Pam Grier is finally bringing her life story to the big screen in a biopic tentatively called Pam. The iconic actress who owned the blaxploitation era in film, provided us with sexy, yet powerful images of a Black woman who took no shorts. She has already pegged Bennie Richburg to write the screenplay and at least one of the characters has been cast.
The woman who brought us “Coffy,” “Foxy Brown,” and “Jackie Brown” led a colorful life, especially when it came to her love interests. She had a passionate love affair in the 1970’s with comedian, Richard Pryor, who will be portrayed in the film by SNL alum, Jay Pharoah. She met Pharoah met while they were doing voice work for the video game Infinity Wars.
“I watched him and heard his voice and closed my eyes and said, ‘It’s Richard,'” Grier told Deadline.
The film will draw largely from her autobiography, Foxy: My Life In Three Acts, where she goes into much detail about the other men in her life including NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and actor Freddie Prinze. She also shared much more heinous encounters like the time she was raped by two boys when she was just six years old, a second rape while in college, and the time she had to enlist the help of Liza Minnelli and her husband to escape the aggressive advances of Sammy Davis Jr.
As Grier’s career took off, she credited her agent John Gaines with getting her work and protecting her from sexual predators. He accompanied her to meetings and helped her navigate the do’s-and-dont’s of the business.
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“If you go to meet someone on a business deal, your lawyer, manager, agent, someone must always be with you,” Grier recalled. “John always set those rules for me and created a comfort zone. He just had seen so much, he knew. When he took me to clubs, and someone would hand me a drink, he would say: ‘Don’t drink that. See the sediment at the bottom? You drink that and you won’t remember the next week.’ I became comfortable, not accepting the invitations.”
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Pam promises a riveting look at a career that is still far from over. The 68-year-old has had a fascinating life and her work in movies has greatly impacted both Black culture and pop culture. A Pam Grier biopic is an idea whose time has come. Will you be watching?
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