“What am I going to do?”
Grier remembers saying in response to the offer.
“Am I going to help rescue him?”
Michael Ochs Archive/Getty; Everett Collection
Pam Grierleft the producers ofJames Bondshaken, not stirred.
But she wasn’t interested in playing eye candy or a damsel in distress.
“They looked at me and said, ‘Well, why are you here?’
I go, ‘I don’t know.
My agent told me to come meet.’
But I just wanted to do really in-depth character pieces that weren’t predictable.
I turned down everything.”
But she wasn’t the least bit intrigued by the idea of playing a Bond girl.
“I just felt to be a Bond girl would be: What am I going to do?”
“Am I going to help rescue him?
Is he rescuing me?
A Bond girl is an an afterthought, a CliffsNote, perhaps.
I asked, ‘Am I challenging Bond?
Am I out to kill him?
Will I kill him before he kills me?’
They hadn’t thought of that.
I gave them other ideas, which were much more profound and interesting than what they were doing.”
There have been many iconic Bond girls from the O.G.Ursula AndressinDr.
Noto a villainousGrace JonesinA View to Kill but Pam Grier is an entity unto herself.
And she knew that better than anyone.
