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Dakota Johnson has claimed that Alfred Hitchcock once gave his mother Melanie Griffith a miniature of his grandmother, Tippi Hedren, in a coffin.
Hedren, one of the famous filmmaker’s “blonde Hitchcocks” or muses, starred in two of his films: 1963’s “The Birds” and 1964’s “Marine.” that he was grooming her to be a star.
Johnson revealed that his mother received the creepy mini coffin as a Christmas present when she was just a child.
“It’s alarming and dark and really, really sad for this little girl,” the ‘Fifty Shades of Gray’ star told Vanity Fair on Tuesday. “Really scary.”
‘THE BIRDS’ STAR TIPPI HEDREN SAYS ALFRED HITCHCOCK ‘RUINS’ HIS CAREER: HE HAD ‘A DARK SIDE’
Dakota Johnson (left) described how Alfred Hitchcock allegedly terrorized his grandmother.
(Getty Images)
“What happened with my grandmother was horrible because Hitchcock was a bully,” the 32-year-old continued. “He was talented and prolific – and important in terms of art – but power can poison people.”
Johnson recalled attending a screening of the Emmy-nominated HBO film “The Girl,” which depicted Hitchcock’s obsession with Hedren, now 92. Johnson said she and Hedren, who attended the screening with her granddaughter, were told about the film’s content.
“It was one of those times when you were like, ‘How could you not tell us?'” Johnson said. “We’re in a room with frames. Maybe that warranted a little chat beforehand? You look up and you see a woman who just remembered everything she’s been through, and it was heartbreaking . She was an incredible actress and it stopped stopping her from having a career.”
This isn’t the first time Johnson has spoken out about Hitchcock’s treatment of his grandmother.
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Tippi Hedren and Dakota Johnson arrive at the premiere of Amazon Studios’ ‘Suspiria’ at ArcLight Cinerama Dome on October 24, 2018 in Hollywood, California.
(Photo by Steve Granitz/WireImage)
In 2021, she told The Hollywood Reporter’s “Awards Chatter” podcast about the alleged abuse Hedren suffered.
“She was always really honest and firm in defending herself,” Johnson said at the time. “She did. Hitchcock ruined her career because she didn’t want to sleep with him, and he terrorized her.”
Johnson claimed Hitchcock had “never been held accountable” and called it a “completely unacceptable” abuse of power.
“It is totally unacceptable for people in positions of power to exercise that power over someone in a position of weakness, regardless of the sector,” she explained. “It’s hard to talk about it because she’s my grandmother. You don’t want to imagine someone taking advantage of your grandmother.”
DAKOTA JOHNSON SAYS ALFRED HITCHCOCK ‘TERRORISED’ GRANDMOTHER TIPPI HEDREN: HE ‘RUINED HIS CAREER’
(LR) Dakota Johnson, Tippi Hedren and Melanie Griffith share a close bond.
(Photo by Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for ELLE)
Johnson noted that she and Griffith, 64, learned from Hedren that “you can’t stand that shit from nobody.”
“She would say it in a much more eloquent way,” Johnson said. “She’s such a glamorous movie star, again.”
Hedren alleged that she was sexually assaulted and her career threatened by Hitchcock, who died in 1980 aged 80. In 2017, she wrote a memoir titled “Tippi,” which detailed her rise to stardom and what it was like to work with Hitchcock. . That same year, she told Fox News Digital that her complicated relationship with Hitchcock was “a sad situation.”
“There’s really nothing more to say,” she explained. “It was… a sad situation. It was a wonderful, wonderful time. I had never done a movie 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 signed me up. And then finding out that I was going to be in a big movie was amazing. He and his wife Alma were my acting coaches. was absolutely fabulous. And then he draws this… card.”
TIPPI HEDREN, 90, STILL LIVES WITH ’13 OR 14 LIONS AND TIGERS’, REVEALS HER GRANDDAUGHTER DAKOTA JOHNSON
Alfred Hitchcock and American actress Tippi Hedren explore Cannes together after the premiere of his latest thriller “The Birds” in which she plays the title role.
(Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)
“I was not a young woman who fell off the vegetable truck,” she continued. “I was saddened that he did that, you know, that he decided to pull that card. I said, ‘I’m not interested. I’m not going to fall for it.’ He kept chasing him, and then I said, ‘I want out of the contract.’ He said, “Well, you can’t. You have to take care of your daughter, your parents are getting old.” And I said, ‘You know, they wouldn’t want me to do anything that I’m not interested in. I want out of the contract.’
“He said, ‘I’m going to ruin your career.’ And he did. He kept me under contract and wouldn’t let me work. It was just one of those Hollywood nightmares… It was so unnecessary. That’s what was so awful about it. It was just…just a sad situation. Just sad. But anyway, life goes on!”
Despite the setback she suffered after working with Hitchcock, the star insisted she had “had an incredible life”.
“I look back on my life and think how lucky I am to have had the opportunities that came my way,” she said. “My parents were really great with my sister and me, and they taught us a lot about life and how to hold our heads up high. If something happens and we don’t like it, there’s has a reason for it. can tell if a situation is not good. So get out of there!”
PAT HITCHCOCK, 1950s ACTRESS AND ONLY CHILD OF ALFRED HITCHCOCK, DEAD AT 93
Tippi Hedren starred in two Hitchcock films.
(Getty Images)
“I think what I was really trying to get across is that if a door opens up for you and you like what you see on the other side, walk through it,” she said. share. “If you don’t like what you see on the other side of that door, slam it! I’ve been through a lot of those doors and slammed a lot of them.”
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