At 86, she has written her candid autobiography Tippi: A Memoir. She is set to sign copies of the book Sunday, November 13, 2016 at the American Cinematheque’s Aero Theatre screening of The Birds. The still-stunning actress will also be in conversation with film historian Alan K. Rode.
And undoubtedly she’ll talk about her experiences working with Hitchcock, in which she had to deal with his infatuations, jealousies, and propositions. Hedren’s book has already made headlines with the revelation of his assault on her, near the end of production on Marnie. She never spoke to the Master of Suspense after the incident.
Hedren recently chatted with Susan King on the phone about her book and her experiences with Hitch.
Susan King:
Why did you wait until you were 86 to write your memoir?
Tippi Hedren:
I wrote it when I felt like it. I haven't planned for years and years to write a book at all. I started thinking about my life and so many people were saying to me, "Why don't you write a book?’ [I thought] Oh God. Yeah, I guess it's a good idea."
Susan King:
I had no idea you were just a teenager when you started modeling.
Tippi Hedren:
It was a job. Every Saturday I did the fashion shows at Donaldson's Department Store.
Susan King:
You also were so young when you went to New York to model.
Tippi Hedren:
I was 20.
Susan King:
But that's still young.
Tippi Hedren:
I guess it is. I thought I was old enough. My parent's upbringing…they were strict. I had a good solid Lutheran background. I thought I could handle the world.
Susan King:
Your first husband, Peter Griffith, was just 19 when you married him. You were the older woman at 22.
Tippi Hedren:
I know it’s insane, but If I hadn't married him, I wouldn't have Melanie.
Susan King:
It’s on Facebook and in magazines and newspapers, about how Alfred Hitchcock treated you during the making of The Birds and Marnie. You don’t even get into much detail about his sexual assault during Marnie. It must have been so painful for you to talk about.
Tippi Hedren:
No. It wasn't painful at all. It was just maddening. It really made me angry, the whole thing. I talked to a lot of people about it. I didn’t cover it up.
Susan King:
Did other Hitchcock leading ladies have the same difficulties as you did?
Tippi Hedren:
Yes, apparently. In fact, at one point he tried to make me jealous. He was very pompous about saying that he just put this woman under contract - a young woman. He was just watching to see what I was saying. He mentioned her name and I said, "Claire Griswold? She's one of my best friends. We used to model together in New York." His big fat face fell and his whole little thing didn't work. She was a young woman and had one child. When she was told that, she went home and made her husband [director Sydney Pollack] his favorite dinner and nine months later they had a baby. One actress told me he was drinking a lot on the set of Marnie.
Tippi Hedren:
Well, he did drink a lot. That was common knowledge.
Susan King:
It was the best of times and the worst of times working with Hitchcock. He spots you in a Sego commercial, signs you to a personal contract and casts you as an unknown in The Birds.
Tippi Hedren:
Yes, it was. He didn't pull all this stuff until the end of Marnie. I wouldn't have done Marnie if he had pulled that when we were filming The Birds.
Susan King:
Still, he was overly attentive and often suffocating on The Birds. And spiteful, like the time he used real birds instead of mechanical ones in that horrifying scene in the house when you are attacked.
Tippi Hedren:
Well, that was just mean.
Susan King:
You say because you spurned him on Marnie, he sabotaged the movie.
Tippi Hedren:
He did sabotage it, because I guess there were several people in the Academy that wanted to nominate me for an award, and he stopped it.
Susan King:
You say that his wife Alma was lovely to you. Do you think she knew what was going on with you and all the Hitchcock “blondes?”
Tippi Hedren:
You know that one day she said to me, "Tippi, I'm so sorry you have to go through all of this." I picked my jaw up off the floor after she said that. I said, "but you could stop it." And she just turned and walked away. I should have put that in the book. I don’t know why I didn’t.
Susan King:
Because of everything that happened working with Hitchcock, is it hard for you to introduce and talk about The Birds and Marnie?
Tippi Hedren:
This is called life. I don't feel bad about it at all. In fact, the way the doors have opened for me during my life, if I hadn't walked through them, who'd be doing the work that I'm doing now with the animals?
Susan King:
There were good things about the Hitchcock thing, too.
Tippi Hedren:
It was really wonderful in the beginning and I wouldn't give that up for anything. It was a fairy tale type of thing to have happen.
Veteran journalist Susan King wrote about entertainment at the Los Angeles Times for 26 years (January 1990 - March 2016), specializing in classic Hollywood stories. She also wrote about independent, foreign and studio movies and occasionally TV and theater stories. She received her master's degree in film history and criticism at USC. After working 10 years at the L.A. Herald Examiner, she moved to the Los Angeles Times.
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