As he prepares to accept the GIBFF Lifetime Achievement Award this weekend, legendary action star Fred Williamson opens up in an exclusive interview with The Chicago Defender about his iconic career, the Blaxploitation label, and why he’s far from finished.
Fred “The Hammer” Williamson ain’t done.
You would expect a man now in his eighties, with over 125 acting credits, 40 producer and director credits, and a career that spans six decades, to hang it all up and smell the roses. He has every right to.
But not Williamson, one of the first Black action heroes to emerge on the big screen during the so-called Blaxploitation era.
Nevertheless, he will still receive his flowers this weekend in his hometown of Gary, Indiana, at the Gary International Black Film Festival (GIBFF). The festival will give Williamson the GIBFF Lifetime Achievement Award at Indiana University Northwest on Sunday.
It’s a recognition fitting for a movie idol whose films became Black household staples like Hammer,” “Black Caesar,” “Hell Up in Harlem,” and “Three the Hard Way,” work that would eventually spawn films by eventual Black male action stars like Denzel Washington, Wesley Snipes, Will Smith, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Vin Diesel and Samuel L. Jackson.
While the recognition is cool, Williamson says there’s more stuff to do.
“I’m not satisfied with things I have done so far,” Williamson told The Chicago Defender, “I still have a feeling of not being fulfilled.”
In a phone interview on a recent Friday afternoon, Williamson talked about why he wasn’t done yet, what it was like growing up in Gary and how he got his famous nickname.
He even disclosed his real feelings about his films being referred to as “Blaxploitation” and why he needed to get behind the camera while continuing to kick ass in front of it.
A Career of Action and Impact
Tacuma Roeback: What is the one project that exemplifies what you take pride in that you’ve done?
Fred Williamson: In all my films and action films, I try to integrate my friends. I put all my friends in my films. I had Jim Brown, Jim Kelly, Richard Roundtree, “Three the Hard Way,” and “Original Gangstas.” A team of guys who represent something and not just walk around and be a movie star. That’s really not it.
When I accept the role, and they send me a script, there are two things they have to do for me. One, you can’t kill me in a movie. Two, I have to win my fights in all my movies.
So, I stand up for Fred Williamson and hope that some youngster out there watching me understands that I’m doing it for them to take some strength and motivation from me. Then, don’t be motivated by money because money don’t last. Once it’s all gone and you’ve sold out, you’ve got nothing left.
Rejecting the Blaxploitation Label
Tacuma Roeback: What are your thoughts about that so-called Blaxploitation era? I know it’s a question you get a lot. Is there anything you want to set the record straight about in terms of that era and those films you were a part of?
Fred Williamson: Yeah, I hate it. I totally hate it. I totally disagree with the terminology. If you’re going to call my film “Black exploitation,” then I want you to call John Wayne and Humphrey Bogart and all those other guys, white exploitation films. Why did my film have to be singled out as a Black film? And even today, I’ve made films in Europe. I make films all over Europe. Nobody in Europe calls me that because they don’t look at it that way. I mean, I can make a film here in the States, and I’m the only Black guy in the film, and they still call my film a Black exploitation movie.
They don’t do that in Europe. So, my power is stronger in Europe than it is in America. In America, I’m a Black actor. In Europe, I’m an action star. So it’s altogether different.
Tacuma Roeback: Speaking of maintaining control over your image and your projects, which is rare in Hollywood, how important was it for you to be in front of and behind the camera?
Fred Williamson: To do the films that I wanted to do and create the image and the character that I wanted to do, it was necessary for me to be behind the camera. It wasn’t something I really looked forward to doing, but I knew I had to take my image and my lifestyle and control.
The only way I could do that is write my own thing, decide where I want to shoot it and bring all the people in that I want to shoot. They can’t call my film a Black film because I beat up white people, pink people, yellow people. I beat up everybody that is bad. So, why they call my film a Black film? I don’t know. Don’t understand it. That’s their problem.
Gary Roots, Global Legacy
Tacuma Roeback: Coming up from Gary, Indiana, you’ve been on this incredible journey. What are your thoughts when you look back on that journey and your home of Gary, Indiana?
Fred Williamson: I think being in Gary is what motivated me to go out and achieve and do things that I was supposed to never be able to do because I was Black.
So, I never really bought into that ‘You can’t do this because you’re Black.’ It came from my family. It came from friends. ‘You can’t go over here. You’re Black, they don’t like you.’
That’s exactly where I want to be. I want to go see why they don’t like me. They got no reason not to like me just because of the color of my skin. Gary, in its own strange kind of way, gave me a motivation to see what the rest of the world thought of me and to make my way through a world that supposedly don’t like me.
I don’t understand. How can you not like a tall, dark and handsome guy like ‘The Hammer?’
So, I’m going out there to challenge society. My motivation was to challenge all these naysayers that said, ‘You can’t do this. You can’t do that because you’re Black.’
So, Gary gave me that tremendous motivation. Probably, had I not been Black, I probably would not have been able to achieve the things that I did. Because everything that I did, I was told never, not to do, even my folks. Even when I picked Northwestern to go to school with a scholarship, they said, ‘You can’t go there. There’s no Blacks there. They’re going to kill you. Why don’t you go to Grambling? Go to a Black college?’ I said, ‘No, no. I know that lifestyle. I know how to do that.’
