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Pam Grier Talks New Podcast ‘The Plot Thickens’ and Blackploitation Films| SWAY’S UNIVERSE
Nov 3, 2022
Pam Grier stopped by Sway In The Morning to talk about her new podcast The Plot Thickens.
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0:00
[Applause]
0:00
Supply thickens is a podcast
0:03
this season Pam Grier will be the
0:05
subject matter of this podcast hosted by
0:08
a guy by the name of Ben
0:11
mackiewicz mankowitz yes mackiewicz
0:14
really in-depth podcast and it's talking
0:17
about an error that's I hold true and
0:19
dear to my heart
0:21
um and when it comes to you and the work
0:22
you've done this is your second time on
0:24
our show I believe and um
0:26
It's never enough and when I hear your
0:29
stories I hear you telling us I hear you
0:32
sharing like this is what it was y'all
0:34
yes this is what it was I'm trying to
0:37
tell you look at these people that I
0:39
worked with and these are the things I
0:41
was trying to do that couldn't get done
0:45
um because of my I'm a black woman right
0:47
right and this is how I navigated around
0:50
it and kept it moving forward you
0:52
wouldn't believe how many people me as
0:54
Pam Grier how many careers I contributed
0:57
to in one way or the other your story
1:00
has to be told right yes and and so
1:04
that's why I'm happy about this podcast
1:06
because it allows you a chance to tell
1:09
your story it is right it is it it is
1:12
the like a 3D of my book yeah and right
1:15
now I have ladies several Alpha females
1:18
who are working on the development of
1:19
oxy let's go riding producing directing
1:23
um who are from generations of 30 years
1:25
you know 240 and all of my but we're
1:30
very similar you know we're not that
1:32
much different because our tastes are
1:34
life and enjoying what we're capable of
1:37
doing we can't do everything but we
1:40
learn we don't we're not as judgmental
1:43
as we used to be because there's so many
1:45
cultures out there you know I also uh
1:48
women with a you know
1:50
assalamualaikum and I'm like wow you
1:52
said yeah Mommy how you doing and I live
1:55
among Native Americans and and and
1:58
migrants in New Mexico and New Mexico
2:02
and they have you know they feed their
2:04
family fifteen dollars a week of beans
2:06
and rice and tomatoes and salsa and
2:08
chili and good food and and make
2:10
tortillas on the barbecue grill and they
2:12
have a single wide trailer
2:15
it sleeps 15 people because they clean
2:17
your house so we can all be successful a
2:20
professors and a lawyers and the doctors
2:21
and the judge everybody they don't clean
2:23
their house on Saturdays these people do
2:25
but they got solar on their trailer
2:27
because they don't want to be a part of
2:29
the problem
2:30
and they they're they're hurt by it they
2:32
want to be a part of the solution and
2:34
they and like I said on the joy reach
2:35
show you can convert your your hooptie
2:38
your ice internal combustion engine from
2:41
five to seven thousand dollars and keep
2:43
the original design of it but you have
2:46
an EV because you can't these people
2:48
will never be able to 100 million people
2:50
cannot afford a sixty thousand dollar or
2:52
a hundred thousand dollar Evie and may
2:54
not be you have to say what an EV is
2:56
it's an electric vehicle yeah a lot of
2:58
people up and they say I know I know I
2:59
know okay I'm from California
3:02
yeah but there are real people from New
3:05
York to California there's a whole
3:06
million and 15 people who are support us
3:11
so we can be successful and they want
3:14
EVS they want electric vehicles they
3:16
want solar solar is free and when I saw
3:18
I took a picture of and I sent it to Joy
3:21
read of the readout and Val demons I
3:23
said these are people who live with
3:24
under twenty thousand dollars a year
3:27
but they got solar on their roof so it's
3:30
doable it's doable it can be Solar Sun
3:32
is free
3:33
put your panels out there what's on your
3:35
trailer or whatever it's free now they
3:37
can use the money to feed their children
3:39
okay this woman was crying at the gas
3:42
station
3:43
she said I clean six houses and I can I
3:46
have to pay almost 90 dollars for a
3:50
third of a tank of gas she said I've
3:51
never filled up and I have to clean all
3:53
these houses
3:55
but we don't realize it without them
3:57
people any of us are going to be at home
3:58
