Pam Grier is revisiting some of the wildest moments of her career — and making a bold claim about her influence on Stan Lee in the process.
During a new appearance on the podcast Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, the actress said the late Marvel legend used her as inspiration for several comic book characters that emerged during the 1970s and 1980s boom of Black superheroes and action heroines.
Grier reflected on the cultural impact of her rise during the blaxploitation era as she discussed her crossover into comic-book history. “Stan Lee, who wrote about Misty Knight and Amanda Waller… he based his characters on me,” Grier said during the episode.
While Lee did not directly create every character she referenced, Marvel creators have long acknowledged that Grier’s screen presence influenced the look and attitude of several heroes, including Misty Knight and Monica Rambeau, who later became Captain Marvel and Photon in Marvel Comics.
Misty Knight, originally created by Tony Isabella and Arvell Jones, was heavily inspired by Grier’s action-film persona at the height of her career. Artist John Romita Jr. has also previously said he used Grier as visual inspiration for Monica Rambeau’s original design before Marvel executives reportedly asked him to make the character look less like the actress.
Monica Rambeau later appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, portrayed by actress Teyonah Parris.
The episode also touched on several deeply personal chapters from Grier’s life, including surviving stage four cervical cancer and living with lingering trauma after a childhood injury.
Grier revealed that a classmate struck her in the head with a chair during kindergarten, causing a fractured skull and brain bleeding that still affects her speech. “I still stutter. I still have some evidence of trauma,” she explained.
Elsewhere in the conversation, Grier shared stories from her early years in Los Angeles, including a surreal studio session in which she unexpectedly crossed paths with Jimi Hendrix while recording music associated with Sly and the Family Stone.
She also reflected on her friendship with Minnie Riperton and recalled that, from an early age, she knew Riperton’s daughter, Maya Rudolph, was destined for entertainment.
One of the interview’s most talked-about moments arrived when Louis-Dreyfus asked Grier about aging and whether she still felt young. Grier answered with a line that immediately went viral online: “When you're young, you can have three, four, five orgasms in an hour. But when you get my age, you have one orgasm, it'll last three days.”
After Louis-Dreyfus jokingly demanded details, Grier insisted it was simply part of getting older.
