Salon: Anthony Perkins was "nowhere near the movie set" when "Psycho" shower scene was filmed

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Friday, Jun 25, 2010 21:01 ET

The secrets of "Psycho's" shower scene

How I uncovered the shocking truth about Hitchcock's best-known moment -- and why it still matters, 50 years on

By Steve North



Sitting with Perkins and hearing his stories was a moviegoer’s dream come true, but I had to take a stab at bringing him back to the nightmarish shower scene. I told him what I had heard, and asked if he would confirm the secret of "Psycho": that during the filming of the horrific moment where Norman Bates, in drag, dispatches Miss Crane, Anthony Perkins himself was nowhere near the movie set.

A slight pause for suspense … and then: It was true, he told me, with a sly smile on his face. And contrary to what I had read — that Perkins had to be in New York that week to rehearse a play and was therefore unavailable — the actor set the record straight, revealing that his non-appearance was quite intentional. "Hitchcock was very worried that the dual role and nature of Norman Bates would be exposed if I were to appear in that scene. I think it was the recognizability of my silhouette, which is rather slim and broad in the shoulder. That worried him."

Perkins added that the director, in effect, broke his own long-standing rule with that decision. "He was outspokenly eager to not play any tricks on the audience in his films, to do anything that couldn’t be thought of as fair play, but in that instance, he in fact did. The guy he chose, from the 'extra' pool, was very unlike the silhouette of Norman Bates, as played by me. So in a way, Hitchcock didn’t exactly play by the book when he cast someone else in that scene."

Perkins, who died four years later of complications from AIDS, didn’t seem perturbed that he had been excluded from the moment he’ll forever be associated with; the elaborate praise he received for his unsettling performance in the rest of the movie, which changed the face of American cinema, no doubt made up for that.

http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/film_salon/index.html?story=/ent/movies/film_salon/2010/06/25/psycho_shower_scene_anniversary

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1. Also, the knife is never shown actually touching the body

[6000eliot]

2. Um, Hitchcock used a false flashback in one of his movies.

He wasn't troubled in the least about tricking his audience.

[edbermac]

3. He uncovered the secrets of Psycho? He's 20 years behind!

Steve Rebello wrote a book about Psycho in 1990 which lays out the whole scenario from the killer Ed Gein, preproduction, filming, marketing, impact of the finished film.