Pam Grier turned down Bond – James Bond.
The “Foxy Brown” star said she was up for the titular Bond girl role in the 1983 film “Octopussy,” which starred Roger Moore as 007. However, she had other plans in mind.
“My agents had me meet with [producers] the Broccoli family, and I’m going, ‘I’m not available,’” the 73-year-old recently told Entertainment Weekly.
“They looked at me and said, ‘Well, why are you here?’” she recalled. “I go, ‘I don’t know. My agent told me to come meet.’”
Pam Grier (left) said she has no regrets turning down the role of Octopussy, which went to Maud Adams (right). (Getty Images)
Grier said she left the film producers shaken, not stirred, because she was eager to play characters who were beyond eye candy.
” . . . I just wanted to do really in-depth character pieces that weren’t predictable,” Grier told the outlet. “I turned down everything.”
“I just felt to be a Bond girl would be: ‘What am I going to do?’” Grier explained. “Am I going to help rescue him? Is he rescuing me? A Bond girl is 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.”
The role went to Maud Adams, a Swedish actress and model.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER
Actor Roger Moore and actress Maud Adams on the set of ‘Octopussy’. (Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images)
Today, Grier is best known for Blaxploitation hits, such as 1974’s “Foxy Brown,” as well as “Coffy” (1973) and “Friday Foster” (1975). She later became a muse for director Quentin Tarantino.
In 2022, Grier told Fox News Digital that she was working on getting an adaptation of her 2010 memoir off the ground. She’s aware that “Foxy Brown” continues to fascinate fans.
“Oh, they remember my nipples,” Grier chuckled about her racy scenes in the film. “But I can see what they’re saying. Here you have a sister, a beautiful woman, expressing her sexuality and intelligence. Why should we judge and politicize that? It opened a dialogue about where women want to go. I didn’t know it would be analyzed as much. But I was moved by it. And when I did that film, I wasn’t sure I was going to continue making films. I missed science, which was a part of my life as a child. I just didn’t know there was an audience for me.”
Pam Grier previously told Fox News Digital she was working on getting an adaptation of her 2010 memoir off the ground. (Dia Dipasupil/FilmMagic)
“But it turned out I developed an audience,” Grier noted. “It wasn’t just women, but also artists and filmmakers who loved to see a woman walk in a man’s shoes and be viewed as strong, combative. Here was a woman who freely expressed herself in a way that wasn’t portrayed. . . . But I come from the Black West, from women who are wholesome but fierce. I wanted to bring that into my work. I lassoed people in and it opened the floodgates. I’m still amazed by all of these incredible women who are now doing action films, who aren’t afraid of guns and won’t stick their heads in the sand. I feel great that it’s helped other women express themselves and be strong, fearless. I’m really pleased with that.”
JAMES BOND DAY: BOND GIRLS URSULA ANDRESS AND LANA WOOD REMINISCE ABOUT WORKING WITH SEAN CONNERY
“And yes, I call it the Nipple Revolution,” she added.
