It was always said that the director of 'The Birds' became obsessed with the actress. She reveals what their relationship was like
Among the dark stories of Hollywood, Alfred Hitchcock's obsession with Tippi Hedren stands out. However, the actress never wanted to talk about how her relationship with the filmmaker affected her until now, at which time she published her biography, titled 'Tippi: A memoir'. "Alfred Hitchcock assaulted me," that's how blunt Melanie Griffith's mother is in her pages.
Tippi was 36 years old during the filming of 'The Birds', a thriller to which she has become irremediably linked. It was six months of hard work, during which the director warned the rest of the actors that they should not socialize with her, isolating her from everyone.
According to Hedren, Hitchcock showed up at her house asking her to touch him and lunged at her in the back of her limo, trying to kiss her. "It was a terrible moment, but I didn't tell anyone because harassment and 'stalking' didn't exist as legal terms in the '60s. Besides, who was more valuable to the studio, him or me? says the interpreter.
But also, Hedren had to face real pain in the last scene of the film, in which she is attacked by a flock of birds. "Hitchcock lied and used real animals. Not even the best trained people in the world could have controlled the movements of the birds. It was brutal, ugly and relentless. I sat on the floor, unable to move, and started crying from exhaustion," Hedren recalls. , whose doctor demanded, to no avail, a vacation for the actress.
After 'The Birds', she returned to work for the director in the film 'Marnie the Thief'. Hitchcock demanded to install a secret door connecting his office to the actress's dressing room. There took place one of the most tense moments between the two. "He put his hands on me violently.
It was a attack, perverse. The more I fought with him, the more aggressive he became." Hedren settles her reckoning with one clear idea: "I've made it my mission to prove that he ruined my career, even though I never gave him the power to ruin my life."