cleaning our house on Saturday
4:00
with a bunch of rooms and kids and stuff
4:02
you want to get out no these people come
4:04
and she said I can only clean three
4:05
three houses today
4:08
because I you know there's 15 all this
4:09
money I feed my family I can't I have
4:11
any more money and I'm like
4:14
and I can afford it
4:17
but I'm driving I'm driving my city car
4:19
so I can park and it's not my big you
4:23
know truck
4:25
it's 90 and I used to be able to fill up
4:27
on 35 and I'm like
4:29
a lot of people gonna get hit with this
4:30
so yeah I I got her gas card we got her
4:34
a gas card okay I'm career that's
4:39
[Applause]
4:41
um uh a lot of my uncas I was talking
4:44
about are vets and we all we have
4:47
several generations of people went to
4:48
Merit and they you know they can't hold
4:50
a book anymore they can't see the side
4:52
of impaired they're living at the VA
4:53
they can't get their benefits half the
4:55
time and all they want to do is read and
4:57
so I always go on I asked Jay George R
5:00
Martin his publisher if he had any
5:01
audiobooks and you know in his company
5:03
and in mine Grand Central to send your
5:06
audiobooks to the VA hospitals and
5:09
living facilities all across the country
5:10
every Thanksgiving but so there's not
5:12
enough volunteers to read for them but
5:14
they can sure put in a CD and sit in a
5:16
room of 30 men listening to a book you
5:20
know an audio book so I always ask
5:21
everyone to send audiobooks to your vets
5:23
every you know holiday season because
5:26
they don't they can't hold a book and my
5:28
uncles are sitting out front and they're
5:29
shaking they can't they can't even hold
5:32
the book right they can't focus and so
5:33
they miss out little things right little
5:36
things and sometimes we we forget and
5:38
I'm not saying it's gender strength or
5:40
no strength it's just we're busy and
5:43
until it happens to us or you're in the
5:46
hospital and you wish somebody came to
5:48
see you hold the book and read to you
5:50
then then the bills go off but there's
5:53
but you can make a difference in
5:55
someone's life so easily you've done it
5:57
so many times Pam Grier give a big round
5:59
of applause
6:02
when you look at some of the like I
6:04
think about your journey in Hollywood
6:07
and film and then I look we we had the
6:10
Magnificent Viola Davis here yes come on
6:14
yeah come on 50 years old when she gets
6:17
her big you know kick start yeah but I
6:19
said it's never too late so that's the
6:21
best teacher yeah ever to have that
6:24
passion to hang in there let's be there
6:25
because she's representing our Humanity
6:27
all types as I represent all types
6:29
Tamara did all types you know Viola uh
6:32
uh Vanetta McGee
6:35
um and there's there's more but it's
6:38
given me in my curiosity and my strength
6:40
to to know what I have and my fear is
6:45
and some people don't want to see
6:47
people different able they don't want to
6:49
see diseases they don't want to see
6:51
things but I don't I face it and I gain
6:53
more I'm in a wonderful show because of
6:56
my tenure called them
6:59
most brilliant badass joke that you can
7:02
see them them okay uh uh produced by Lil
7:06
Marvin and I came aboard because of it
7:10
because every episode is like a movie so
7:12
it's different
7:14
then I did pet cemetery with Henry
7:17
Thomas
7:17
where we're doing the prequel and I'm in
7:20
it and you know you know you know I'm
7:22
gonna cause some trouble yeah when I you
7:24
know have to you know I get to sew up my
7:26
face with fishing line what can I tell
7:28
you and then um I uh a wonderful film
7:31
Thriller called cinnamon with Damon
7:33
Wayans
7:35
[Music]
7:37
he is he made me laugh so much sometimes
7:41
I had to walk off and laughing so he
7:43
wouldn't see me and then
7:45
um uh we're doing foxy and another show
7:48
about the zombie apocalypse and
7:50
basically fast forward to this French
7:52
for we're living in a society where
7:54
zombies are have some and they're we we
7:56
accept them
7:58
and they're in our communities oh wow
8:00
wow it's cut foot I said just don't drop
8:02
your leg in my driveway I'm not picking
8:03
it up anymore that's all I can tell you
8:05
and when you come in the bar to buy a
8:07
drink don't pay me with urine okay
8:10
[Music]
8:12
you know me I calm down I'll come down
8:15
and real like I I I don't I'm not
8:18
discriminating with the zombie Community
