Actress Pam Grier Still Kicking Butt Javascript must be enabled to use this site. Please enable Javascript in your browser and try again. × Search search POPULAR SEARCHES SUGGESTED LINKS Join AARP for just $9 per year when you sign up for a 5-year term. Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. Leaving AARP.org Website You are now leaving AARP.org and going to a website that is not operated by AARP. A different privacy policy and terms of service will apply. Close

Pam Grier Still Kicking Butt

In her new memoir, "Foxy: My Life in Three Acts," Pam Grier revisits a career that took off in the early '70s when she became blaxploitation cinema's first female action hero. Todd Heisler/New York Times/Redux Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. Q: Your memoir stages your life so far in three acts. What are your plans for an encore? A: [Laughs]. Well, an artist never retires so I will continue to be an actor, whether it's in theater, television, film. I've written two screenplays. Foxy [her memoir] is being considered as a film by various companies, and I have book tours and signings through March of next year. I'm also working on behalf of literacy, trying to get people to read to seniors, not only my book but others too. I'm working with farmers to that are supported by the government so that in the winter they can grow organic foods for the farmers markets in the city. Q: Next year you're starring in the big Hollywood comedy Larry Crowne, with Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks. You play Roberts' bff [best friend forever]. A: In the film, I support Julia and we are professors at a city college, where Tom Hanks goes to reinvent himself after losing his job. The character I play is an independent, modern woman. She's well-read and political. She defines herself, like I do, by her energy, not by her age. Q: This is your 40th year as an actress. A: Oh my god! Yeah, 1970 is when I got my SAG [Screen Actors Guild] card. Q: To what do you attribute your longevity? A: I think it's my passion for the work, and developing my craft and not being afraid to be silly. It's not about fame or money for me. I'll do regional theater for $300 a week. And I do low-budget movies like Jawbreaker for first-time directors. Q: Your name is synonymous with blaxploitation. Can you talk about the impact movies like Coffy and Foxy Brown had when they opened? A: It was the first time audiences got to see a black woman who could be fun and dangerous and physical as well as a leader. I think men liked that, and women enjoyed seeing images of what they could be on screen. Psychologically and politically it really ruled. Flowers & Gifts 25% off sitewide and 30% off select items See more Flowers & Gifts offers > My mom was the model for Coffy , and my aunt was Foxy Brown. In my neighborhood, women would take a skillet and beat the you-know-what out of you if you tried to take their purse. They weren't going to stand there and scream, "Oh my god! He took my purse!" It was more like, "Oh my god! He tried to take my purse and there he is, down on the ground in a heap. You don't take my last $3 when I have five kids to feed!" Q: You've been a model for self-asserting women for so long that readers of your memoir were shocked to learn of the terrible things that happened to you, how you were raped by two boys when you were only 6, taunted at school and subjected to racism on a regular basis. Even people close to you hadn't known some of the things you revealed in the book. How did they react when they read about it? A: Many have been reaching out, sending letters and notes. My mom told me just yesterday that people are coming to her saying, "We didn't know those things had happened to Pammy." Many of the women who read Foxy couldn't handle the first rape in the book, and then a second and then the attempted third! The third was the scariest. Even though nothing happened, it was a fight. It was a physical battle, where I was afraid that I could be killed. I'm very candid in the memoir, and what's interesting is that many men are buying the book and coming to the signings and revealing their circumstances of abuse. In every city there's at least one. I've also heard from men who say, "I wanted to read your memoir because I have a daughter and I want to make sure she doesn't suffer like you did." To have that, if it's just one or a thousand, it would make my life worth living, make every moment I survived worth it. Q: You also write about being diagnosed in 1988 with cancer, which is in remission now. What got you through that difficult period? A: Bill Moyers. Q: Bill Moyers? A: I saw this documentary Healing and the Mind With Bill Moyers, and it saved my life. I was at my rented house in the Valley [San Fernando Valley] one night, contemplating what my process was going to be, when it came on PBS. Moyers was visiting shamans and witch doctors and practitioners of wellness all over the world. One episode was in China, where this woman had a malignant tumor on her back, which flattens out after weeks of therapy with acupuncture and pressure and herbs and meditation. The cancer was gone and that was my sign. Literally, that night I said I would seek Eastern medicine. I know where every Chinatown in every city is in this country. So I know where I can get herb teas and dong guai and all kinds of other roots and things I'm supposed to have as a woman to balance my chi. All I know is I followed the spiritual advice I got, and I feel much better today. AARP NEWSLETTERS %{ newsLetterPromoText }% %{ description }% Subscribe More on entertainment AARP NEWSLETTERS %{ newsLetterPromoText }% %{ description }% Subscribe AARP VALUE & MEMBER BENEFITS See more Health & Wellness offers > See more Flights & Vacation Packages offers > See more Finances offers > See more Health & Wellness offers > SAVE MONEY WITH THESE LIMITED-TIME OFFERS