When Pam Grier discovered that Them: the scare Creator Little Marvin was interested in talking to her for a role, she was nervous. “I didn't want to put all my emotions on the table, get crushed and beaten and worn down,” she says. Consequence. “I have anxiety attacks.”
However, she says, Marvin attracted her with “his conversation about art, skill and passion appealed to me. “I like horror like he likes horror, and there’s not enough of it.”
Grier's career has been fascinating, from her early days working in Roger Corman B-movies before becoming a screen icon as the blaxploitation heroine of foxy brown and coffee. And since then he has worked steadily in film and television, with a late-career renaissance courtesy of Quentin Tarantino. Jackie Brown giving him a big push and high profile roles in The word I and We are keeping that like that.
Having worked extensively in both mediums, Grier feels there is no difference between film and television “when it comes to the acting art of emotion. The TV screen is just smaller and the movie screen is bigger, and you take a little more time.”
Grier notes that “when I do the job, we will be under budget because I will do it right. That's how I consider my job: like in theater, there is no take two. I'm living it as a take one. That's all. If you want to take two with a different hair color or lipstick, whatever, that's fine, because it will still take one.”
In the second season of his Prime Video anthology series ThemGrier plays Athena, the mother of an LAPD detective trying to solve a gruesome murder. Grier says Marvin introduced him to “this incredible story not only about political discourse and psychological medical problems and the paranormal. [stuff]. It’s like, wow, that’s a lot.” Because not only does Athena have her own secrets, but the season takes place in the context of 1991 Los Angeles, a truly chaotic time after the assault on rodney king and subsequent judicial process.
“I find it all refreshing. It is not derivative. It is not copied. It’s all original,” she states. “I hope little Marvin explores even more dangerous limits to take us to; He is very confident and we believe in him. And after seeing this, he took risks that many wouldn't take, whether it was budget or money, script or time, or just trust. He took us there and I am very proud to have worked with him on this piece.”
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