Hitchcock star accuses director of sexual harassment, calls him ‘evil’

One of the former muses of director Alfred Hitchcock, Tippi Hedren, has revealed..

15:06 06 August 2012

One of the former muses of director Alfred Hitchcock, Tippi Hedren, has revealed that when she refused the director’s sexual advances, he ruined her acting career. Luckily for her, he failed to ruin her life, she said. 

 

The veteran actress, now 82, says that had sexual harassment laws existed in 1963 when she filmed 'The Birds' under Hitchcock’s direction, she would have become a rich woman. 

 

She revealed these comments just as a TV drama revolving around her relationship with the director was about to wrap up production. The show, entitled 'The Girl', is a collaboration between BBC and America’s HBO. The 90-minute TV drama includes Sienna Miller, who will play Tippi Hedren and Toby Jones as Alfred Hitchcock. 

 

Tippi said: “I think he was an extremely sad character.”

 

“We are dealing with a brain here that was an unusual genius, and evil, and deviant, almost to the point of dangerous, because of the effect that he could have on people that were totally unsuspecting.”

 

She accused the director of sexually harassing her during the filming of 'The Birds'. At the time, Tippi was 34 years old and engaged to be married to her second husband. In one incident, which was portrayed in the show, Hitchcock aggressively forced a kiss on Hedren and ordered her to make herself ‘available sexually’. 

 

When she rejected such advances, Hedren found herself forced to work with live birds for five days for one of the film’s scenes, although she had been told that only mechanical birds would be used. 

 

After just two films, Hitchcock ended her career by keeping her from getting work for two years.