Actress Tippi Hedren may best be remembered for two Alfred Hitchcock films that she made: The Birds and Marnie. She appeared in many more movies afterwards with a cameo in one released this year called The Ghost and the Whale.
One film, Roar, led her to establish the Roar Foundation and the Shambala Preserve in 1983, an 80-acre wildlife habitat.
This fall Hell in a Handbag remounts its parody of The Birds and audiences better run for cover because the claws will be out and the feathers will be flying!
Windy City Times tracked Hedren down for a bird's-eye view, detailing a career that now spans six decades.
Windy City Times: Hello, Tippi. I have seen you at several conventions signing autographs in the past, and you are coming back to town.
Tippi Hedren: Yes. I love Chicago.
WCT: You have been involved with Hell in a Handbag's The Birds from the beginning?
Tippi Hedren: Yes, since a long time ago. This is not the first time David Cerda, the writer and director, has put on the production. David brings in something different with each version he does. The is some new development with his plan for the current one. His shows are always epic.
WCT: For people who have not seen the show, David is taking scenes from the movie and also going behind the scenes of the story, correct?
Tippi Hedren: Yes, and he's brilliant at it. I think he's going to be lending quite a few new things into it. There is going to be music this time and talking birds. He's going to get into a little more of the dark side of it that I think will be really interesting.
WCT: Sounds dramatic.
Tippi Hedren: That is the thing about David's productions. You are not going to see the same things.
WCT: I've been to many of his shows. The camp factor is turned way up and gay audiences really get the humor.
Tippi Hedren: Oh, it is great fun.
WCT: So there is a benefit for your organization Roar. Tell our readers about that.
Tippi Hedren: I have always had an incredible love for animals. I did do films in Africa in 1969 and 1970. During those years environmentalists all over the world were saying to us to do something right then. The said if we didn't do something about hunting and poaching that by the year 2000 that the wild animals would be gone. There was a lot of awareness going on. My husband then was a producer and we decided to do a movie. We thought about focusing on one animal. When we went on a photo safari in Mozambique, Africa there was a house there that had been abandoned by a game warden because it flooded during the rainy season. He moved out and a pride of lions moved into his house. It was the most amazing sight you could ever see.
It was a two-story house with lions sitting in the windows like great portraits. They were going in and out the doors and napping on the verandas, cubs playing outdoors, it was candy for the eyes. Of course I would't go near there.
WCT: Don't be a nosy neighbor! [Both laugh.]
Tippi Hedren: We just both looked at each other and thought, "Bingo!" It was a perfect movie set. We went back to California and were told that we needed our own animals. That is how we got started rescuing—now it has been 41 years.
WCT: Where is the Shambala Preserve located?
Tippi Hedren: It is about an hour north of East L.A., outside of a little town called Acton. We bought the place when the board bill was more than the mortgage. That didn't happen until the movie was over. Our nine-month movie took five years.
In 1983 I formed the Roar Foundation so we could accept donations to help these animals.
WCT: I read Lily Tomlin is on your board of advisors.
Tippi Hedren: Yes, she is. She was out with us just the other day.
WCT: I visited the Big Cat Rescue in Florida and saw the problem with people domesticating these animals.
Tippi Hedren: I am aware of that place. It is a huge business and a nasty one. I have now had my second federal bill introduced, which I am very proud of. The first was to stop the interstate traffic. I wanted the government to think of this as a business and people were getting hurt. These are volatile animals. I created a bill and brought it to a congressman that introduced it called the Captive Wildlife Safety Act.
Bush signed it in 2003. It is not easy to get a federal bill passed. Now we have the Big Cats and Safety Protection Act introduced and hopefully in the senate very soon. That is to stop the breeding and zoos would be exempt. There are adversaries so there will be a fight!
WCT: Do you own pets yourself?
Tippi Hedren: I own domestic cats and adopted a whole litter of six kitties. I named them Rod Taylor, Sean Connery and Marlon Brando. There is also a Melanie Griffith and a Antonio Banderas. I had one stray living under my house who I named Johnny Depp!
WCT: That is perfect.
Tippi Hedren: I had worked with all of the others but I just hope to with Johnny one day.
WCT: Who wouldn't? Speaking of the family, how are they?
Tippi Hedren: They are all wonderful. My granddaughter is becoming quite an actress. She is pretty amazing. Her name is Dakota Johnson and she starred as Kate in the series Ben and Kate.
WCT: So, a whole new generation. What was your opinion on the HBO movie The Girl? [Note: The Girl, about the lives of Hedren and Hitchock, stars Sienna Miller and Toby Jones.]
Tippi Hedren: It was accurate. They had me involved with Gwyneth Hughes, who is the writer. We spent an afternoon together talking about the whole situation and obsession with Hitchcock, how painful the situation was for me. I was under contract and there was nobody I could talk to all those years ago. That was the norm.
WCT: That wouldn't happen today.
Tippi Hedren: No—if it did I would be a very rich woman!
Hell in a Handbag Productions version of The Birds is currently flying high at The Coach House at Berger Park, 6205 N. Sheridan Rd., now until Sept. 21 with showtimes at 7:30 p.m.
Hedren heads to Chicago for a benefit performance on Sept. 7 and appears at the Hollywood show, 5550 N. River Rd., on Sept. 7-8 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
She also introduces The Birds at the Hollywood Blvd. Cinema in Woodridge, Ill., on Sept. 6.
Visit www.handbagproductions.org, www.hollywoodshow.com, and www.atriptothemovies.com for information on Hedren's busy weekend.
