page_title: Tippi Hedren
section_title: Career setbacks (1967–1973)
hierarchical_section_title: Tippi Hedren / Career / Career setbacks (1967–1973)
caption_attribution_description: English: Still from "The Harrad Experiment" released in a press kit promoting the movie by Cinerama Releasing Corporation without copyright notice.
context_page_description: Nathalie Kay "Tippi" Hedren is an American actress, animal rights activist, and former fashion model.
  A successful fashion model who appeared on the front covers of Life and Glamour magazines, among others, Hedren became an actress after she was discovered by director Alfred Hitchcock while appearing on a television commercial in 1961. She received world recognition for her work in two of his films: the suspense-thriller The Birds, for which she won a Golden Globe, and the psychological drama Marnie. She has appeared in over 80 films and television shows, including Charlie Chaplin's final film A Countess from Hong Kong, the political satire Citizen Ruth, and the existential comedy I Heart Huckabees. Among other honors, her contributions to world cinema have been recognized with the Jules Verne Award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
  Hedren's strong commitment to animal rescue began in 1969 while she was shooting two films in Africa and was introduced to the plight of African lions. In an attempt to raise awareness for wildlife, she spent over a decade bringing Roar to the screen.
context_section_description: Hedren's first feature film appearance after Marnie was in A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), starring Marlon Brando and Sophia Loren. She was told by writer-director Charlie Chaplin that she was offered a major supporting role as Brando's estranged wife and had to accept the role without reading the script. However, when she arrived in England where the filming took place, she finally received the script and realized that her part was little more than a cameo. She asked Chaplin why he lied to her. "Every actor in the world was asking if they could do this film, to just do a walk-on, without even being paid for it. When I said, 'Why didn't you just tell me that it was a cameo? I would have done this film anyway,' he said, 'I didn't think you would come,' which was very sweet. He was a very clever man." Hedren asked Chaplin to expand the role, and although he tried to accommodate her, he could not, as the story mostly takes place on a ship, which Hedren's character boards near the end of the film. In the end, she remained in the film and later said that it was both amusing and strange to work with Chaplin. She found him to be a very serious man and loved his approach to directing. She later said, "I wish someone would have been allowed to do a documentary. The way he directed was unlike anyone I ever saw. He acted out all the parts himself. He did Sophia's part, then Marlon's part, then mine, and then he'd say, 'Okay, now you can do it.' Which would be impossible, to mimic the master. It was incredible. None of us believed it. Marlon hated it."
  After the release of A Countess from Hong Kong, Hedren's career was described as "spectacular" by the press. She told a reporter at the time, "I don't want to wait myself out of this business, but working for Hitch and Charlie has been very special to me, and now I'm going to wait for something special to come along". In 1968, she signed on to do the American Civil War drama Five Against Kansas with Farley Granger and Jeffrey Hunter, but the project was never realized. In 1968, Hedren returned to film as a socialite who helps her boyfriend (played by George Armstrong) catch a killer, in Tiger by the Tail. From 1970 to 1971, she guest-starred twice on The Courtship of Eddie's Father. She agreed to take part in Satan's Harvest (1970) and Mister Kingstreet's War (1973)—which were shot back-to-back despite the discrepancy in their release dates—for the sole reason that they were being filmed in Africa. In 1973, Hedren played a teacher of an experimental sex school in The Harrad Experiment, which starred James Whitmore and Don Johnson—the latter of whom later became the husband of her daughter, Melanie Griffith. Hedren felt that the film "deals with vital themes—themes like the decline in importance of ideas like possession and jealousy and, by inference, marriage. I have four teenaged children and I think this picture says some valuable things to them." She confessed at the time she was occasionally depressed because she was not doing any major films and told a magazine, "My husband just cancelled all the trade magazines because he felt I should cut off the source of my discontent. He's the type who won't stand for sustained down feelings".
caption: Hedren in The Harrad Experiment (1973)
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