Movies

Why Pam Grier refused to play ‘Octopussy’ Bond girl role

By
Social Links for Samantha Ibrahim
Published Feb. 9, 2023
Updated Feb. 9, 2023, 1:11 p.m. ET
Pam Grier, best known for the 1974 action flick "Foxy Brown" (right), turned down a role in the James Bond movie "Octopussy."
Pam Grier, best known for the 1974 action flick "Foxy Brown" (right), turned down a role in the James Bond movie "Octopussy." Getty Images; Everett Collection

The name’s Grier. Pam Grier.

The screen icon, 73, was up for the titular Bond girl role in the 1983 James Bond installment “Octopussy.” However, the “Foxy Brown” star turned it down in search of better projects.

“My agents had me meet with [producers] the Broccoli family, and I’m going, ‘I’m not available,’ ” Grier told Entertainment Weekly in an interview published Wednesday.

“They looked at me and said, ‘Well, why are you here?’ I go, ‘I don’t know. My agent told me to come meet,’ ” she said.

Grier said she didn’t feel being in the movie would benefit her career.

“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 afterthought, a CliffsNote, perhaps,” she said.

Actress Maud Adams, 77, would go on to play the part of the cunning jewel smuggler.

OCTOPUSSY, from left: Roger Moore, Maud Adams, 1983.
Roger Moore and Maud Adams in the 1983 James Bond movie “Octopussy.” ©United Artists/Courtesy Everett Collection
“My agents had me meet with [producers] the Broccoli family, and I’m going, ‘I’m not available,'” the "Foxy Brown" icon said of turning down the Bond part.
“My agents had me meet with [producers] the Broccoli family, and I’m going, ‘I’m not available,’ ” the “Foxy Brown” icon said of turning down the Bond part. WireImage

“Jackie Brown” actress Grier questioned what her character would actually be doing and wondered whether the role was going to be stimulating enough for her.

“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,” she said. “I gave them other ideas, which were much more profound and interesting than what they were doing.

“I just wanted to do really in-depth character pieces that weren’t predictable,” Grier added. “I turned down everything.”

Last fall, Grier spoke about her decades-long career in Hollywood and revealed that she even wanted to quit the acting biz after “Foxy Brown” was released in 1974.

“I wasn’t sure I was going to continue making films,” Grier told Fox News. “But it turned out I developed an audience. 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.”

OCTOPUSSY, from left: Roger Moore, Maud Adams, 1983.
“Octopussy” is the 13th film in the James Bond franchise. ©United Artists/Courtesy Everett Collection

She described how her character was a strong, female hero who “freely expressed herself in a way that wasn’t portrayed.

“I come from the black West, from women who are wholesome, but fierce,” continued the star, who lives in Colorado. “I wanted to bring that into my work. I lassoed people in, and it opened the floodgates.”