Why Alfred Hitchcock hated sex scenes, despite being a creep: “I don’t like bedroom wrestling”
Even though he wasn’t caught up in any widespread scandals or controversies, unlike several other high-profile filmmakers who turned out to be wrong ‘uns, Alfred Hitchcock was nonetheless a somewhat lecherous chap who didn’t exactly hold the opposite sex in the highest esteem.
He once said he hated pregnant women “because then they have children,” which explains why Vera Miles quickly fell out of favour when she decided to focus on her family life instead of becoming his muse. The ‘Master of Suspense’ also believed that women could never be successful directors, since they were “less versatile in observation than men, who have more angles on life.”
The legendary auteur responsible for several of the greatest thrillers ever made and a slew of timeless classics wasn’t the biggest fan of actors in general, as oxymoronic as that sounds, but he definitely preferred working with men, since he maintained that they had less distractions to deal with.
He literally said of female thespians, “I certainly don’t think they are as good actors as men,” explaining that “a really beautiful woman starting a film career is lucky because, for a time, audiences will overlook her lack of acting ability.” Needless to say, Hitchcock wasn’t regarded as a bastion of progressiveness, and that’s without even factoring in the unhealthy obsession he harboured toward several of his leading ladies.
The filmmaker sabotaged Tippi Hedren’s career out of spite and jealousy, arguably never recovered from Grace Kelly abandoning him in favour of marrying into royalty, and outlined his admiration for his signature blondes by opining that “these lovely creatures are the product of their climate.” He was a bit of a creepy guy, to put it lightly, even though he loathed the idea of graphic and gratuitous sex scenes.
Hitchcock’s films could be sensual as and when required, especially if his central pairing generated the requisite chemistry, but none of his pictures were particularly erotic. There was a scent of irony in the air, with the outwardly lascivious director explaining to R Allen Leider in 1978 why his features always stopped short of going all-in on the hot and heavy action.
“I don’t like the bedroom wrestling matches we see in films today,” he said. “It’s too much, and it’s unneeded. I never use nudity or sex unless it is vital to the plot, and then I suggest it. Explicitness kills the whole illusion you start to build.” Hitchcock, who referred to women as creatures that were inferior to their male counterparts onscreen, was too much of a prude to push the boundaries of cinematic sex.
That’s quite the dichotomy, since it can be said with a reasonable amount of certainty that his feelings for several of the blonde bombshells he worked with over the years veered beyond the professional, whether that was for better or worse. And yet, the ‘Master of Suspense’ wouldn’t dream of reinventing himself as the ‘Master of Sex’, since the mere suggestion of a taboo-busting romp in one of his films made him feel uneasy.
