Actress Tippi Hedren, mother of Melanie Griffith and grandmother of Dakota Johnson, claimed in 2016 that director Alfred Hitchcock s-xually assaulted her in the 1960s. Now, her granddaughter has spoken out about this incident and how it ruined her grandmother's career.
Dakota Johnson comes from a large family of actors. Although her two parents, Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith, are part of the acting guild, the one who started her family's relationship with the world of cinema was her grandmother, actress Tippie Hedren.
The interpreter of Fifty Shades of Gray has shown that he has a great relationship with her and has supported her in her hardest moments. That is why the actress has now wanted to speak openly about the harshest confession of her grandmother: the abuse she suffered from director Alfred Hitchcock.
Dakota Johnson Charges Alfred Hitchcock
In an interview for The Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter podcast, the actress has assured that Hedren always encouraged her to pursue her career as an actress, despite the bad experiences she herself had to live in her own skin. .
"She's always been really honest and strong in standing up for herself. That's what she did," Johnson said. "Hitchcock ruined her career because she didn't want to sleep with him, and he terrified her. She never held him accountable," the actress said.
Johnson has followed up on her claim, explaining that it is "completely unacceptable" for those in a position of power to "wield it over someone in a weaker position, regardless of industry." Visibly moved, the actress has insisted on the difficulty that this issue posed for her: "It's difficult to talk about it because it's my grandmother. You don't want to imagine someone taking advantage of your grandmother."
Dakota Johnson has also stressed her grandmother's courage to face this: "I think what she has done has been so incredible to me, you should not put up with that shit from anyone," she said, assuring that her grandmother is still " a glamorous movie star.
Tippi Hedren, s-xually assaulted by Alfred Hitchcock
Tippi Hedren was an icon of cinema in the 60s. Her participation in mythical films such as The Birds or Marnie, productions of the well-known Alfred Hitchcock, earned her the chance to become a true star during this time.
However, after these two big roles, her reputation plummeted and she stopped appearing in big productions.
But what was the reason for this plummeting from the top? As Hedren herself confirmed in her memoirs, published in 2016, Hitchcock s-xually assaulted her several times during the making of both films.
Apparently, the director made his driver stop by his house every day and, on one occasion, even asked Hedren to "touch" him while they worked together on the set of The Birds, a film for which the actress was awarded. with a Golden Globe. In addition, she reported that Hitchcock tried to force her to kiss him while they were both in the back of a limousine: "It was a terrible, terrible moment," the actress explained in her book.
During the shooting of Marnie, the director's propensities intensified, reaching a point where the filmmaker appeared in the actress's dressing room and "put his hands on me." "It was s-xual, it was wicked," Hedren wrote.
Despite the fact that she knew that what was happening was not fair to her, the actress took more than 50 years to reveal what happened because "s-xual harassment and stalking were terms that did not exist" in the early 1960s.