8:19
they're just gonna pay me with money
8:22
okay not with P I'm just telling you
8:24
right now and then I get to ride my
8:26
Harley you know motorcycle there's
8:28
electric now so I'm building an electric
8:30
motorcycle fire Pam Grizz does it all
8:33
man Pam Grier let me remind y'all the
8:35
plot thickens podcast it's going to
8:37
Premiere Tuesday November the 15th
8:39
um you can hear the episode where
8:40
they're really just focusing in on on
8:43
Pam's life and career when I look at you
8:46
so many and I think about your career
8:48
and all the sacrifices you made and I
8:50
look at all the amazing artists who are
8:53
benefiting from some of the the barriers
8:55
that you broke through I'm wondering who
8:57
do you celebrate like when you look at
8:59
someone like a Beyonce right who has the
9:02
world in their hands and now she uses it
9:04
but she gotta rehearse yeah okay ain't
9:08
anybody gonna pay 150 dollars for
9:10
essay I love the word salad that we have
9:13
a nothing Burger I love that it looks
9:15
like crazy it's like but she look what
9:17
she brings she brings her her culture in
9:21
Louisiana her family too and and has to
9:25
rehearse so much go fast to James Brown
9:29
Sarah Vaughn
9:32
Ella Fitzgerald
9:34
if you look at all of our entertainers
9:36
who bring us education and Enlightenment
9:40
through music
9:41
another medium it's not always books and
9:44
Academia it's another form and we listen
9:47
we take hold of that next you know it's
9:49
there young kids are playing real
9:51
instruments now
9:53
back to learning chords and playing and
9:55
and they have it in Dublin Ireland the r
9:57
b festival for three days they bring in
10:00
r b groups Average White Band uh
10:04
musicians come in and teach thump and
10:06
teach you know r b guitar playing and
10:08
people wear afros and bell bottoms and
10:10
they're playing nothing but r b for
10:12
three days in Ireland
10:15
so cultures are being taught and
10:18
examined and enjoyed counter culturism
10:22
all over the world because we get it out
10:25
there you know and look at if you go
10:27
watch Beyonce's concert or if you watch
10:31
um
10:32
um John Legend if you watch
10:36
um so many uh Kendrick Lamar oh Kendrick
10:40
Lamar and all the stuff but it not only
10:42
him but
10:44
um
10:45
um some of the ones Lamar I shot him on
10:46
this morning he was on Jennifer Hudson's
10:50
show uh it'll come to me my hair's
10:53
exploding I'm so excited but there's so
10:55
many
10:57
um artists
10:59
you don't think of academically what
11:01
they had to do and learn to get to
11:04
Artistry you know there's a formula to
11:06
get to that
11:08
you have Beyonce and then if you look at
11:10
it at Megan Mega the sound and look at
11:12
look at that cardi B you know we're
11:15
taught and they're bringing a culture
11:17
they're finding an audience developing
11:18
an audience
11:20
um there's if Mariah you can go on and
11:22
on and on
11:24
um and it's just they're not there's old
11:26
school new school and after school yeah
11:27
but we have to keep our audiences
11:30
enlightened because it's going to be
11:32
different every three to five years new
11:34
star new music whether and remember some
11:36
of the music it was hip hop you hear a
11:38
little bit of Mediterranean in there
11:39
yeah you know do you see do you hear do
11:42
you see in their movements a little bit
11:44
of like just in their bouts too with
11:46
entertainment they do have to practice
11:47
but they do have to face a lot of the
11:50
pearls that women have faced through
11:52
entertainment just cramps yeah just
11:54
cramps alone
11:56
start there don't mess with me
12:00
not today do you see your DNA in their
12:03
movements though absolutely yeah I was
12:06
in a I was doing the L word in Vancouver
12:08
uh Canada and Beyonce had a concert and
12:11
all the girls we were sitting in the
12:13
front row Beyonce stopped her concert
12:15
to pay me homage and made me stand up
12:17
wow wow as she should and I wanted her
12:21
to play in a production a couple things
12:23
that I you know had developed for her
12:25
um but what what whatever didn't happen
12:28
but the fact that we hold each other up
12:33
to recognize what we do and what we've
12:35
done and she I stood up she stopped a
12:38
concert for me I'll speak yo come on now
12:40
come on I swore I was at her concert in
12:43
Seattle and they had a moving stage or
12:46
something above us I swore she looked
