Tippi Hedren on Hitchcock: "Unusual, Genius, and Evil, and Deviant"

One of this fall's most eagerly awaited television events is the October premiere of the HBO film The Girl, the true story of Alfred Hitchcock's obsession with his blond actresses--most notably his different relationship with Tippi Hedren, who starred in The Birds and Marnie for the Master of Mayhem.

At a screening for TV critics last week, Hedren, still glamorous at 82, pulled no punches in describing Hitchcock, whose perverse relationship with her affected her career. "I think we're dealing with a mind here that is incomprehensible," she said. "It was something I never experienced before," she added. "But it certainly wasn't love."

She continued to dissect Hitchcock's attitude towards women. "He was an extremely sad character.  You're dealing with a brain here that was unusual, genius, and evil, and deviant, almost to the point of deviant."

Hitchcock's obsession with blondes--Grace Kelly, Doris Day, Vera Miles, Kim Novak, and Hedren--were legendary, but his disturbing behavior towards them was kept a secret.  After his death, Hitchcock film critic Donald Spoto wrote the controversial book Spellbound By Beauty, which described the director's many "kinks."  (Once, after being spurned by Hedren, Hitchcock sent her daughter, Melanie Griffith, a toy coffin with a perfect likeness of her mother inside.)

Hedren couldn't escape the harassment; it was, after all, the 1960s.  "If it had happened today, I would have been a rich woman," she admitted.  Nevertheless, Hedren added that Hitch was a great director.  "There were times of delight and joy," she asserted.

Hedren worked closely with the screenwriter of The Girl to insure its authenticity, also collaborating with actress Sienna Miller, who portrays Hedren in the HBO film.  Hitchcock is played by British actor Toby Jones, who gave a little-seen but hypnotic performance as Truman Capote in Infamous.  How closely does Jones capture the aura of the Master?

"When I first heard Toby's voice as Hitchcock," Hedren stated, "I froze."

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