Tippi Hedren: Hitchcock ruined career, not life

Tippi Hedren said Wednesday she survived working with Alfred Hitchcock, but her career was another matter.
The story of Hitchcock's obsession with, and mistreatment of, Hedren during the filming of “The Birds” and “Marnie”, is told in the HBO movie “The Girl”. Based on the book by Donald Spoto, it stars Sienna Miller as Hedren and Toby Jones as Hitchcock.
So why did this man Hedren still refers to as a “genius” treat her so abusively? Was he in love, or just sexually obsessed? “It was something that I have never experienced before,” she says. “I don't know what to call it. People have said 'Was he in love with you?' No. When you love someone, you treat them well. I think we're dealing with a mind here that is incomprehensible.”
Much of the film deals with Hitchcock's frequent advances -- advances Hedren always rejected. If a director were to treat her in the same way now, says Hedren, “I would be a very rich woman” -- but at the time, there was nothing she could do.
Still, she says, as terrible as her treatment was, it wasn't quite as bad as the film makes it appear -- not because “The Girl” exaggerates it, but because the movie focuses only on the negative.
“I learned so much from that man about motion pictures ... It wasn't a constant barrage of harassment to me. There were times of delight and joy... That is the fault of any film. It can't constantly have everything in it."
While Miller says it's a “different world for women in films today,” Hedren still thinks there's a message here for women everywhere, that they don't have to put up with this kind of treatment. And that's true, even though she survived it.
“I can look at myself in the mirror and I can be proud. I got through it, beautifully. He ruined my career, but he did not ruin my life.”
Hedren says she seldom spoke about Hitchcock's “fantasies” to her friends and family, which explains why many of them were shocked when she screened “The Girl” for them. No one said anything when it was done, “until my daughter, Melanie Griffith, jumped up and said, 'Now I have to go back into therapy.'”

Source: Internet