The Shower and the Glory: A Talk with 'Hitchcock' Director Sacha Gervasi

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On the new movie Hitchcock, two very dissimilar directors -- one living, one dead -- collide.
In 1960, Alfred Hitchcock wanted to move away from the glossy, color Hollywood movies had had been making. Since no one wanted to finance his newest project, Psycho, he decided to put up the money himself.
Many years later, a London-born filmmaker, Sacha Gervasi, put up his own money to make a documentary he believed in, Anvil! The Story of Anvil, which went on to great acclaim (and a Best Documentary award from the San Francisco Film Critics Circle).
A year or two after that, Gervasi found himself last on a list of 27 directors being interviewed for Hitchcock.
"[Producer] Tom Pollock told me up front that I wasn't going to get the job. Why would they give it to me? They had two Academy Award winning directors up for it," Gervasi laughs.
But Pollock continued. "He said, 'we love "Anvil!", we're glad you're here, we want to hear your ideas, but you're not going to get the job.' So I had nothing to lose, and I went for it. At the end of an hour and a half, he said, 'you should direct the film.'"
Gervasi's pitch included the idea of casting Anthony Hopkins as Hitchcock, and Helen Mirren as Hitch's long-suffering wife Alma, and focusing on their complex relationship.
Soon after getting the job, Gervasi was faced with meeting Mr. Hopkins.
"I was very nervous... petrified," says Gervasi. "I walk in, and he spreads his arms and says, 'I've seen Anvil! three times!' The best part was that I put him on the phone with Lips from Anvil, and they had this amazing conversation!"
Gervasi understands that Hitchcock is something of an icon, and his idea for the film was to humanize him, by showing his good and bad sides together. "He's a monster. He's a genius. He's genuinely a contradiction. He's not resolvable."
Equally important was Alma, who worked tirelessly behind the scenes on every Hitchcock movie, and -- according to the movie -- convinced Hitch to add the famous shrieking string music to the Psycho shower scene.
"This incredibly strong, brilliant woman was by his side through all of it. Her decisions were absolutely critical to his genius," he says.
And so ultimately, the guy who made Anvil! has brought his understanding of artists and collaborators to Hitchcock, but perhaps more importantly, "I genuinely believe that Hitchcock would have wanted the movie about himself to be fun."