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Dakota Johnson Says Her Grandmother Tippi Hedren Had Her Career Ruined By Alfred Hitchcock

posted 2 years ago by TMC-4 (19410)
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https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/dakota-johnson-says-her-grandmother-213900618.html

Dakota Johnson has a star-studded family, born to actors Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson. Fewer people realize her grandmother is Hollywood royalty Tippi Hedren, known best for her starring turn in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. During a live taping of The Hollywood Reporter's "Awards Chatter" podcast, Johnson explained why she thinks that Hedren wasn't given even more memorable roles afterwards.

“She's always been really honest and firm about standing up for yourself. That's what she did,” Johnson said of Hedren. “[Alfred] Hitchcock ruined her career because she didn't want to sleep with him, and he terrorized her. He was never held accountable.”

She continued, “It's completely unacceptable for people in a position of power to wield that power over someone in a weaker position, no matter the industry. It's hard to talk about because she's my grandmother. You don't want to imagine somebody taking advantage of your grandmother.”

Hedren alleged in her 2016 memoir, Tippi, that she was sexually assaulted by the director while working with him on 1963's The Birds and 1964's Marnie. Amongst her accusations, she says that he would not allow his driver to stop at her home and asked her to “touch him,” then tried to force a kiss on her. She wrote, “It was an awful, awful moment.”

On the set of Marnie, he invaded her dressing room and “put his hands on” her. She said, “It was sexual, it was perverse.”

Hedren never told anyone at the time because this sort of behavior wasn't openly discussed in the early 1960s and “sexual harassment and stalking were terms that didn't exist.”

Hedren has continued to work, but Johnson obviously thinks she deserved a more high-profile career.

“I think the thing that she's been so amazing for me and with my mother is just like, no you do not put up with that s--- from anybody,” she said. “She would say it in a far more eloquent way. She's such a glamorous movie star, still.”

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

Dakota Johnson is two generations (Melanie Griffith in between) and almost 60 years removed from whatever really happened between Alfred Hitchcock and Tippi Hedren back there in the years 1962 through 1964.

I have been reading books and articles about Hitchcock since 1978 (when Hitchcock was still alive and the biography "Hitch" was written by John Russell Taylor about Hitchcock) and the "Tippi Hedren story" seems to have shifted and changed over time. Tippi Hedren is still alive, and quite old today, and its seems that the farther away Hedren gets in time from the incidents in question, the more lurid they have been re-told.

I don't profess to "know the truth," but from my readings not only of Tippi Hedren's comments but of the comments of other Hitchcock collaborators, its seems that this story cannot be alllowd to stand "just from Tippi's side."

This is because any number of the actresses who worked with Hitchcock -- from Joan Fontaine to Ingrid Bergman(worked with him three times) to Grace Kelly(worked with him three times in a row) to Doris Day to Kim Novak Eva Marie Saint to Janet Leigh to Julie Andrews to Barbara Leigh-Hunt and Anna Massy(murder victims in Frenzy) to Barbara Harris -- spoke well of him as a good, nice, respectful man. Some of them said that AGAINST Hedren's comments about her experience.

It was also noted that Hitchcock was "surrounded by women" in his life - his wife Alma(his ONLY wife, unlike as with other Hollywood marriages), his daughter Pat(his only child), his three granddaughters(no grandsons), the women who worked directly for him (Joan Harrison, Peggy Robertson, his secretary) -- they ALL said he was a nice guy with whom they would work again.

CONT

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

That said, two other women levelled charges against Hitch -- but one them wasn't too serious about it.

Brigitte Auber(the young French star in To Catch a Thief) said that Hitchcock indeed tried to kiss her, and it was embarrassing -- she saw him as a father figure, not a romantic one.

And Karen Black -- who along with Barbara Harris , was in Hitchcock's final film, Family Plot -- said that Hitchcock gave her a gentle grandfatherly kiss -- and then stuck his tongue in her mouth. Well...he was pretty old by then.

So Tippi Hedren had Brigitte Auber and Karen Black on her side, sort of ...but all those other women in support of him.

Hedren had an answer to them: they were all famous stars with husbands; I was an unmarried beginner in movies.

Arguments AGAINST Hedren's version:

ONE: If he was so bad to her on The Birds...why did she agree to do Marnie?

TWO: The story kept changing. In some versions, Hitchcock was simply mean to her(he wanted to control her as "his discovery.") In some versions, Hitchcock cornered her and talked dirty to her. And in the most RECENT versions, Hitchcock touched her, assaulted her.

Which to believe?

