HBO may have missed out on “Mad Men,” but they had two icons of the 1960s on panels at press tour Wednesday in Beverly Hills.
Tippi Hedren, who was plucked out for stardom by Alfred Hitchcock and then abused her with his obsessions, was on hand at age 82, recalling her horror as reflected in the fall HBO movie “The Girl.”
And then Ethel Kennedy, the widow of Robert F. Kennedy, followed her, the subject of a documentary made by her youngest daughter, Rory that will also premiere in the fall.
Hedren, who carried a fake crow in to call to mind her role in “Birds,” in which she was so abused, had for years kept her problems secret.
“I had not talked about this issue with Alfred Hitchcock to anyone,” she said. That’s in part because the studios were so powerful back then. “There was absolutely nothing I could do legally whatsoever. There were no laws about this kind of a situation.”
“If this had happened today,” she said, “I would be a very rich women.
Sienna Miller plays her in the HBO film, opposite Toby Jones, who played Truman Capote in “Infamous.”
And Hedren’s family is just now finding out about the dark particulars of the era. A family screening was followed by a stunned hush. “My daughter, Melanie Griffith, jumped up and said, ‘Now I have to go back into therapy.’ ”
For herself, “I lived through it,” Hedren says. “He ruined my career, but he didn’t ruin my life.”
But the film may be a help to others, she said. “I hope that young women who do see this film know that they do not have to acquiesce to anything that they do not feel is morally right.”
For Ethel Kennedy, it was her first time meeting the press for an interview in 25 years, according to HBO.
As such she had to face questions that were at once wince-inducing (“Had things gone differently – and you ended up in the White House…”), random (Did she really drop a note in the FBI suggestion box saying “Get a new director”?) or celebrity-shallow (Did she set up her grandson up with Taylor Swift?).
But while it was obvious why she decided to sit down with Rory Kennedy, an accomplished filmmaker as well as her daughter, she had the opportunity to talk about pet causes, as her husband might have.
What asked what causes she’d support “had things gone differently,” Ethel Kennedy said, “I don’t go into that area at all. But I imagine at this moment it would pretty much be the same thing that our family does now, the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights. And we get very involved in human rights in all of the world in, actually, 27 countries intensely, including our own farm workers in Upstate New York, who are treated like slaves.”
There was a reason Rory Kennedy and her siblings largely grew up to be activists.
“Well, first of all, if there’s a formula for bringing up children, I really don’t know what it is. You know, I just think we were very fortunate. And I’m so proud that they really are each involved in helping somebody in need.
“We had a Sunday evening tradition at meals in which everyone going around the table had to tell something about what was going on in the world,” she says. “It was an adult conversation and they responded beautifully.”
Though she adds that there was likely “ a little rush just before dinner: Find a paper and find out what the heck is going on.
“But I think it helped make them aware that there are a lot of people out there who don’t live the way they live, and who need help. And I think those sessions really helped motivate them. And it was what they were saying, as much as anything I said, probably more. But I think also, there wasn’t a great divide between children and grownups. It was the children who spoke. And maybe that’s why they can all speak so well publicly.”
Kennedy says it’s “uncomfortable to talk about, but I’d say faith had a lot to do with being able to get through everything.
Faith has sustained her darkest days, she says. “When we lost Bobby, I would wake up in the morning and think, he’s okay. He’s in heaven, and he’s with Jack, and a lot of my brothers and sisters, and my parents. So it made it very easy to get through the day thinking he was okay.”
As for the FBI story, she says merely “It was rude, and I apologize for that.”
And asked if Swift would be a good addition to the Kennedy family, she cracked, “We should be so lucky.” But was the story about setting up her grandson true? “No. The part about my involvement, certainly not.”
And what did she get out of the process of making it?
“Well, how amazingly brilliant and fun to be with” her daughter is,” she said. “She is really the best.”
Said Rory Kennedy, “Thank you, Mummy.
“The Girl” premieres Oct. 20 on HBO; “Ethel” premieres Oct. 18.