The 30-year-old British actress Sienna Miller plays the film’s star Tippi Hedren in a drama about how Psycho director Alfred Hitchcock became sexually obsessed with her during the shoot in 1963.
The upcoming BBC2 biopic, The Girl, recalls the troubling episode, which Hedren now describes as “pure hell”.
Hedren has already given Ms Miller her seal of approval after requesting to meet Sienna at her home on the Shambala Preserve, an 80-acre sanctuary for tigers, lions and leopards in the Mojave Desert.
‘It was important we met so I could explain my background and what sort of a person I am,’ Hedren explained. ‘I didn’t want her to play me as a victim. Hitchcock put me through hell, pure hell, but I got out. I was an extremely strong young woman.’
Indeed, since the film was made in 1964, an abundance of disturbing details have emerged about Hitchcock and his heroine — the director apparently eavesdropped on the actress' phone calls and even dictated her off-duty wardrobe.
More facts about Tippi:
1. Tippi Hedren was a model for 11 years before she was discovered by Hitchcock.
2. The director saw Hedren in a commercial for Sego, a diet drink, and became obsessed with her. He was looking for an actress who possessed something of the sophistication and cool-blonde sex appeal of Grace Kelly, with whom he had made three films.
3. Hedren got a call to meet with executives on Friday 13th, 1961. She met with the director for dinner when he gave her a 'beautifully wrapped package from Gump’s San Fransico.' Inside was a gold and pearl bird pin.
4. Hitchcock directed Hedren in her debut film, The Birds.
5. A treadmill was brought into the studio for the close shots of Tippi running with all the children. Tippi spoke of how dangerous it was with all the people running. If one person went down, there was a domino effect.
6. Hedren said the phone booth in the film was supposed to be made of shatterproof glass, but when the fake seagull came down the wire and crashed into it, glass exploded all over her.
7. For the final attack scene in a second-floor bedroom, Hedren had been assured by Hitchcock that mechanical birds would be used. Instead, she endured five days of live gulls, ravens and crows being flung at her, their beaks clamped shut with elastic bands.
8. When her post-attack make-up was done, Tippi said she looked at herself in a mirror, then went outside and threw up.
9. Nearing exhaustion and after being scratched close to her eye toward the end of filming, Hedren pulled off birds and said, 'That’s enough!' A physician ordered a week's rest, which Hedren said at the time was riddled with 'nightmares filled with flapping wings'.
10. Cary Grant came on set to see Hitchcock and said to Tippi, 'I think you’re the bravest lady I’ve ever met'.
11. In 1964 Hedren received a Golden Globe Award for 'Most Promising Newcomer - Female', tied with Elke Sommer and Ursula Andress.
12. She co-starred with Sean Connery in a second Hitchcock film, Marnie in 1964, a romantic drama and psychological thriller from the novel by Winston Graham.
13. Hitchcock had a plan to mould Hedren's public image by carefully controlling her style of dressing and grooming.
14. Other directors who wanted to hire her had to go through Hitchcock, who would inform them she was unavailable. 'It grew to be impossible. He was a very controlling type of person, and I guess I'm not about to be controlled', said Hedren.
15. When she tried to get out of her contract, Hitchcock told her he'd ruin her career. 'And he did: kept me under contract, kept paying me every week for almost two years to do nothing.'
16. In 2011, Hedren stated in an interview that because she refused Hitchcock’s sexual advances, he effectively stunted her career.
17. Hedren gave birth to Melanie Griffiths in 1957. Melanie and Tippi starred together in Pacific Heights.
18. A Louis Vuitton ad campaign in 2006 paid tribute to Hedren and Hitchcock with a modern-day interpretation of the deserted railway station opening sequence of Marnie.
19. Naomi Watts has stated that her character interpretation in Mulholland Drive was influenced by the look and performances of Hedren in Hitchcock films.
20. She makes an appearance in the Made-for-TV sequel to the Birds, playing Ellen in The Birds II: Land's End
While promoting the movie Free Samples at the Tribeca Film Festival in April, Hedren admits she's apprehensive about The Girl
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