THREE: In 1979 , Hedren was invited to, attended, and spoke at , the televised American Film Institute Life Acheivement Award to Hitchcock (he died one year later.) If there was a problem, why was Hedren invited? Why did she attend?

Meanwhile:

The line "Hitchcock ruined her career" doesn't quite hold water. First of all, Hitchcock GAVE Tippi Hedren her career. She had had no movie roles when Hitchcock pulled her out of a TV commercial he saw on the Today show, and he put her in the lead of two important Hitchcock movies(this drew out the critical knives -- they saw Hedren as a typical "movie director's girlfriend" being made a star.)

CONT

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

What contractural power did Hitchcock have to "ruin her career"? Some maybe, but she wasn't all that much in demand beyond Hitchcock's hiring her. Charlie Chaplin DID hire Hedren for "Countess from Hong Kong" (1966) where she supported heavyweights Marlon Brando and Sophia Loren.

Even Hitchcock reportedly wanted to use Tippi Hedren again in movies that never got made -- "Mary Rose" and "The Three Hostages"(to co-star Sean Connery if he could get him.)

Tippi Hedren's career as a movie star ended because she was never REALLY a movie star in the first place. Hitchcock simply(and perhaps unwisely) tried to make her a star by giving Hedren leads she didn't earn. (Hitchcock, head swelling from the success of Psycho and his TV show, evidently wanted to be a starmaker.) Moreover, Hedren's old-style rather wooden glamour performances didn't fit "where the movies were going" in the late 60's. Faye Dunaway, Mia Farrow, Katherine Ross...Catherine Denueve -- THAT's the new female stars who were emerging. (And New School Jane Fonda from Old Hollywood roots.)

Meanwhile, in the 70's, Tippi Hedren appeared(good for US) in the "sex film" The Harrad Experiment (along with daughter Melanie Griffith in the nude) and put her entire family in danger by filming a thriller called "Roar" in which real lions REALLY attacked the family of actors. Some weirdness there.

Put it all together, and "Alfred Hitchcock ruined my career" really doesn't hold water as a topic, and Hitchocck the Harrasser sure has as many women AGAINST it(a lot of big stars) as for it (Brigitte Auber, Karen Black.)

I say take it all with a grain of salt but...in these "Me Too times," Hitchcock is forever bespoiled by this one woman's accusations.

[–] Otter (24464) 2 years ago

Biographers have said that Hitchcock treated Hedren differently than his other leading ladies, seemed to feel that he "owned" her, or at least, that she owed him everything because he was solely responsible for her career as an actress. Which was true enough, most of his other leading ladies had been established professionals or big stars when he worked with them, but he really had plucked Hedren out of obscurity and made her a movie star, and well, was the only director who wanted to give her leading roles.

I have no idea what happened between the two of them, and IMHO the only special insight Dakota Johnson would have would be to hear her grandmother's side of the story directly from the source. Who knows what Hitchcock's side of the story was, especially as I've heard so many rumors about him - he was asexual, the only sex he liked was voyeurism, he was gay, he was a monumentally insecure straight man who wouldn't even ask a woman unless he thought it was impossible for her to say "no", etc. The only thing I believe about their relationship is that he had rather sadistic feelings toward her, feelings that show up very, very plainly in "The Birds" and "Marnie".

[–] Otter (24464) 2 years ago

Con't...

Everyone who's ever seen a Hitchcock film knows that although the man lived a blameless life, or an almost entirely blameless life, there was a heart of darkness in the man, which was entirely or almost entirely expressed in his work and not in his life.

Nevertheless, sometimes a heart of darkness can make itself felt in real life, even though it's normally prepressed, and given his feelings towards Hedren and what she's said about him in the years since they worked together... I think it's very possible that his actions toward her were in some way inappropriate or unprofessional.

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

he only thing I believe about their relationship is that he had rather sadistic feelings toward her, feelings that show up very, very plainly in "The Birds" and "Marnie".

--

Yes, but certainly Hitchcock filmed pretty sadistic sequences involving Grace Kelly(the rape-like near strangling of her in Dial M), Janet Leigh(that shower, and the physical discomfort of filming that part with her face on the bathroom floor), Barbara Leigh-Hunt(enacting being raped and slowly strangled) in Frenzy. So yeah, a dark side on screen expressed by a man who was evidently kind, sexless, and sedate at home.

And it wasn't only women who got sadistically killed in Hitchcock pictures. Martin Balsam's detective in Psycho meets a bloody end(and Balsam evidently really hurt his back filming the "real" end of his staircase fall); Bruce Dern is bloodily bludgeoned in Marnie and the little known German actor Wolgang Kieling dies a long , lingering and brutal death in Torn Curtain.

