TCM Classic Film Festival 2012: Tea With Tippi Hedren

Your first film was in the early 1960s, and one of the most recent films I saw with you in it was 2004’s I Heart Huckabees.
TH: [laughs]

How different a set was that? Was it similar or was it completely different because the industry had changed?
TH: You chose a film that was as off-the-wall as you can imagine. Even today this would be considered off-the-wall.

I Heart Huckabees

It’s a pretty strange one.
TH: Yes. While we were filming, I thought, “How is he going to edit this?” Because all of a sudden, he’d be like, “Now I’m going to do it this way,” and you’d think, “How is he going to edit this? How is this going to work?” But he made it work.

He’s another notoriously difficult director.
TH: Oh yes, very interesting. I was able to work well with him.

Are there any actresses today that you particularly like their work? Or do you think it is too different now?
TH: I think, unfortunately, without the studio system, there isn’t that build up of roles to give that actor or actress a real star persona. It just doesn’t exist anymore, and that’s kind of sad.

A glamorous promotional image of Hedren from Marnie

With the studio system, all of the actors were taught how to speak, they were taught how to walk, they were given dancing lessons, singing lessons, any kind of lesson you could possibly take, in order to give them a rounded capability of becoming a character.

Now those things don’t happen, and so many of the actors who have been able to really rise above are doing their own scripts, producing their own films.

What do you think about Twitter and Facebook, and some of these things where actors can just say whatever, sometimes getting them into trouble?
TH: That’s an unfortunate thing that goes on. Once anything is out, once you’ve said something, it’s like squeezing a tube of toothpaste, try putting it back in again.

Especially with the internet. Even if you’ve deleted the tweet, someone has saved it somewhere.
TH: It could go viral, it could do anything depending on the depth or danger of what you’ve said. Words can be very dangerous.