Dakota Johnson opens up about her grandmother's time in Hollywood. Image Source: ELLE

Dakota Johnson is the granddaughter of Tippi Hedren, and recently she opened up about her grandmother’s experience in the industry. The actress, during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter’s "Awards Chatter" podcast, spoke with Scott Feinberg about what she has learned from her grandmother in terms of acting, standing up for herself, and the abuse in the industry.

Tippi Hedren was encouraging about her daughter and actress Melanie Griffith's desire to pursue acting despite the abuse she had to face while working, according to the actress. Dakota Johnson said, "She's always been really honest and firm about standing up for herself. That's what she did. Alfred Hitchcock ruined her career because she didn't want to sleep with him, and he terrorized her. He was never held accountable."

Fifty Shades of Grey actress mentioned that the 91-year-old Tippi Hedren has always encouraged and urged Dakota Johnson to stand up for herself. Dakota stated during the interview that it was difficult to communicate or share about the trauma her grandmother endured, who alleged in her memoir that director Alfred Hitchcock sexually attacked her multiple times while working on films such as "The Birds" and "Marine."

Dakota Johnson continued, "It's completely unacceptable for people in a position of power to wield that power over someone in a weaker position, no matter the industry. It's hard to talk about because she's my grandmother. You don't want to imagine somebody taking advantage of your grandmother. " The actress further shared that the fact that Tippi Hedren has been so amazing for her and her mother that it is just not acceptable in their mind and heart, and she would advise and encourage Dakota and her mother to not put up with anybody’s shit in a far more eloquent way.

Dakota Johnson, Tippi Hedren, and Melanie Griffith. Image Source: Daily Mail UK 

Tippi Hedren’s memoir, "Tippi: A Memoir," was released in 2016, and she has detailed the period which she considered the most professionally acclaimed and personally miserable period of her career. Alfred Hitchcock, who passed away in 1980, invited Tippi Hedren to his office in 1961 to meet his "new star" and, at first, what seemed like an innocent meeting to Tippi was more than that. In her memoir, she writes, "Then it just became a little more often, and then it was off in another room." I’m thinking, ‘Oh boy, I didn’t just fall off the rutabaga truck, you know?’"

In her biography, the actress described times with Alfred Hitchcock when he had his driver drive past Tippi Hedren's house and how he begged her to "touch him" during the filming of "The Birds." When she declined, the director punished her in a horrible manner by having actual birds attack her for a scene they were filming, rather than the mechanical ones that the crew had planned. Tippi was subjected to days of "ugly, vicious, and unrelenting" onslaughts by actual animals while they recorded the famed sequence after an assistant director informed her that the fake birds were malfunctioning.

Tippi Hedren described these moments as "awful, awful moments" and continued with the ones where the late director would try to forcefully kiss her in the back of the limo, as well as when he "put his hands" on her in a "perverse" moment in her dressing room while shooting "Marnie". She described how the harder she fought him, the more aggressive he became. She added: "Then he started adding threats as if he could do anything to me that was worse than what he was trying to do at that moment." In her memoir, the 91-year-old actress describes how the late director had vowed to ruin her career by refusing to release her from her contracts and declining to cast her in any movies. Despite this, Tippi characterized Alfred Hitchcock as a "great, amazing director" who left her with a "wave of melancholy" when he died in 1980.

Tippi Hedren and Alfred Hitchcock. Image Source: The Hans India 

Tippi Hedren kept quiet about these heinous encounters because, in the 1960s, terminology like sexual harassment and stalking didn't exist. Tippi Hedren's career has continued with roles in films such as I Heart Huckabees, Citizen Ruth, I Woke Up Early the Day I Died, and the television sitcom Cougar Town.

At the end of 2017, when the Me Too movement took off, Tippi wrote on Twitter "I dealt with sexual harassment all the time during my modeling and film career. Alfred Hitchcock wasn’t the first. However, I wasn’t going to take it anymore, so I simply walked away and didn't look back. Hitch said he would ruin my career, and I told him to do what he had to do. It has taken 50 years, but it is about time that women started standing up for themselves, as they appear to be doing in the Harvey Weinstein case. Good for them!"

Dakota Johnson will next be seen in Maggie Gyllenhaal's film The Lost Daughter, which is based on Elena Ferrante's novel of the same name. Next, is, Am I all Okay? is directed by Stephanie Allyne and Tig Notaro, and then she will star in 'Persuasion', a Netflix adaption of novelist Jane Austen's 'Persuasion' which is directed by Carrie Cracknell from a screenplay by Ron Bass and Alice Victoria Winslow. Helmer Cooper Raiff's Cha Cha Real Smooth is also in line. Dakota Johnson has also signed on to feature in and produce Rodeo Queens, an Amazon Studios mockumentary series helmed by Carrie Brownstein.