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Golden Years
Tippi Hedren, one of
the Hitchcock’s most celebrated blondes, talks to her granddaughter Dakota
Johnson about leading men, lions and her new memoir.
Dakota Johnson seems
to be in a mild state of shock as she approaches her grandmother Tippi Hedren’s
home on the Shambala Preserve – the sanctuary for lions and other big cats that
Hedren founded in the Seventies in the wilderness north of Los Angeles, writes
Tim Walker.
It’s the first time Johnson
has visited since a wildfire swept right up to the property in the summer,
leaving rows of charred tree trunks just yards from the animal enclosures.
“This is so weird for
me,” she says, staring at the apocalyptic scene from behind the wheel of her
Audi SUV. Still, the cats and Hedren’s house remain unscathed, and the
86-year-old welcomes her granddaughter looking as poised and elegant as ever in
black, sleeveless, spot-print blouse with a simple diamond necklace given to
her by her daughter, Johnson’s mother, Melanie Griffith – the missing link in
this three-generation acting dynasty.
Johnson greets Hedren
affectionately as Mormor, the Swedish word for granny. Dressed down in a crisp
white T-shirt, her blue jeans cinched with a Gucci belt, the Fifty Shades of
Grey star, hands over the gifts she has brought: a Marc Jacobs handbag and
sunglasses. “These are great! I left my other pair at your mother’s,” Hedren
says, trying on the shades – and flashing, as she does so, her long,
gold-lacquered nails. Formerly (and famously) a Hitchcock blonde, today her
hair is grey and cropped.
Hedren’s housecat, Johnny
Depp, prowls the kitchen. He’s not allowed outside, in case he should wander
into one of the big-cat enclosures, the closest of which is about 10ft beyond
the dining room window and home to a 13-year-old tigress called Mona, who is
nowhere to be seen as Hedren and Johnson sit down for lunch. “I have no sense
of taste or smell anymore, so I don’t care about food,” says Tippi. “I had two
falls and hit my head in the same place, which affected my olfactory nerves. It
was over 10 years ago.” “But you do love chocolate…” says her granddaughter. “Yes,
but that’s because I loved chocolate before. Its dangerous having no smell
though, because I can´t smell smoke. I’ve had all the gas appliances taken out
of the house!”
It was with Noel
Marshall, the second of her three husbands, that Hedren spent most of the
Seventies making the film Roar. Their shared passion project – often referred
to as “the most dangerous movie ever made” – Roar featured 150 untrained wild
animals. Some 70 members of the cast and crew, including Griffith and Hedren,
were injured during production, which ultimately led to the creation of the
Shambala Preserve.
The house itself as
originally a mobile home, to which Hedren has added several extensions over the
decades. “They brought it in on wheels,” she says. “I’ll never forget the day
it came down the hill.” Inside, the walls are filled with photos of her family
and of Shambala’s big cats, while the shelves are lined with books that reflect
her multiple careers: books on fashion, on movies, on Africa and its wildlife.
Now, Hedren has
collected her memories in her own book, Tippi, a candid memoir that looks all
the way back to her Midwestern childhood and her modelling career in Fifties
New York.
Dakota: Mormor, how
did you star modelling?
Tippi: I was walking
down the street in Minneapolis when I was 18, and a woman stopped me, handed me
a business card and said: “Would you five this to your mother and have her
bring you down to Donaldson’s department store? We’d like to have you model in
our Saturday morning fashion shows.” I thought, what fun!
Dakota: They had shows
every week?
Tippi: Yes. We lived in a suburb called Morningside,
and every Saturday morning I’d go into the city. The clothes were very forties:
plaid skirts with cashmere sweaters, bobby socks and loafers. It was cute.
Dakota: What are you
wearing today?
Tippi: My top is not
from a prominent designer but it’s cool. Your mother gave me the diamond
necklace. The pearl earrings I have had forever. I rarely lose anything, so if
they don’t break I keep them. My style is sort of elegant and simple. Nothing
gaudy, nothing over the top.
