Interview: 'Hitchcock' Director Sacha Gervasi Talks About The Legend Who Inspired His Movie

Sacha Gervasi's latest movie 'Hitchcock' gets its UK release tomorrow, and we caught up with the director for a chat ahead of the film's premiere in December, the director, making his first plotted feature talked about the man behind his movie, as well as working with Hollywood royalty in Sir Anthony hopkins and Dame Helen Mirren.

The film follows the renowned director Sir Alfred Hitchcock as he embarked upon his most ambitious movie project, the making of 'Psycho', a movie based on the exploits of serial killer Ed Gein, on which he staked both his money and reputation, but which eventually altered the making of horror films, not least with its infamous 'shower scene'.

When asked if it was a heavy burden making a film about such a famous figure for film fans, Gervasi was keen to stress the movie's focus on the relationship between him and his wife and collaborator Alma Reville (Mirren), saying: "I was sort of doing a film about a relationship, so that was the thing that I didn’t know, I mean his genius is indisputed and well known, his tremendously complex relationships with his actresses have been very well documented, what we didn’t know, what I didn’t know anyway when I read the script was this terrific relationship he had with his wife, who was also his greatest collaborator."

Scarlett Johansson, Sir Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren in 'Hitchcock' (Photo: Splash News/Fox Searchlight)

The complex relationship is at the centre of the movie, with Hitchcock's unhealthy obsession with his leading ladies, in the case of Psycho, Janet Leigh (Scarlett Johansson), but as Gervasi indicated, it was her strong will and talents that helped bring 'Psycho' to the screen.

The director, spoke about Reville with an ill concealed enthusiasm, saying that her prominence was, "because she started as an editor and then was a screenwriter, and was involved with Hitchcock throughout his entire career, and she would be there advising him you know late at night about what to do. I just found that aspect of the story, the untold story of the relationship, was the thing that actually drew me in emotionally to the movie."

Hitchcock gaining inspiration for his latest movie (Photo: SplashNews/Fox Searhlight)

Hitchcock has proved a controversial figure, with another film about the 'Birds' director 'The Girl', starring Toby Jones broadcast over Christmas and being rather less sympathetic to the film maker.

On his own film, and its more sympathetic depiction of Hitchcock's obsessions he said: "I think what we’ve added to the discussion, which is hopefully an endless one about Hitchcock is that there’s also this other aspect as well, not to negate or take away from these other portrayals, I just assume with Hitchcock that everything is true."

Warming to his theme, the director flushed with the December cold as he spoke, talking about the endless debate that surrounds Sir Alfred, as he added: "People want one or the other, and I think it’s all true, I think he was probably a monster and he was probably wonderful, it seems to me that what we want is this other side to him that most people don’t know so, I’m only speculating as we are in the film, but there was this wonderful symbotic creative relationship that existed between these two people, and I loved shining a light on that relationship."

Mirren as Alma Reville and Johansson as Janet Leigh (Photo: Splash News/Fox Searchlight)

So was Hitchcock a legend or a monster? Like Gervasi intimates perhaps we'll only be able to guess, with some like Tippi Hedren and 'Psycho' star Vera Miles falling out spectacularly with the director. Others attribute his uncompromising nature, vision and eccentric drive as being responsible for his high profile disputes with his actors.

Gervasi doesn't seem to have had the same problems with his own actors, talking about working with Hopkins and Mirren with enthusiasm.

He said: "It’s surreal, its crazy. I think I’d made a documentary which was called 'Anvil: The Story of Anvil' [Gervasi's 2008 documentary about a forgotten hair metal band] which they both really liked, they told me I was a story teller, that’s what they told me anyway, and Hopkins had wanted to play Hitchcock for quite some time, and he did."

This warmth between director and stars can apparently be attributed to a shared vision, learning while adapting Stephen Rebello's book 'Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho'.

The 46-year-old added: "When I came on board I was really focussed on the love story, the first thing Tony said to me was 'I don’t want to make the making of a film', because 'Psycho' stands alone, it’s a masterwork, we didn’t want to, it was inappropriate to sort of step on that but what we did want to do was explore what might’ve been in Hitchcock’s mind as he was making that film, because when he was making that film he was risking everything he had pretty much to make it."

'Hitchcock' director Sacha Gervasi braves the cold at the film's UK premiere (Photo: WENN)

This included staking almost a million pounds of his own money on the film's success, something Gervasi didn't know before making the film as he explained: "I didn’t know that he had spent his own money on ‘Psycho’, £850,000, risked his reputation and everything and I thought to me an artist at age 60 who’s feeling like he’s over, you know, he’s getting old, younger directors are nipping at his heels, and he wants to do something radical and shock hs audience to remind everyone that he’s relevant."

In the end 'Hitchcock' seems to have been something of a labour of love for its director and actors, and the hard work has paid dividends with a Golden Globe and BAFTA nomination for Mirren.

For Gervasi though, and his actors it isn't awards that was their motivation, but the story of Reville, Hitchcock and 'Psycho, something that he summed up as being like the tale of a fallen king.

"To me there is something emotional about that story, the king who sort of falls and has to do something radical to wake everyone up, and I loved that story, there was something emotionally fulfilling that I think Tony and Helen were also drawn into," Gervasi said, and whatever side of the Hitchcock divide you fall on, it seems that the director has produced a worthy addition to the mythology.

'Hitchcock' is released on Friday  February 8.

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