Tippi Hedren's 'Birds' eye view
22.05.12
Legendary star Tippi Hendren knows that asking directors simple questions is for the birds.
The 82-year-old screen beauty recalls the day on the set of “The Birds” when she posed a doozy to director Alfred Hitchcock.
“I walked up to him and said, ‘Mr. Hitchcock, I’m wondering about the finale? Why would my character go up to that attic room all by herself when she knows the birds are in there and she saw what they did to the people in town, which was basically peck them to death?”
Hitchcock was a man of few words when it suited him.
“I said, ‘I’m just really curious why she would do that,’ ” Hendren recalls. “Hitchcock paused for a moment and said, ‘Because I tell you to.’
“In other words, it’s part of your paycheck,” Hendren adds with a laugh.
The 82-year-old screen beauty and mom to actress Melanie Griffith will be in Chicago on Tuesday as part of a free screening of “The Birds” (1963) at the Music Box Theatre presented by TCM. Calling from her native Minnesota during a short pit stop, Hendren was happy to talk Hitchcock and her love of all animals — including those little winged creatures.
Source: Chicago Sun-Times