 Nora Brown ( widow of James H. Brown , first assistant director on The Birds and Marnie , who knew Hitchcock for several years ) said that her husband would not have endorsed The Girl 's interpretation of events and the film 's portrayal of Hitchcock would have saddened him . Gwyneth Hughes interviewed James Brown as part of her background research for the film , but he died before the film was completed . In October 2012 , Nora Brown told The Daily Telegraph that she had written to Hughes expressing her anger . Hughes has said that James H. Brown backed up Hedren 's claims of sexual harassment . Tony Lee Moral , author of two books about the making of the Hitchcock films in which Hedren starred , echoed Brown 's comments . Writing for Broadcast in December 2012 , Moral ( who interviewed Jim Brown at length for his 2013 book , The Making of Hitchcock 's The Birds ) recalled a remark Brown made about Hitchcock . " Some of the things that are expressed about [ Hitchcock ] are highly over exaggerated . I think Hitch became upset because he thought Tippi wasn 't fulfilling the star quality that he thought she had or was looking for . " 