Dakota: Has you been
to New York before you moved there?
Tippi: I worked in
Minneapolis for a long time, but New York was the place to be if you were going
to be a model. Eileen Ford of Ford Models had told me to send her my
photographs, which I did, and then she called me to say, “Come to New York.” I
had just enough money to get there, sitting up on the train for three days! And
then enough to keep me for a week at the Barbizon Hotel for Women.
Dakota: It sounds like
The Bell Jar! How did it feel to arrive in Manhattan for the first time?
Tippi: I’d been living
in Minneapolis, so I wasn’t afraid of being in a city. But then, I don’t know
if I’ve ever been afraid of anything, really. New York models were chic, business-like,
career-minded. And I’m not very tall. But New York was fun and exciting, I was
learning a lot about clothes and absorbing everything I could. I don’t know how
many magazine covers I shot, especially with Seventeen. I still have a whole
trunk of them.
Dakota: Were you
always keen fashion? What were your dreams growing up¡
Tippi: I wanted to be
a figure skater – there are 10,000 lake in Minnesota – but my parents didn’t
have enough money to send me to classes. I used to watch my friend’s lessons,
then I’d go out to one of the little lakes in our neighborhood, and practice
and practice.
Dakota: Was your mum
supportive of you modeling?
Tippi: Yes. We were
Lutherans, and our parents brought me and my sister up with strong morals, and
felt I knew how to handle any “situation” that came along – and I did. I
handled a lot. The first thing I did when I arrived in New York was find a
Lutheran church close to my living quarters. In Los Angeles, I taught Sunday
school.
Dakota: How did you
meet Pop-Pop [Dakota’s grandfather, Peter Griffith] in New York?
Tippi: I was asked to
do a small role on TV, and Peter was one of the actors.
Dakota: You can’t get
away from actors in our family. They’re everywhere.
Tippi: They’re still
coming out of the woodwork. We were working on a set with a stage and I fell
off it and hurt my shin, and Peter came to rescue, which is how that whole
thing started.
Dakota: What was it
like when you found out you were pregnant?
Tippi: I was thrilled.
We came to California and got married secretly a year and a half after we met.
Dakota: That’s not dissimilar
to how my mum and dad [actor Don Johnson] got married the first time. Maybe I
should continue the tradition and get secretly hitched to a semi-suitable male?
If it doesn’t work out the first time, I’ll just do it again with somebody
else!
Tippi: Peter and I had
another wedding in a beautiful Lutheran church on Long Island. The pictures are
too cute for words: it looks like two children getting married. He was 19, I
was 22.
Dakota: And Mum was
married at 18. I’d better get to work! How old was Mum when you married Noel
[Marshall, Hedren’s second husband]?
Tippi: She was still a
little girl.
Dakota: She still is a
little girl.
Tippi: She’ll always
be my little girl. But she grew up to be a powerful and magnificent woman.
Dakota: Mum was 14 and
Dad was 22 when they met and fell in love, and that was the end of that. You
were not very happy were you, Mormor?
Tippi: No! Here’s this
slick young actor, charming and handsome as you could find – he had it all. And
my little girl involved with that? That was asking way too much. She is very willful,
though. She eloped, too…
Dakota: To Vegas.
Tippi: I remember
exactly where I was when I found out. We had a phone on the wall by the
staircase at our house and I got this call: “Hi, Mum” It’s Melanie. I’m with
Don. Guess what? We just got married!” I cried: “On no!”
Dakota: We’re all so
stubborn. How old were you when you stopped modelling?
Tippi: Thirty-one. I
had modelled for a lot longer than most models do. I was getting older, so I
started doing television commercials. I received a call on Friday 13 October
1961, from a man asking if I was the girl in the Sego TV commercial. I said, “Yes,
why?” he said that somebody was interested in me, but they couldn’t tell me
who. Finally, they admitted Alfred Hitchcock wanted to sign me to a contract.
