Stiges pays tribute to Pam Grier, the incombustible African-American icon | Culture
As volcanic as verborrheic, Pam Grier (Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 1949) strolls happily through Sitges to receive the Machine of Temps, one of the honors -this year there are eleven- of the contest. Grier's life was never easy. Raped at 6 and at 18, she managed to sneak out of a third round at 20. Female star of the blaxploitation (the violent cinema and enjoyed the seventies for the African-American audience), his name headed the deals of Coffy (1973), Foxy Brown (1974) or Sheba Shane (1975). A couple of decades later, in which he devoted himself to television, several filmmakers who in turn were admirers decided to recover it. Among them, Quentin Tarantino, who gave him Jackie Brown (1997). Grier now lives on a horse ranch in Colorado, hence his cowboy outfit, and he likes to talk about old times, both bad and good: in half an hour of interview there will only be room for four questions.
From the first cuesitón, Grier already speaks of racism and sexual discrimination. "It was always worse to be a woman than a black woman, I wanted to study Veterinary at the University and I had to put in the registration forms that I was a man, because if not, they would not accept me." In the end I graduated at 65 and I'm 69. My aunt wanted to study architecture in the 1920s and they rejected it, by the way, my Foxy Brown character is inspired by her, "he says.
In 2010 the actress published her autobiography Foxy: My Life in Three Acts, an open-hearted book, in which he talks about his work, sexual abuse, his loves and some life situations that he laughs about today, but at the time they were painful.
When he struggled to make his way into the cinema, Grier went out for several years with a basketball player named Lew Alcindor, who promised to be one of the greats. Alcindor embraced Islam, changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. And on the birthday of the actress he made a proposal: either he would convert to Islam or at two in the afternoon he would marry another woman who accepted this ultimatum. "Do you see me as a slave, walking behind him?" "Look, my grandfather was the first feminist." He taught all the girls to hunt and fish, and I was really going to be the first wife of someone with a Harem, it broke my heart, I respect other beliefs, but I believe in a partner who considers me an equal, and Kareem told me that I would be the first wife, as an honor never the fifth. Impossible to stop Grier. "I was an icon, and I think you do not achieve that status by belittling women and children." By the way, the autobiography is in the process of becoming a film. "In that I am now."
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That egalitarian education, he believes, pushed him not to report the first violation he suffered. "My aunts and my mother would have hunted those kids, which would have destroyed my family." I decided to shut up, save my own and turn that anger into energy, with the strong roles I played I exorcised my inner pain, although there is always something left. Rolling an episode of Corruption in Miami, an actor immobilized her - the script's demands - and suddenly her mind traveled to the past. "I had a panic attack, and I did not do the same sequence again, anyway, for years I felt lonely, and when the #MeToo movement started, I thought, 'Where were you?' happened and I thank the public for supporting me. "
There are no taboos to appreciate the black United States: "African-American culture is not monolithic, there are conservatives, progressives, jazz, rap ... And it depends on your tastes and how much you get involved whether they accept you or not." There are more comfortable African-American women in a white golf club that in a concert of hip hop". He is proud of his blood "Nigerian, Scottish, Irish, Portuguese, Spanish, Indian, all with their stories inside me". And now he is fighting against another discrimination: age. "In the United States, they do not respect you or consider you sexy when they get gray." Are you kidding? Is not it sexy Helen Mirren? Now I can have seven-hour orgasms, and when I was young, I achieved five in 20 minutes. that's why I'm happy with the legacy I leave. "
It was always worse to be a woman than a black woman. At the University I had to put on the forms that I was a man, because if not, they would not accept me
He still has time for Grier to enjoy telling stories of his career: from the stardom in the blaxploitation, to his lack of complexes when appearing naked on a stage in front of 350 spectators or how John Carpenter, whom he appreciates, asked him to play a transgender criminal in 2013: Rescue in L. A. "I had to play a man who wants to be a woman, I loved the proposal, I let my mustache grow, I put on Ru Paul style ... But I was wondering: how am I going to feel like a man if I dress like a woman? I put a sock in the crotch, and that did not work, I took a zucchini in my kitchen, I put it in the sock, I put it under my pants ... And it worked, well, it worked. that looked like Pam Grier. " What has motivated you in your career? "The humanity of the scripts I chose, and I was always attentive to see if a wonderful project was coming in. You have to be prepared because it only happens four or five times in your life."
