Dakota Johnson has learned much from her famous parents and grandparents, including how to stand up to directors who may push her too far. When Johnson decided to follow her parents Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith into the movie business, her grandmother, Tippi Hedren, reminded her to not take “s—” from anybody. Johnson pointed to Alfred Hitchcock’s mistreatment of Hedren, saying The Birds director “ruined” Hedren’s career and was never held accountable.
During an appearance on The Hollywood Reporter‘s Awards Chatter podcast, Johnson was asked what she learned from Hedren’s career. “She’s always been really honest and firm about standing up for yourself. That’s what she did,” Johnson said. “[Alfred] Hitchcock ruined her career because she didn’t want to sleep with him, and he terrorized her.”
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Johnson said Hitchcock was “never held accountable” for the way he treated Hedren. She called Hitchcock’s actions a “completely unacceptable” abuse of power. “It’s hard to talk about because she’s my grandmother. You don’t want to imagine somebody taking advantage of your grandmother,” the Fifty Shades of Grey star said.
Hedren and Griffith wanted to make sure Johnson didn’t have that same experience. Hedren told her to “not put up with that s- from anybody,” Johnson recalled. “She would say it in a far more eloquent way. She’s such a glamorous movie star, still.”
Hedren starred in Hitchcock’s The Birds and Marnie, becoming a member of the long line of “Hitchcock Blondes” in the director’s later films. Hedren has been open about her experiences with the director, which inspired the 2012 HBO movie The Girl. In her memoir, Hedren claimed Hitchcock once tried to force her to kiss him in a limo and also asked her to “touch him” during production on The Birds.
“It was a wonderful, wonderful time. I’d never done a film before and I was – I guess he saw a commercial that I did – and … he found out who I was, where I was. He then quickly put me under contract. And then to discover that I was going to be in a major motion picture was incredible. He and his wife Alma were my drama coaches. It was absolutely fabulous. And then he pulls that … that card,” Hedren told Fox News in 2017 when discussing the alleged limo incident. “I wasn’t a young woman who fell off the vegetable truck. I was saddened that he did this, you know, that he decided to pull that card. I said, ‘I’m not interested in this. I’m not going to fall for this.’”
Hedren, 91, said she was hopeful about actresses today. “I think more of them are saying, ‘This is my life, this is how I want to live. You will either take me on my conditions or I’m not going to play the game,’” she said in 2017. “It’s become more of a business, and not just this incredible aura of, ‘Oh, she’s a movie star!’ It’s a business.”
Johnson’s new movie is The Lost Daughter, written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal. The movie is based on the novel by Elena Ferrante and also stars Oliva Colman, Peter Sarsgaard, Jessie Buckley, and Ed Harris. It will be released to theaters on Dec. 17 before hitting Netflix on Dec. 31.
