Fifty years since the release of Foxy Brown, Pam Grier says she still has injuries from her time on set of the classic film.
During an appearance on Live With Kelly and Mark, Grier reflected on how grueling it was to make the 1974 blaxploitation film.
“I didn’t have a stunt double, so I had to look and appear convincing,” Grier shared. “I got hurt. I have injuries.”
Grier credits with actresses like Charlize Theron for making it commonplace for women to excel at martial arts in Hollywood.
"I was around a global community of women who were doing just that, but never were able to promote what they were doing," she explained. "We had war, our husbands and fathers and uncles did not come home, so they had to be self-sufficient. And I brought that to Hollywood—and they had never seen it."
She added, "It took four years to prepare men, in a patriarchal society, to see a woman do martial arts, jump around and do stunts. They weren’t prepared for it, and they found it offensive," the actress continued, noting that she "wanted to show, ‘This is what I learned on the Air Force bases’—Kung Fu, Qi Gong, internal martial arts, exterior, external."
Following the release of Foxy Brown, Grier's character became a staple in pop culture. Nearly 25 years after the movie became a cult classic, Grier was cast in Quentin Tarantino's 1997 film Jackie Brown, which paid homage to Foxy Brown and other blaxploitation films.