I want to go to another place where I can learn how that lifestyle reacts to me. And that’s why I chose Northwestern. I was the first Black athlete to get a scholarship there.
Earning ‘The Hammer’
Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Tacuma Roeback: How did you earn the nickname ‘The Hammer?’
Fred Williamson: When I was at Northwestern, I was a flanker catching the ball. I was an all-American flanker, pass receiver. I got drafted by the pros. On the first day of practice, they gave me a red shirt. Everybody else got different color shirts. They gave me a red shirt. And I said, ‘Oh, this is great. What am I special? I mean somebody big.’
He said, ‘No, son, you’re gonna play defense.’ I said, ‘What do you mean defense? Don’t you know who I am?’ My name at that time at Northwestern was Speedy. I said, ‘I don’t know how to play defense. I can’t play defense. I don’t know how to run backwards. Don’t you know who I am? I catch passes between my teeth. Wherever you throw it, I’m going to catch it.’
He says, ‘No, we don’t need pass receivers. We have superstars here already. We need good defensive backs, and you got the size and speed to be a good cornerback.’ I said, ‘Oh well, I’ll try it.’
So after like, three, four days of practice, I’m falling down. I’m tripping all over my feet. I can’t cover nobody, because I don’t know how to run backwards. So, the coach comes to me. He was Red Hickey. He says, ‘Son, you’re disappointing us. We thought you could make the adjustment. You have the speed. You have the size. We thought you’d be a good cornerback, but you’re disappointing us. So, if you don’t do something better, we have to cut you and send you home.’
And I’m saying, ‘There’s no way you’re gonna send me home. I’m the baddest dude in the neighborhood. How you gonna send me home to Gary, Indiana?’ And I can’t explain to these guys I can’t make a football team. So I made a decision.
I go out there the next day at practice. The first guy to come up to me to run a pass pattern on me was R.C. Owens, [nicknamed] ‘Alley Oop.’ I get about two yards off of him. I could smell his breath. I could tell you what he had for breakfast.
Red Hickey, the coach, says, ‘Williamson, get back. He’s gonna make you look stupid.’ I said, ‘Shut up and hike the ball.’ He said, ‘Okay, go ahead. Make him look stupid.’
They hiked the ball. R.C. took one step toward me, and I hit him with an upper forearm, upper shot forearm, knocked him out. Red Hickey runs over and says, ‘Goddammit, Williamson, what are you doing?’ I said, ‘I covered him.’
[Hickey said], ‘Okay, stop hammering my players and get back so we can get some pass offense in.’ That’s how I got ‘The Hammer.’
The Hammer’s Next Chapter
Tacuma Roeback: Wow, that’s awesome. So what’s next for Fred Williamson?
Fred Williamson: Finding the right project for me. Finding things that I want to do. I’m really looking forward to doing something in Europe. I have a number one film playing in Germany right now [called “Atomic Eden”]. So, I’ll probably go back to Europe and make a couple of films in Spain or in Italy. Italy is my favorite, favorite country. We lived in Italy for a while. So, I’ll probably go back to Italy and make a couple of films there.
But since then, I’ve moved to Chicago because I got tired of Hollywood B.S. I got tired of trying to prove that you’re something that they want you to be. So, I just bought a condo on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, and I’m here and I’m having a good time. I’m enjoying the area, and they’re not as good at the B.S. as they are in California. You can spot the B.S. here real quick.
You can waste a lot of time in Hollywood because they’re good at it. They’re good at B.S. They drive Mercedes and Rolls Royce and sleep in them at night. So, they have good images. But you can’t go by the image. A guy is going to talk to you about a $20 million film that he’s planning to do. And you look at his clothes, and he’s got frayed cuffs and wrinkles in the shirt, and he’s talking about a $40 million deal. You can’t do that in the Midwest. It shows right away that you’re full of B.S.
Tacuma Roeback: What message would you like to give to fellow young creatives, your fans who have followed you for years or people who may be discovering you for the first time?
Fred Williamson: Well, it’s not necessary to decide what you want to do and, where you want to do it and how many times you want to do it until you start doing it. You have to make sure that whatever you spend your time in is something that your heart tells you that you’re doing the right thing. Don’t just do it because they think it’s going to be monetarily successful because that’s not always rewarding. So, do follow your own heart. Do the things that please you and work hard at them, and you’ll find out that the things you want to do come easy.
Tacuma Roeback: Well, Mr. Williamson, it’s been a pleasure. Once again, congratulations on your honor by the Gary International Black Film Festival. It was a pleasure talking with you.
Fred Williamson: I still got things to do, man. What’s this lifetime achievement? It ain’t over yet. But there’s something else that I want to do and intend to do, and I have no idea what it is because I’m not totally fulfilled yet by anything that I’ve done. So, I’m not into this lifetime achievement stuff, you know? You want to give me something? Just give me an achievement award. Don’t give me no lifetime achievement because that sounds like a finale.
Tacuma Roeback: And this is just a sequel.
Fred Williamson: (Laughs) The sequel is up in front of me, so I don’t really know what it is, but it’s going to be something I’m going to enjoy doing and maybe help other people feel the same way that I do, you know? One accomplishment leads to another.
For more information on attending the Gary International Black Film Festival, please visit garyblackfilmfest.org.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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