Now here’s a biopic I can get excited about: Blaxploitation icon Pam Grier is set to see her 2010 autobiography Foxy, My Life in Three Acts, adapted for the screen with Fresh Prince of Bel-Air/Living Single TV vet Eunetta Boone to script. Grier’s story is full of sensational events — just imagine that one Richard Pryor story, reenacted — but also marks a turning point in the portrayal of strong, sexually-empowered women in Hollywood. That said, what young actresses out there can fill Grier’s foxy shoes?
I’m curious to see which actresses can even resemble Grier’s legendary physique and unusual features, let alone nail that combination of toughness and vulnerability that made her B-movie heroines so intriguing.
Last year Grier spoke with Movieline about her career, her formative pre-fame years, the childhood trauma that made her who she was, and the semi-accidental foray into Hollywood that launched her trailblazing career.
On the roots of the fearlessness that came to mark her onscreen persona:
“It comes from my personal life. It comes from me experiencing very tragic circumstances when I was six and again at 19, and again at 21, where I finally felt I had to survive, I had to live through these circumstances. That gave me confidence. I fight a little harder, I challenge people… there are things that happened to me personally that I bring to the screen. But also, I wanted to show other women that they, too, won’t lose their femininity or castrate their men by being assertive. It’s okay to be confident… if you’re right.
On her first screen credit:
“It’s Beyond the Valley of the Dolls! I went to the set to visit a friend; I
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Mattel’s Hot Looks Dolls from fuckery’s favorite decade The 1980s!
Before Maddox, Shiloh, the twin messiahs, Zahara and the other one were struttin’ in front of a wall of paps as the most famous It’s A Small World crew on the planet, there were the Hot Looks Dolls! The Hot Looks Dolls were a group of “fashion” dolls with pantyhose bodies and harsh hairlines who each came from a different country. There was Zizi from Kenya, Chelsea from England, Elkie from Sweden, Mimi from France and Stacey from the US. Unlike that nipple-less, labia-less nudist Barbie, the Hot Looks Dolls were demure and prude-ish, because their bra and panties were permanently attached to their bodies. They only lasted for a quick minute and I don’t know why. Who wouldn’t want a doll with slight FAS face who dressed like an extra from Kids INC.?!
I know I wanted one, but I was rejected! When I was around 6 or 7, I went to some old witch’s garage sale near my mom’s friend’s house. I had five dollars in my pocket and knew I had to find a friend for the Barbie I stole from my sister. I found Zizi in a box of dolls and when I went to pay for her, the toothless old beast of a bitch with gums as black as her heart said to me, “Oh, you don’t want that. What about one
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