2019-01-01_SciFiNow

Commencing her career as a child
actress in television, before being
cast as 13-year old Cathy Brenner
in Alfred Hitchcock’s classic The
Birds, Veronica Cartwright has
carved out an impressively prolifi c
career as a character actor over the
past fi ve decades. Notable genre roles
subsequently included classics like Ridley Scott’s
original Alien, Phillip Kaufman’s superior 1978
remake to Invasion Of The Body Snatchers and
George Miller’s The Witches Of Eastwick,
along with a slew of scene-stealing guest
appearances in TV shows like The X-Files.  
 We talk to the award-winning actress about
working with the great master of suspense,
being originally considered for the role of
Ripley in Alien, how equally surprised she was
by the twist ending of Invasion Of The Body
Snatchers and reveal how often she plays the
voice of reason in cinema. 

Tell us how you were cast in The
Birds and your introduction to the
great Alfred Hitchcock...
I did a movie called The Children’s Hour, which
starred Shirley MacLaine and Audrey Hepburn.
Mr Hitchcock had seen me in it and requested
a meeting. So I met him at his bungalow at
Universal Studios. We just talked. He told me
how to cook a steak, as he felt I would need to
know this some day when I was married. Then

PROVIDING MEMORABLE TURNS IN THE BIRDS, ALIEN, INVASION

OF THE BODY SNATCHERS AND THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK,

VERONICA CARTWRIGHT HAS BEEN PART OF SEVERAL ICONIC

SCENES IN GENRE CINEMA. WE TALK TO THE ACTRESS ABOUT HER

MOST PROMINENT ROLES IN SCI-FI AND HORROR

WORDS OLIVER PFEIFFER

INTERVIEW

W W W.SCI FI N OW.CO.U K |^103

FLASHBACK

VERONICA CARTWRIGHT

VERONICA

CARTWRIGHT

after fi nding out I was born in Bristol he told me

about great wines as his favourite wine cellar

was in Bristol. It was just a conversation to see

if we got along. He was just lovely to me. He

had a very dry sense of humour.  

What are your fondest memories of

working with the master? 

He was always kind to me. I’d ask him about

how things were done and he’d always

answer me in detail and never made me feel

uncomfortable. For example, the cardboard

birds that were mixed in with real birds on the

jungle gym scene... I said: ‘Isn’t the audience

going to know that those are fake?’ And he

said: ‘Well, the audience will see movement

and automatically assume that they’re alive.’ To

this day it’s hard to pick out the fake birds! 

Was it intense working with real birds?

A couple of times it was creepy. When the

birds came down the chimney, they were sent

down shafts that were pulled in a shimmy and

thousands of them went up and hit the ceiling.

Then, realising they couldn’t go anywhere,

they just dropped, which was disgusting and

then [people] would just come along with

shovels and sweep them back in and then into

the shafts again. Thousands of birds fl ying

around... it was creepy. 

Can you tell us how the famous

bird attack sequence was achieved

upon the running school children?

We shot everything twice. We shot in Bodega

Bay where we ran down that hill and we

had mechanical birds that were on some of

the kids’ shoulders. Those birds were built in

Germany and were remote controlled. Then we

shot it again in the studio with a mobile arm

that swooped down with birds while we were

running on this huge treadmill. We were all

desperate to stay in front otherwise you’d just

wipe everybody out. We just ran for our lives!

Also effective is when the birds invade

the house pecking through the front

door. How was that accomplished?

Well, there were a lot of real birds. They were

fi nches in fact. They would have hammers and

things like that so they would be able to go

through the doors. However, they did also have

birds sent in when Rod is trying to close the

door. It was very realistic. The only early CGI

“HITCHCOCK TOLD ME

HOW TO COOK A

STEAK...HE WAS JUST

LOVELY TO ME”

VERONICA CARTWRIGHT

Commencing her career as a child
actress in television, before being
cast as 13-year old Cathy Brenner
in Alfred Hitchcock’s classic The
Birds, Veronica Cartwright has
carved out an impressively prolifi c
career as a character actor over the
past fi ve decades. Notable genre roles
subsequently included classics like Ridley Scott’s
original Alien,Alien,Alien, Phillip Kaufman’s superior 1978 Phillip Kaufman’s superior 1978
remake to Invasion Of The Body SnatchersInvasion Of The Body SnatchersInvasion Of The Body Snatchers and  and
George Miller’s The Witches Of Eastwick,
along with a slew of scene-stealing guest
appearances in TV shows like The X-Files.  
 We talk to the award-winning actress about
working with the great master of suspense,
being originally considered for the role of
Ripley in AlienAlienAlien, how equally surprised she was , how equally surprised she was
by the twist ending of Invasion Of The Body
SnatchersSnatchersSnatchers and reveal how often she plays the  and reveal how often she plays the
voice of reason in cinema. 

