How Pam Grier became Hollywood's 1st female action hero — and what she thinks about the term blaxploitation

Q31:32Pam Grier: How she became the queen of Blaxploitation film and Hollywood’s first female action hero

Long before Angelina Jolie or Lupita Nyong'o were some of Hollywood's go-to female action stars, Pam Grier was doing her own stunts, chasing bad guys and seeking vigilante justice in low-budget '70s action movies. Known as blaxploitation films, these movies were sensational, a little campy, and they featured a lot of violence and nudity.

The blaxploitation subgenre emerged as one of the first in which Black characters were protagonists, rather than sidekicks, but its legacy remains controversial. Some say these movies were empowering, while others accused them of perpetuating stereotypes. As the undisputed queen of blaxploitation films, Grier has a lot to say about the term.

"It wasn't blaxploitation for the first nine movies ever done by Black males," she tells Q's Tom Power in a recent conversation. "Not until I stepped into a man's shoes."

Exploitation films are generally low-budget B-movies characterized by their lurid content and formulaic plots. The blaxploitation subgenre emerged from this trend among the civil rights and Black Power movements as a way to describe exploitation films by, for and about communities of colour.

Grier says the term blaxploitation "was basically like a conspiracy" to keep her films out of theatres. "All the movies started being like mine because we were staying in the theatres too long," she says. "Coffy knocked James Bond out of first place [at the box office].

Coffy follows a sexy Black nurse, played by Grier, who takes revenge against a heroin dealer responsible for her sister's addiction. She says she based the character on her mom, who was also a nurse and "stood up to all the gangsters in the neighbourhood."

From her point of view, blaxploitation isn't a pejorative term.

"You're taking the power from the audience saying, 'It's negative, don't go see it, so now we can put other movies in the theatre.'" Grier tells Power. "Basically, it was all a monetary conspiracy."

Prior to Coffy, Grier's only acting experience was in a few Roger Corman women-in-prison exploitation films. She never planned on becoming an actor — she was just saving money for college — but her agent recommended her for the role and director Jack Hill loved her raw edge. 

"I said, 'I can't leave my three jobs. You have to call my mama and talk to her,'" Grier recalls. "He said, 'What's her number?' He called her [and] I was in."

The full interview with Pam Grier is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. She talks about her incredible legacy and how running into Quentin Tarantino in traffic led to her comeback in Jackie Brown. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Interview with Pam Grier produced by Vanessa Greco.