Sometimes we tend to idealize or put on a pedestal the work of film directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, who is considered the “Master of Suspense” for his talent to create iconic horror stories, however, little is known about what happened behind the scenes during the recording of classic films that marked generations.
That is the case of a disturbing event starring the director and American actress and model Tippi Hedren, who participated in the film “The Birds” and who is the mother of Melanie Griffin and grandmother of Dakota Johnson.
The story behind the set of “The Birds”.
Hitchcock made Tippi Hedren’s life miserable after she refused to have something with him, according to a popular Instagram account about movies.
That’s right, according to the film critic who goes by the name “Peli de la Semana”, the director was obsessed with blonde women, so without further ado, he decided to hire the actress to star in his famous film “The Birds”. All this under an exclusive contract of 7 years with the purpose that Hedren only appeared in the director’s films.
As time went by and during the movie’s filming, Tippi Hedren realized that the acclaimed director had sought her out for other interests. Shortly, Alfred Hitchcock treated Tippi Hedren badly by turning her down.
After saying “no” to the director who possibly never received a negative answer, Hitchcock simply showed his toxic masculinity and began to treat her very badly, making her life miserable on the set.
How? He banned all the staff from talking to her, his office put her next to Tippi’s dressing room to control who she spoke to or what time she went out.
The bird scene
One of the most disturbing facts is that Alfred Hitchcock removed the mechanical birds and replaced them with real birds without telling the actress. These animals were thrown at Tippi directly, causing injuries to her face.
Unfortunately, the actress had signed a contract that kept her tied to the director for years. In fact, he forced her to appear in the film “Marnie” where he again tried to sleep with her to no avail.
When Hitchcock was rejected again, he abused his power and mentioned within the film industry that Tippi Hedren was “an actress you couldn’t work with”. Moreover, he had total control of her roles, as there was an exclusivity contract in place.
Dakota Johnson remembers Hitchcock’s terrifying gift to Melanie Griffith
As we already told you, a very curious and little-known fact is that Dakota Johnson is the granddaughter of Tippi Hedren, Melanie Griffith’s mother. Well, there is a rare anecdote in the family, because when Alfred Hitchcock tried to seduce Tippi Hedren, he gave a terrifying gift to Melanie Griffith, his daughter, when she was a child.
“What happened to my grandmother was horrible because Hitchcock was a tyrant. He was talented and prolific and important in terms of art, but power can poison people,” Dakota Johnson said in an interview for Vanity Fair.
According to the actress, the director gave her mother, Melanie Griffith, a moon doll that was a replica of Hedren in a miniature coffin.
“Hitchcock was very strange, a very strange man,” Melanie Griffith told Jimmy Kimmel in 2012.
Story originally published in Cultura Colectiva in Spanish