Being under contract to Hitchcock was very exciting. But the longer it went on,
the more control he wanted. And we aren’t that kind of people – we don’t
control well.
Dakota: Nuh-uh. Not in
this family. How drastically and how quickly did the relationship change?
Tippi: It was a long
period of time, which allowed me to do The Birds and Marnie. But when Hitchcock’s
demands became unbearable, I said I wanted to get out of my contract. His last
words to me were: “I’ll ruin your career.” I said: “Do what you have to do,”
and slammed the door on him. And I really slammed it! He kept me under contract
for two years, paying me $600 a week. He was miserly as well as a mean bastard.
Dakota: Everything is
public now. There’s not a lot of space for people to be sneaky and immoral.
Tippi: He was a master
at it. It got to a point where we wanted to make me jealous, so he hired
another model and put her under contract. When I asked who it was, he said “Claire
Griswold.” I said “Claire? She’s a good friend of mine! We worked together in
New York! I can’t wait to see her!” He was deflated because I didn’t turn green
with envy. And then all of a sudden she was gone because he told her she could
not have any children while she was under contract to him.
Dakota: But you went
to his funeral?
Tippi: I did, because
I knew both sides of the man: what he had done, and who he was in the motion picture
industry will be known forever.
Dakota: What was it
like working with costumier Edith head?
Tippi: Working with
Edith was such a wonderful time for me. What I learnt from her more than
anything was how brilliantly she manipulated her producers and directors into
living what she designed. She got them thinking her ideas were theirs. I did
get tired of that green suit I wore when I get busted stealing was my favorite.
I felt like I was 6ft tall wearing it.
Dakota: What did it
fell like when you became successful? Were you recognized on the street?
Tippi: On occasion
there would be people running down the street after me. I guess the fact that I
had and elegant image meant everybody treated me as such, which was nice. I did
learn never to go out without my mascara on.
Dakota: You taught me
how to put mascara on. I think I got my long eyelashes from you.
Tippi: I think it’s fabulous
that you and Melanie are actors. I didn’t suggest it to her; she just came home
one day and said: “Mum, I’m going to be in a movie!”
Dakota: I grew up on
sets. I thought, “This is their job; this is what my job will be.” Did you ever
fall in love with any of your co-stars?
Tippi: No.
Dakota: Not even a
little bit?
Tippi: Maybe with Sean
[Connery], a little bit. But I said to myself: “Tippi, don’t get involved.” And
I didn’t. He was a great gentleman. And he was probably told: “You will not
touch the girl.” That’s what Hitchcock would say. Working with Charlie Chaplin
was pretty amazing. I was just free of my contract with Hitchcock when I got
the call for A Countess from Hong Kong. Charlie directed by acting out all of
our different roles. Marlon [Brandon] wanted to with because that was totally
against his method acting. For him to have to watch Charlie Chaplin doing his
role was insulting. But I loved it: I thought it was wonderful watching
Charlie. Marlon and I had a good time. He thought we ought to have an affair,
and I said “Well, I don’t think that’s going to happen.” I don’t do that with
my leading men.
Dakota: So, Neil was
your first lion?
Tippi: Yeah. He was
owned by Ron Oxley, who was charged with finding the animals for Roar. During a
Life magazine photo shoot for the film, Neil leapt over the banister from the
landing and crashed on to the dining table. His front leg landed on my plate
and the whole table came down and everything landed on me. The wine glasses…everything!
I considered them pets at first, when we first got the little lion cubs – oh
God, they were so cute! But boy, you can’t take a chance on when those instincts
are going to kick in. One of the lions bit me on the head when we were shooting
footage for Roar.
Dakota: Mormor, you
have done so many things in your life – what do you still want to achieve?
Tippi: I just wait for
what’s going to happen in my life. I’m steered in directions that I find to be
more and more interesting as the years go by. I’m amazed looking back at what
doors were opened for me and the ones I chose to go through.
“Tippi: A memoir”, by
Tippi Hedren is published by William Morrow at 20.
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