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Lily Tomlin recalls going to a 'porno movie' with Richard Pryor

By Annie Martin
Lily Tomlin discussed her friendship with late comedian Richard Pryor in a new interview. File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI
1 of 3 | Lily Tomlin discussed her friendship with late comedian Richard Pryor in a new interview. File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo

Jan. 17 (UPI) -- Lily Tomlin says she once went to a "porno movie" with late comedian Richard Pryor.

The 79-year-old actress discussed her friendship with Pryor during an interview with close friend and Grace and Frankie co-star Jane Fonda on Wednesday's episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!

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Pryor, who died at age 65 in December 2005, appeared on Tomlin's comedy special Lily in 1973. Tomlin told host Jimmy Kimmel she was a fan of Pryor and approached him about the show.

"I adored Richard. I'd seen him at The Improv, so then as soon as I got a special, I said I want Richard Pryor," the star recalled. "I'm sure he's thinking, 'I got to shut this white girl out,' so he said, 'Okay, we'll spend the day together.'"

"That was great, that was good, because I had the cache of being on Laugh-In, which was a big hit show and all the people in the neighborhood loved me," she said.

Tomlin said Pryor vetted her in the local community and then challenged her to go to a "porno movie" at a theater during their day together.

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"I said I will go but I will pay my own way," she recounted. "We went to a porno movie and we sat there and we watched it and everything like that ... It was a bonafide porno movie."

Tomlin paid tribute to Pryor following his death in 2005, recalling how she last saw him perform at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

"For almost two hours, I watched the greatest pioneering comic artist of the last three generations at the top of his genius -- this gifted, raging, soaring, plummeting, deeply human man with the tender boy inside," the actress wrote, according to Entertainment Weekly.

"I laughed -- inspired, moved, and grateful to have been present when this revelation, Richard Pryor, was so actively in our lives -- and in our faces," she said.

Tomlin and Fonda star on the Netflix series Grace and Frankie, which was renewed for a sixth season this week. The pair discussed the potential 9 to 5 sequel in an interview Tuesday.

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