Melanie Griffith Body Double
Melanie Griffith (born August 9, 1957, New York City) played Holly Body in Body Double (1984).
Griffith is Tippi Hedren's daughter, and De Palma knew what that meant
Griffith is the daughter of actress Tippi Hedren, who starred in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963) and Marnie (1964). Hedren's working relationship with Hitchcock became one of Hollywood's most documented cases of directorial obsession and control — Hitchcock allegedly became fixated on Hedren, controlled her career, and subjected her to treatment that would now be recognized as harassment.
By casting Hedren's daughter in a film that is itself a commentary on Hitchcock's voyeurism and manipulation of women, De Palma added a layer that goes beyond homage into something more unsettling. Griffith, playing a woman who is watched and used by the film industry, carries her mother's Hitchcock history whether the audience knows it or not.
Griffith was connected to De Palma through her husband's role in Scarface
The casting had a social dimension beyond the Hitchcock connection. Griffith's then-husband, Steven Bauer, had just starred as Manny Ribera in De Palma's Scarface (1983), creating a direct link between De Palma's orbit and Griffith. Bauer even has a cameo in Body Double as a male porn actor. The casting also followed a long chain of rejections: De Palma initially wanted pornographic actress Annette Haven, but Columbia Pictures rejected her. He then offered the role to Linda Hamilton, who turned it down for The Terminator. Jamie Lee Curtis, Carrie Fisher, and Tatum O'Neal were all considered before Griffith was cast. (indiewire)
Body Double was the role that relaunched Griffith's career
Griffith had been acting since childhood — she appeared in Night Moves (1975) at age 17 opposite Gene Hackman — but her career had stalled by the early 1980s due to personal difficulties. Body Double put her back on the map. Her performance as Holly Body — tough, funny, unflappable — demonstrated a screen presence that Hollywood hadn't fully exploited.
The career trajectory that followed was direct:
| Year | Film | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1984 | Body Double | Career relaunch |
| 1986 | Something Wild | Jonathan Demme; critical favorite |
| 1988 | Working Girl | Academy Award nomination, Best Actress; Golden Globe win |
| 1990 | Pacific Heights | Thriller with Michael Keaton |
| 1992 | A Stranger Among Us | Sidney Lumet |
Working Girl (1988) earned Griffith an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe win, but the role of Tess McGill — the resourceful outsider navigating a world that underestimates her — is a direct descendant of Holly Body. Both characters are smarter than everyone around them assumes.
Holly Body is Griffith's most underrated performance
Holly enters the film roughly halfway through and immediately changes its energy. Where Jake is passive and confused, Holly is direct and self-aware. Griffith understood this and articulated it plainly:
"I know she's a controversial figure, but she pertains to women in all areas. She's proud of what she does and she's not affected by what people think. This is a means to an end for her. She does what she does and she does it the best. She's a business woman, first of all." — Melanie Griffith, Morning Call (1984) (not available online)
In 1984 this was an unusual characterization — porn performers in mainstream films were typically depicted as either tragic or degraded. Holly is neither. Vincent Canby in the New York Times praised Griffith's "perfectly controlled comic performance," recognizing what audiences would take longer to appreciate.
De Palma originally considered casting a real porn actress
De Palma initially considered pornographic actress Annette Haven for the role of Holly Body. He was open about this: "I don't know if there's any good young porno stars out here, but the older ones — Annette Haven, Seka — some of them can really act." Columbia Pictures rejected the casting, and Haven's screen test didn't convince De Palma either — he later said Haven "could not flirt." Haven did appear in a minor role in The Frankie Goes to Hollywood Sequence and consulted with De Palma about the adult film industry. Griffith prepared for the role by working with Haven to understand the world Holly inhabited. (wikipedia)