The 'Ganstas' Chronicles

What do you miss most about the movies of the '70s?
Grier: The innocence and the newness. Everyone was forging new ground and trying to figure out how people would react.

O'Neal: I had a sense of hope, a sense of the future. I saw no reason why black films wouldn't go on, strengthen themselves, and become better.

Brown: I enjoyed the freedom and being able to participate on different levels because I played in many kinds of films.

Williamson: I really can't say that I miss anything, because my career never stopped. I learned the business of the business, and I was able to continue doing the things I wanted to do.

When blaxploitation faded, how did it affect your career?
Brown: My career [declined because of] dwindling box office receipts, I would imagine, or being blackballed for being controversial. I couldn't say exactly.

Grier: I just went on. I did Greased Lightning with Richard Pryor, and I took a couple of years off to grow.

O'Neal: I didn't work. I would go two or three years without working at all. It was a little crazy for me. I was divorced during that period — I think it probably helped break up my marriage.

Williamson: It never faded for me. In my movies, even though they were calling them ''black exploitation,'' I killed everybody — I beat up black people, white people, yellow people, pink people. I was an equal-opportunity person.

With the recent rediscovery of blaxploitation in revival houses and on video, has it become easier to find roles?
Brown: I don't go out looking for parts. I run an [inmate rehabilitation] organization called the Amer-I-Can Program. I did Original Gangstas because I thought it was great that in 1995 Fred could raise the money and do a film.

Grier: Well, I think that if I wasn't a good actor I'd have problems. But I worked at being an actor of interest, so it hasn't been difficult.

O'Neal: Some people, all they know is Super Fly. And others know me from my New York stage beginnings. As for Original Gangstas, it was sort of a historic event — the only time we've been together on the screen. It was really like old home week.

Williamson: I don't look for roles. I've produced and directed most of my own movies [including Mean Johnny Barrows, Adios Amigo, and Foxtrap]. The roles I want to play, they're not going to let me play because I have three rules: I have to win the fight, you can't kill me, and I want the girl at the end. Now, if they're going to hire Wesley Snipes and Denzel Washington to do that, I got to go make my own movie.