who always got what she wanted and kicked major butt all the way through Hollywood.
Almost twenty years later, her recently released memoir, “Foxy: My Life in Three Acts,” (Springboard, $25), reveals a slightly different story. While Grier, 61, is certainly made of tough stuff, she hasn’t always had an easy go of it. In the book, Grier, who appears in Atlanta on Wednesday for two signings, shares the stories of being raped at age six, again at 18, and the subsequent shut-down she experienced as she turned inward in fear.
By the time Grier headed to Los Angeles in the late '60s, she was ready for change. Soon after her arrival, she embarked on the film roles that would carry her into the blaxploitation limelight: "Coffy," "Foxy Brown," "Sheba Baby," and "Friday Foster" were all filmed between 1973 and 1975.
But as the genre faded, so did Grier's starring roles. She spent the '80s appearing in a few good roles in notable films, exploring live theater and dating Hollywood hunks like Freddie Prinze and Richard Pryor.
In the '90s, a diagnosis of stage four cervical cancer and a prognosis of 18 months to live, would lead her to seek more balance in life through Eastern medicine. After Grier's recovery came a career revival with starring roles in Quentin Tarantino's film, "Jackie Brown," an homage to the blaxploitation era, and "The L Word," the Showtime series about lesbian life, which earned Grier an entirely new set of fans.
Grier, who is appearing in an upcoming movie with Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts, took some time out from her touring schedule to answer a few questions about her memoir and tell us something we still may not know about Foxy.
Q: Was your memoir the first time your family learned about your childhood abuse?
A: Only my late sister and mother were aware of what happened as a child. I didn’t reveal a lot to my family because it would have destroyed my family. I see it happening a lot today and I want to remind people that there is help. I hate seeing [abuse] being passed on from generation to generation.
Q: In the book, you said you learned early that beauty was dangerous, yet your entry into Hollywood came after two agents saw you in a beauty pageant. Did that change your views at all?
A: I found it difficult but enlightening to see women going through so much because of beauty on the exterior. As I could see it emerging, beauty pageants were changing from women just being physically attractive to having some intellectual component.
Q: One of your first jobs in Hollywood was as a backup singer [for soul acts such as Bobby Womack and Sly Stone]. Do you still enjoy singing and why did you chose acting over singing?
A: I enjoy music. I sing all the time. Just to see those talents back in the day, and to see the music that was so extraordinary then was really amazing. As for acting or singing, neither was a choice. I just fell into it. I basically thought if I was leaving premed in Colorado to come to Los Angeles, I wanted to be a filmmaker, but I ended up getting acting roles.
Q: What do you consider your greatest challenge in life?
A: Surviving cancer. That's much bigger than being in a film or winning the lottery.
Q: Did you expect "The L Word" to take off the way it did?
A: "The L Word" had such a great response. People talk about how my character helped make them more tolerant of family members. Ignorance is what divides the populace.
Q: You've maintain a home in Colorado even though it was the place where you experienced so much pain. Why did you decide to settle there?
A: It is still a genteel city to find a place that is open and has acreage. I live on a piece of property that no one else wanted. When I'm in Los Angeles or New York, no one comes to visit. When I am in Colorado, people come out to heal. There is nothing but [other people's] bikes and tennis shoes there it seems.
Q: A memoir is by nature revealing, but what is one thing that people still don't know about Pam Grier?
A: That I made Richard Pryor laugh because I was funny and crazy. I put his horse in the backseat of a Jaguar. People don't do that every day. When you put a 1,000 pound horse in the backseat of a foreign sedan that's funny.
Event Preview
Wednesday, June 16. 5 p.m. & 7:30 p.m. Free. Outwrite Bookstore & Coffeehouse, 991 Piedmont Ave N.E. www.outwritebooks.com . 404-607-0082. Borders, 3637 Peachtree Road N.E. www.borders.com . 770-237-0707.
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