Verdict: Basically true Though lauded as a master of suspense, a dab hand at sly (and often dark) comedy and the king of Cary Grant drunk-driving scenes, Hitchcock has rarely been highly-regarded as an actors' director. That could have something to do with his reputation as a man who thought of actors as "cattle". Hitchcock in his later years attempted to clear the story up: "I never said all actors are cattle; what I said was all actors should be treated like cattle." Which isn't true: he unequivocally told Francois Truffaut in conversation in 1962, with no hesitation, "actors are cattle". But the very fact he'd make a joke about it suggests Hitch only really half-thought actors were like well-paid, docile bovine, being dumbly herded around the set without a mind of their own. With the exception of one or two (Tippi Hedren clearly being one, Paul Newman being another), Hitchcock apparently had a good relationship with most of his actors, even if in his eyes they were only there to act out his storyboards.