12:48
down I was in the crowd I swear she saw
12:50
me away
12:52
yeah that on the Run Tour yeah yeah
12:58
yeah it's not forget you can't remember
13:01
all those dance moves and songs
13:03
without an unbelievable brain a
13:09
remembering
13:10
DNA development
13:14
how many Beyonce's are out there
13:16
um yeah one just one
13:19
okay
13:21
um not everyone can do theater because
13:24
you can't make a mistake I'm off book
13:26
Clinton Tarantino wrote Jackie Brown and
13:28
I think I was prepared to work with him
13:30
and Robert De Niro and Sam Jackson and
13:32
rubber Forest because I had done nothing
13:34
but four years of theater
13:36
Pulitzer prize-winning place and you
13:39
can't drop a line you can't forget
13:40
that's you're off book
13:42
and that's the that's such discipline
13:45
yeah and so is music that's hard
13:49
you can't make a mistake Miss A Beat
13:51
miss a chord you know Miss a line like
13:53
oh shoot and stop and start over it's
13:56
it's such dedication and determination
13:59
for the audience yeah to show the people
14:03
are coming to see you giving their time
14:04
to you but you invested in all that time
14:08
to give them
14:10
near perfection
14:12
that takes a lot it takes someone think
14:14
of that and I talk about the crew in my
14:16
films you know they should be able to be
14:18
invited to the Oscars
14:20
absolutely yeah without the crew who
14:23
take care of us drive our trailers clean
14:24
our trailers get us home when we're too
14:26
tired we work 15 hours they're there two
14:28
hours before two hours after they should
14:30
be able to be invited to see those films
14:32
that are they participated in yeah for
14:34
free come as you are no 500 tickets
14:37
just come and I asked them that wouldn't
14:40
you like to go see the Oscar say we'd
14:42
love to but we're not invited and by the
14:44
time it happened we're on the next movie
14:45
I can't spend a thousand dollars for me
14:47
and my wife to go to the hospitals and
14:49
sit there and watch people in suits and
14:50
clothes and sit there and go home broke
14:53
but but just to say and have the truth
14:55
stand up
14:57
thank them that makes a difference it
14:59
does yeah and it also makes a difference
15:01
when they have a seller on the White
15:02
House they took it off remember
15:04
they have solar on the White House one
15:06
time and they took it off they took it
15:07
off because they said let's let the
15:09
people pay for our electric bill are you
15:10
kidding me really
15:13
why isn't it there
15:15
you know are we going to be a partner or
15:18
are we going to be waiting for the
15:19
master to tell us what to do
15:21
Yeah well yeah welcome to America no no
15:24
and no yeah
15:27
it doesn't go that way and taking our
15:29
social security I know some white farmer
15:31
redneck said if you touch it they'll
15:32
Kill Everybody
15:33
they're not gonna have it they're not
15:35
gonna have that unfairness until it
15:38
happens why wait let's show our power
15:40
and our vote
15:42
that we're thinking people
15:44
you know we're not all phds not
15:47
everybody went to college we got a life
15:48
and Spirits we're here that vote means
15:50
everything
15:52
Pam Grier big round of applies Pam let
15:56
me get this right first the plot Pickens
15:59
is a podcast that's all really in
16:00
existence yes right you're going to be
16:03
on episode four
16:05
yes which is November 15th
16:08
yes
16:11
all episodes this whole season is around
16:13
you yes
16:15
the whole season is you do you get to
16:18
hear my horses walk through you see them
16:21
in the mirror them in the barn you hear
16:23
every you hear my book every life event
16:26
and Sometimes I Cry Sometimes I have to
16:29
stop
16:30
and revisit something very traumatic to
16:33
let people who've gone through more or
16:35
less of what I had and that if you dive
16:38
in a way you may come out okay but
16:40
you're gonna be okay
16:42
if you love yourself you will attract
16:45
people to love you as well
16:47
amen I love it Pam Grier
16:50
um
16:51
James that John what is the the James
16:54
Bond movie out of first place copy now
16:56
in the first place James Bond in the 70s
17:00
okay you knocked him out off of the box
17:03
it was top box office movie in the world
17:05
because I showed to people a black woman
17:08
in the 70s it showed my P I love my
17:10
peeps I love me I love what we can do
17:13