I'm diverting here to a rebuttal to the "Hitchcock tortured women on the screen" argument, if only because so many MEN met fictional brutal deaths in his movies too. (And way back in the forties , men got pretty violently killed in Foreign Correspondent, Saboteur, Lifeboat and Rope.)

But back to Tippi. I guess my main beef here is that WHATEVER happened between the two of them, she has changed her story many times. And now Hitchcock get his name tossed in with Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby as if he equates in some way. Its unfair.

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

I think it's very possible that his actions toward her were in some way inappropriate or unprofessional.

---

Though I still suspect Hedren's story in some regards (I mean, all those other actresses and female colleagues LOVED Hitch), I can support it in one.

Footage exists of a screen test that Hitchcock did in 1962 in which a very vivacious and pretty Hedren(MUCH more viviacious than Hitchcock allowed her to be in his movies) is meant to parade around on a Universal soundstage "living room" set and show off her fashion sense(she was a trained model; easy) AND her improvisational acting ability.

That part is a bit tougher. Hitchcock flew in character man Martin Balsam (Psycho) to interact with Hedren, and it becomes pretty clear that both Hitchcock AND Balsam -- neither of them heartthrob types(though Balsam had some looks at that age) keep making sexual innuendo remarks as Hedren tries to retain her composure and be a good sport.

Only a small part of that screen test is on The Birds DVD...but it is bad enough. I saw the whole thing at a Hitchcock event, and both Hitchcock AND Balsam come off as ...verbal harrassers. If not evidence of Hitchcock sexually coming on to Hedren(Balsam is actually worse, here) we sense Hedren's despair at being treated in such a brusque and cavailier fashion by two men she would probably never date in real life.

So...I dunno. I'm still taking Hitchcock's side on the worst accusations(kissing her, trying to assault her) but that screen test shows the everyday "professional harassment" of the movie business. Hedren had no star power, Hitchcock COULD treat her differently.

[–] ducksoup (3933) 2 years ago

Is this the clip you're talking about? It's pretty amazing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0efsfq9KKVY

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

Yes! That's it!

Thank you. I'll have to watch it to see if it goes on longer than the version on The Birds DVD, but this is surely enough to "get the picture."

Hitchcock is "heard, not seen," and he comes off in voice as much more serious and borderline mean than in his TV host appearances and even his TV interviews of the time. Some of this is what directors do in a screen test: "Turn around...now turn left, now turn right." But some of it is a bit controlling. And Hitchcock makes a few off color remarks(but then, he WAS famous for that, we are told.)

Balsam struggles a bit with HIS improv. We realize why actors need good scripts to sound their best. Balsam , playing the improv role of a rich husband, keeps saying to Hedren "Let's see what you have bought with MY money" -- a bit sexist, yes?

Well, it was 1962.

Eventually, Hitchcock has Hedren kiss Balsam and ...it just doesn't look right. Hitch flew Balsam out from NYC for this screen test. Handsome John Gavin from Psycho was probably right there in Hollywood. I don't think he wanted to let Hedren kiss a handsome man...

Anyway, it IS pretty amazing...a rough insight into how Hollywood men treated women back then. Hedren, for her part, is wonderful in holding the two guys at bay and "staying nice."

PS. I've never seen footage, but Hitchcock evidently shot another screen test with ANOTHER pretty young discovery -- and brought out Simon Oakland (the SHRINK from Psycho) to play love scenes with her. What, another middle aged character guy?

That actress's name was Claire Griswold. She was considered for Marnie, and did a Hitchocck-directed Alfred Hitchcock hour called "I Saw the Whole Thing." But Ms. Griswold elected to leave showbiz and marry a young TV director named Sydney Pollock.

Who became THE Sydney Pollock and stayed married to Griswold til his death.

Griswold escaped Hitch.

[–] Otter (24464) 2 years ago

Thank you! Very interesting clip!

The main feeling I'm getting from it was that Hedren wasn't good at improv, to put it politely. The only times she seemed less than lost was when she was talking about fashion, or objecting to Balsam seeing other girls.

If Balsam tried to steer the improv towards double entendres, or Hitchcock made a slightly unprofessional remark, well, that was considered cool and swinging in those days, and that kind of talk was socially acceptable in Hollywood and anywhere else you'd find Rat Pack types. Hitchcock should have paid more attention to Hedren's discomfort level with that kind of swinging he-man bluster...