Tell us how you were cast in The
BirdsBirdsBirds and your introduction to the  and your introduction to the
great Alfred Hitchcock...
I did a movie called The Children’s Hour,The Children’s Hour,The Children’s Hour, which which
starred Shirley MacLaine and Audrey Hepburn.
Mr Hitchcock had seen me in it and requested
a meeting. So I met him at his bungalow at
Universal Studios. We just talked. He told me
how to cook a steak, as he felt I would need to
know this some day when I was married. Then

PROVIDING MEMORABLE TURNS IN THE BIRDS, ALIEN, INVASION

OF THE BODY SNATCHERS AND THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK,

PROVIDING MEMORABLE TURNS IN THE BIRDS, ALIEN, INVASION

OF THE BODY SNATCHERS AND THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK,

PROVIDING MEMORABLE TURNS IN THE BIRDS, ALIEN, INVASION

VERONICA CARTWRIGHT HAS BEEN PART OF SEVERAL ICONIC

OF THE BODY SNATCHERS AND THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK,

VERONICA CARTWRIGHT HAS BEEN PART OF SEVERAL ICONIC

OF THE BODY SNATCHERS AND THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK,

SCENES IN GENRE CINEMA. WE TALK TO THE ACTRESS ABOUT HER

MOST PROMINENT ROLES IN SCI-FI AND HORROR

WORDS OLIVER PFEIFFER

INTERVIEW

W W W.SCI FI N OW.CO.U K | 103

FLASHBACK

VERONICA CARTWRIGHT

VERONICA

CARTWRIGHT

after fi nding out I was born in Bristol he told me

about great wines as his favourite wine cellar

was in Bristol. It was just a conversation to see

if we got along. He was just lovely to me. He

had a very dry sense of humour.  

What are your fondest memories of

working with the master? 

He was always kind to me. I’d ask him about

how things were done and he’d always

answer me in detail and never made me feel

uncomfortable. For example, the cardboard

birds that were mixed in with real birds on the

jungle gym scene... I said: ‘Isn’t the audience

going to know that those are fake?’ And he

said: ‘Well, the audience will see movement

and automatically assume that they’re alive.’ To

this day it’s hard to pick out the fake birds! 

Was it intense working with real birds?

A couple of times it was creepy. When the

birds came down the chimney, they were sent

down shafts that were pulled in a shimmy and

thousands of them went up and hit the ceiling.

Then, realising they couldn’t go anywhere,

they just dropped, which was disgusting and

then [people] would just come along with

shovels and sweep them back in and then into

the shafts again. Thousands of birds fl ying

around... it was creepy. 

Can you tell us how the famous

bird attack sequence was achieved

upon the running school children?

We shot everything twice. We shot in Bodega

Bay where we ran down that hill and we

had mechanical birds that were on some of

the kids’ shoulders. Those birds were built in

Germany and were remote controlled. Then we

shot it again in the studio with a mobile arm

that swooped down with birds while we were

running on this huge treadmill. We were all

desperate to stay in front otherwise you’d just

wipe everybody out. We just ran for our lives!

Also effective is when the birds invade

the house pecking through the front

door. How was that accomplished?

Well, there were a lot of real birds. They were

fi nches in fact. They would have hammers and

things like that so they would be able to go

through the doors. However, they did also have

birds sent in when Rod is trying to close the

door. It was very realistic. The only early CGI

“HITCHCOCK TOLD ME

HOW TO COOK A

STEAK...HE WAS JUST

LOVELY TO ME”

VERONICA CARTWRIGHT

down shafts that were pulled in a shimmy and

thousands of them went up and hit the ceiling.

they just dropped, which was disgusting and

shovels and sweep them back in and then into

We shot everything twice. We shot in Bodega

had mechanical birds that were on some of

the kids’ shoulders. Those birds were built in

Germany and were remote controlled. Then we

shot it again in the studio with a mobile arm

that swooped down with birds while we were

desperate to stay in front otherwise you’d just

wipe everybody out. We just ran for our lives!

Also effective is when the birds invade

the house pecking through the front

Well, there were a lot of real birds. They were

fi nches in fact. They would have hammers and

through the doors. However, they did also have

door. It was very realistic. The only early CGI

PROVIDING MEMORABLE TURNS IN THE BIRDS, ALIEN, INVASION