His career took an abrupt turn after filming with Alfred Hitchcock
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Hitchcock discovered Tippi in a commercial (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)
Alfred Hitchcock is one of the most recognized film directors throughout Hollywood history and one of his most emblematic films was The Birds, which premiered in 1963 and became a benchmark for the horror genre. Although it was also a great challenge for the leading actress Nathalie Tippi Hedren, mother of Melanie Griffith and grandmother of Dakota Johnson
And it is that, for those followers of the seventh art, it could be difficult to forget the emblematic scene at the end of the film where the blonde actress is ferociously attacked by various types of birds.
Thus, although over the years some secrets have been revealed regarding the abuses that Hedren experienced at the hands of the director, something that might not be so well known is that the artist, who considers herself a fervent animal rights activist, had to record that part of the filmwith real birds.
The actress has told several times how difficult it was to record the scene of “The birds” (Photo: Bettmann Archive)
According to the available records, 3,200 real birds were used for The birds. The rest was painted cardboard and brass. In 1968, the director revealed on The Dick Carvett Show, that the most intelligent were the crows; while the seagulls were the most vicious.
In an interview that Tippi gave in 2017 for the program Studio 10, the actress confessed that he had no knowledge that the iconic moment of the attack would be filmed with real animals.
“That was one of the surprises of the shoot and I don’t know why they didn’t tell me< /b>, I don’t know why they thought I wouldn’t. After dealing with the birds (…) it was shocking for me. How it took almost five days to record it, every time I woke up I was like: ‘Oh no, I have to deal with this again,’ “she pointed out.
Regarding whether there was mistreatment of animals in the recordings, Tippi had her say. openly: “They don’t treat animals badly, they do treat us, that’s the difference. Nobody cares about us (the actors).”
It was during an interview with Larry King Now for the American channel Ora TV where Hedren narrated the difficulties she experienced in order to achieve the scene requested by Hitchcock.
“Yes (they were real birds). Back then we didn’t have computer generated images, so we had to use real images”, he is heard saying.
In this way, Tippi reported that the attack scene was not easy because the recording was extended over a long period of time.
< /p>Tippi Hedren is dedicated to defending animals (Photo: Wikipedia)
“It could have been done very easily, in about a day, shooting with me. And then, he goes to the lab. But it was a full week… Our poor prop man with crows, seagulls and boxes alternately thrown at me for four days. Four, five days”, she said.
When asked by the interviewer about the implications of filming this way, Hedren added that she thought it was excessive.
“At the end. She was so exhausted that they just… I mean, they didn’t really need five days of that. That was cruel, something bad”, he sentenced.
How did Hedren start defending animal rights?
Alfred Hitchcock discovered Tippi Hedren in 1961, when he saw her in a commercial for a diet drink called Sego. From then on, he would try to communicate with her and -when he did- he offered her a seven-year contract.
Hedren’s film debut was in The birds < /b>(1963), but, according to the actress’s testimony for Clorser Weekly, the harassment she suffered from the director meant that she no longer wanted to work with him again after the premiere of < i>Marnie in 1964.
< /p>The actress denounced Hitchcock (Photo: Wikipedia)
This would set a precedent for her, since Hitchcock would take this action badly and “punish” her by making her fulfill the contract she had and preventing her from working elsewhere for as long as the agreement was in effect.
“It ruined my career, but it didn’t ruin my life,” said Tippi < /i>for that medium.
Already focused on other aspects, it was in the film Roar (1981) where the life of the actress took a radical change, since not only did she work with big cats during filming, but there she became aware of the disturbing business of selling exotic animals as pets.
“We acquired all these animals to make the film. Hollywood trainers who had big cats would not let their cat work with another cat because of the possibility that they could fight and hurt or even kill each other. When we wanted to use animals that acted in Hollywood to make the film, (the trainers) said: ‘I’m not going to let my big cat work with another cat. Get your own animals to make the movie!’”, Tippi told Fox News in 2017.
< /p>Tippi is a defender of animals (Photo: Ig tippihedrenofficial)
The artist mentioned that this was the key point in becoming what she is now, because she thought it was wrong that wild animals were marketed as pets.
“That’s how it happened. And we found that so many lions and tigers were being bred to be sold as pets, which is unconscionable, these are apex predators. For someone to sell a baby lion or tiger to a family to become their pet is… is one of the most dangerous things that could have happened. Everything grew from that ”, she pointed out at the time.
Hedren also prepared a bill to curb the sale of exotic animals as pets and took it to her congressman. Later, she went to Washington to present it and, although several of the politicians did not believe in her proposal, the actress told the same outlet that it was not only approved unanimously in the House and the Senate, but it was launched in 2003.
< /p>The life of the actress moved away from the acclaimed film director (Photo:Actress Tippi Hedren Photo: Wikipedia)
“It is titled Law for the Protection of Big Cats and Public Safety . It was a long time before we started to see the results of the bill, but it still works. I am delighted because these animals are not pets, “she pointed out.
It was until 1983, when the actress created the Roar Foundation, an organization that helps Shambala Reserve in California. Thus, in 2020, Hedren pointed out in another interview for Fox News that one of her greatest passions is helping in the conservation of felines.
“I just look out the window at the beauty of Shambala Reserve (…) There is nothing as beautiful as the view from my dining room window of Mona, a magnificent Bengal tiger, walking through her enclosure”, he said.