and stand up for and it kept playing in
17:16
the theaters for three four months not
17:19
two weeks that's a lot of popcorn and I
17:22
was told by the owners like Pam you're
17:24
gonna create a lot of enemies because
17:25
your movies play too long I said because
17:27
people are taking their families and
17:29
their kids two and three times in the
17:31
movie to see something different every
17:33
time they never saw what you brought but
17:35
I had to let them know it's okay and and
17:37
we could remember we couldn't say
17:39
breasts wow and I said well they they
17:43
will
17:44
condemn me for showing my breasts and my
17:48
black Womanhood my whatever tribe I'm
17:51
from Nigerian and I'm going to show that
17:54
and show us okay they couldn't say
17:55
breasts and cancer they couldn't say
17:56
breast cancer they were just we've
17:58
evolved wow you couldn't say breast
18:00
cancer they would no no no there was
18:03
time when you couldn't say breast cancer
18:05
on TV or radio or you said it and even
18:07
in privacy see where it is you know
18:09
we've come a long ways in accepting
18:12
ourselves
18:14
I've had women you know who their
18:17
husbands didn't like the fact they lost
18:19
their breasts and they divorced him and
18:20
you know because it wasn't sexy they
18:22
weren't turned on by it yeah or her head
18:24
I said oh that was shallow Pam shut up
18:27
leave the room
18:28
um but real real real deal that's
18:31
unfortunate it is but it's real yeah
18:34
it's real for whatever people are and do
18:36
whatever that thing is but women say
18:38
okay I had I had a marriage and a man
18:41
and wonderful I lost one of my breasts
18:42
and he didn't want me more but I still
18:43
love me amen come on round of applies
18:46
how hard that is yeah you lose your
18:49
breath and get out on the beach and see
18:51
it what people may say about you
18:53
as a man
18:55
yeah sway
18:57
and have to answer questions and have to
19:00
answer and you have to deal with it you
19:02
know and it's like it's personal but we
19:04
we've come a long way through medicine
19:08
and history and Discovery and culture
19:11
and so it's we're not simple not at all
19:16
we're complex beautifully so absolutely
19:19
and the more I know about men a
19:22
boyfriend who didn't have his testicles
19:24
he had cancer prostate
19:26
you know and had a problem with it I
19:29
want to make him comfortable yeah it's
19:32
not about anything else but his Soul and
19:34
Spirit how he feels and how he treats
19:36
people and animals it's about that you
19:39
know the sex has been Recreation okay
19:41
we've gone to that yeah and now we're
19:43
moving back to what does it mean you
19:44
know I call it time share dating we get
19:46
to date someone for 90 days and move on
19:47
to the next guy who likes the beach and
19:49
the next one who likes snow and the
19:50
other one likes a mountain bike and
19:51
they're like you know and then they say
19:53
oh you are on a motorcycle you know yeah
19:56
you can get hit on a bike
19:58
you know you could get here walking
20:00
across the street so I at my time and
20:03
age I've decided I really want to enjoy
20:05
the things that everyone said don't do
20:07
dangerous I got you know electric
20:10
Harley-Davidson it's a live wire you got
20:13
electric bike yeah
20:15
I can have a hey if roadhogs are great
20:17
hog Masters you have the fat boy you
20:19
have Roadster Sports you know Sportsters
20:21
you have all the Glides and stuff like
20:23
that I know my Harley and and or the
20:25
trikes but the new electric one
20:28
less less issues less mechanical less
20:31
this less that you're gonna it's so
20:33
quiet and fast you think you're flying
20:35
we're gonna get you an electric uh
20:37
Harley commercial Pam Greer give a round
20:39
of applies Pam I love you I just want to
20:42
let you talk but it's another show gotta
20:44
come on
20:46
um Rhonda we love you too yeah thank you
20:48
for donating to our uh our hungerthon
20:51
charity yes and I'm glad you got to meet
20:53
Tommy Davidson In this amazing come on
20:56
Rhonda okay
20:59
you guys listen to the podcast at the
21:02
plot
21:04
thickens.tcm.com the plot thickens dot
21:09
tcm.com Pam Grier come back anytime well
21:13
they gonna get to hear all of me there
21:15
you go all right love you we love you
21:17
back thank you very much Rhonda we love
21:19
you too thanks everybody okay
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