Alfred Hitchcock’s gross misogyny towards female actors: “I certainly don’t think they are as good”
In Hollywood, it’s sadly never a surprise when you discover that one of your favourite directors is a bigot. When hearing news of another filmmaker being an asshole, you can tick it off your bingo card and add it to the list of abusive, racist and misogynistic men who derive great pleasure from harassing their actors and making colleagues uncomfortable.
Whether it’s the tyrannical behaviour of David O Russell—who continues to work and thrive in the industry—or the disgusting actions of Roman Polanski, many directors have repeatedly proven themselves to be pieces of shit. As it turns out, Alfred Hitchcock is another who would have serious questions to answer if he were around today. So, get out your bingo cards and start crossing him off the list.
Hitchcock is one of the most influential British directors of all time (apologies to Ridley Scott and Christopher Nolan—you don’t make the cut), merging fear and comedy through his distinct thrillers and mysterious dramas. Often referred to as the ‘Master of Suspense’, he knew how to tease fear out of an audience and maximise tension in any given situation, creating immersive, heart-racing films that are still studied today.
However, while he worked with some of the greatest actors of all time, he wasn’t always respectful towards all of them, describing the women he worked with in a horrendous and insulting way.
When explaining his work with actors like Grace Kelly and Janet Leigh, the director said, “I don’t exactly hate them, but I certainly don’t think they are as good actors as men. I wouldn’t be so foolish as to say that beauty doesn’t help an actress. It is a very different quality from mere artificial glamour. A really beautiful woman starting a film career is lucky because, for a time, audiences will overlook her lack of acting ability. She may become a star overnight and learn her acting afterwards, as Jean Harlow did. But it is the dumb kind of glamour that I detest.”
Who knows where to begin when unpacking a comment like this? It is demeaning on so many different levels, implying that women can only find power and value in their looks and that being in possession of beauty disqualifies you from containing any other substance. The idea that women in the industry cannot be equally as talented or creative because of their sex and being ‘glamorous’ is one of the age-old ideas that attempts to stop women from realising their ideas and ambitions, trying to brainwash them into believing that men have this innate talent/skill that we can’t possibly come close to.
While some may continue to put Hitchcock on a pedestal, his words should cast a shadow over how we view his work and legacy. He openly expressed misogynistic ideas that could hint at deeper behaviours shaped by this ideology. Instead of dismissing such views as harmless opinions, perhaps we should scrutinise those who share them and recognise them as a potential threat—rather than quietly wondering, in hindsight, how we failed to see that some of these so-called ‘legends’ were exploiting their power in more insidious ways behind the scenes.
