They collaborated together on some of Hollywood’s most classic films but according to Tippi Hedren, being Alfred Hitchcock’s muse ended up her worst nightmare.
Tippi Hedren’s upcoming book Tippi: A Memoir reveals worrying allegations that the actress was sexually assaulted by Alfred in the sixties.
Over the weekend, The New York Post shared an excerpt from the 86-year-old’s upcoming memoir, which claims during filming for the 1963 film The Birds she was subject to a string of sexual advances and harassment from the director.
Tippi says after landing her breakout role as Melanie Daniels in the drama, Alfred developed an intimidating obsession with her.
Tippi says Alfred would make highly inappropriate advances during filming for The Birds.
The actress claims Alfred prohibited her castmates from talking to her and if he spotted her speaking to anyone – especially another man on set – he shifted to an “icy” and “petulant” personality.
According to the book Alfred, who passed away in 1980, would often drive past her house to keep tabs on her.
Tippi alleges the famed director would also ask her to touch and kiss him.
WATCH: Tippi Hedren says Alfred Hitchcock stalked her. Post continues after the video…
“It was an awful, awful moment,” she reflects in the book.
The star, who is the mother to actress Melanie Griffith, was too scared to tell anyone at the time because “sexual harassment and stalking were terms that didn’t exist.”
During filming for Marnie a year later, Alfred apparently installed a secret door to her dressing room.
The star says she was too scared to come forward at the time because sexual harassment didn’t even exist in the sixties.
One day, he turned up in her dresser and and put her hands all over her.
“It was sexual, it was perverse.”
“I’ve made it my mission ever since to see to it that while Hitchcock may have ruined my career. I never gave him the power to ruin my life,” Tippi explains.
Despite having a five year contract with Hitch, she quit her commitments after Marnie and went on to make 50 films.
Tippi: A Memoir will be released in November.
