The Hollywood star Cary Grant called the “bravest” actor he’d ever seen
Among the most charming and talented leading men that Hollywood has ever seen, Cary Grant always knew exactly what a scene needed and elevated it to a new level every time. From displaying his comedic genius in hilarious screwball comedies opposite the likes of Katharine Hepburn to brilliantly maintaining the tension in thrillers like North by Northwest, he truly could do it all.
While many great actors from Grant’s generation rose from difficult backgrounds, the Charade star actually managed to put a traumatic childhood behind him and devoted himself to his craft, starting out as a vaudeville performer. Despite the hardships that Grant himself had to endure, there was one Hollywood star whose on-set bravery ended up overwhelming him.
For Tippi Hedren, who landed her first significant feature film role in Alfred Hitchcock’s infamous 1963 production, backing out was never an option. Far from Hitchcock’s best, the movie is now mostly remembered for the horrendous behaviour that Hedren was subjected to during the shooting, including alleged unwelcome sexual advances from the renowned director.
Some of Hedren’s co-workers, including co-star Rod Taylor, who noticed Hitchcock’s obsession with the actor, were convinced that the unbelievably cruel treatment he was subjecting Hedren to was a result of her turning him down. It all culminated in the attic scene where Hedren is attacked by real words instead of mechanical ones, as was planned before.
In a piece for Vogue, Hedren recalled her initial reaction to the notice that live birds were going to be set on her: “It took me several seconds to pick my jaw up off the floor. They were using live birds for this final apocalyptic scene?! I trusted the expertise of our trainer, Ray Berwick, 100%, but not even the greatest trainer in the world could control every move an animal makes, especially when it’s under stress.”
Grant, a longtime Hitchcock collaborator who was visiting the set that day, saw Hedren in action trying to get through this ordeal that never should have happened in the first place. During a pause in the shooting, he took the opportunity to approach the actor and tell her that he had never seen such courage on a film set before.
Hedren added: “I heard Hitchcock yell, ‘Action!’ and right on cue, the handlers began hurling those live birds at me. It was brutal and ugly and relentless. Cary Grant, one of Hitch’s favourite leading men, happened to be visiting the set that day and told me between takes, ‘You’re the bravest woman I’ve ever seen.’ I was never frightened, I was just overwhelmed and in some form of shock, and I just kept saying to myself over and over again, ‘I won’t let him break me. I won’t let him break me.'”
In her memoir, which was released in 2016, Hedren later claimed that the sexual advances from Hitchcock started during the shooting of their 1964 collaboration, Marnie, but The Birds is undoubtedly another terrible example of the kind of on-set behaviour Hedren, and many other female actors, had to endure just to make it in the industry.
