Tippi Hedren, the actress who starred in Alfred Hitchcock’s films “The Birds” and “Marnie,” has revealed in her new memoir “Tippi” that the acclaimed director once sexually assaulted her.
The excerpts outlining the incidents were first reported by the New York Post. As she details in the book, Hitchcock entered her dressing room on the set of “Marnie” and “put his hands on [her].” She wrote, “It was sexual, it was perverse. The harder I fought him, the more aggressive he became.”
After seeing her in a commercial, Hitchcock hired Hedren for a five picture deal. But Hedren would only go on to star in two Hitchcock films, and it’s a safe bet that her suffering at the hands of the director had much to do with that outcome.
During the filming of “The Birds,” Hitchcock’s infatuation with Hedren turned to obsession. “Before filming even began,” the Post writes, “the director warned Hedren’s castmates, particularly the handsome Rod Taylor, not to socialize with or ‘touch The Girl,’ she writes. On set, every time Hitch saw Hedren laughing or talking with a man, he would turn ‘icy’ and ‘petulant’ and fix her with an ‘expressionless, unwavering stare . . . even if he was talking to a group of people on the other side of the soundstage.’”
Much of Hitchcock’s mistreatment of Hedren was portrayed in the 2012 HBO movie “The Girl,” but Hedren has gone into much further detail in her memoir. For example, the Post reports, also during the production of “Marnie,” Hitchcock had a door installed connecting his office with Hedren’s dressing room, and requested a mask made of her face for his own personal use. (Gross.)
As The Guardian details, “Marnie,” “includes a scene in which Hedren’s character is raped by her new husband. Hedren believes that the scene of a man forcing himself on his unattainable, beautiful bride was Hitchcock’s personal fantasy about her.”
The director also threw himself on top of her and tried to kiss her in the back of a limousine.
“It was an awful, awful moment,” she wrote, but didn’t tell anyone because “sexual harassment and stalking were terms that didn’t exist” in the early 1960s. Besides, she added, “Which one of us was more valuable to the studio, him or me?”
Sadly, these types of scenarios occurred often during the so-called Golden Age of Hollywood. When actresses have little power and male directors are considered geniuses, they’re given carte blanche to mistreat women.
“Studios were the power,” Hedren said in 2012. “And I was at the end of that, and there was absolutely nothing I could do legally whatsoever. There were no laws about this kind of a situation. If this had happened today, I would be a very rich woman.”
Thankfully, much has changed since the 1960s, and though women are still often mistreated on set, behavior like Hitchcock’s wouldn’t go unnoticed today. With more women on set, strict sexual harassment laws in place, and the general air of equality circling in Hollywood, women like Hedren speaking out are bringing the issues to light.
“I’ve made it my mission ever since to see to it that while Hitchcock may have ruined my career, I never gave him the power to ruin my life,” she said.
