07/07/2024
Janet Leigh only had three weeks to work on "Psycho" (1960) and spent the whole of one of those weeks filming the shower sequence. Leigh wore moleskin adhesive patches covering her private parts when she acted out the shower scene, so she would not really be n**e and the camera would not pick up anything supposedly obscene. However, after the warm water of the shower washed off the moleskin, Alfred Hitchcock still did one more take. The take was used in the finished movie.
In later interviews, Hitchcock and Leigh categorically stated that it was her body in the shower scene, but it wasn't. The body belonged to a model called Marli Renfro. When you can't see Leigh's face in the shots, you're looking at her body double. She only made $500 for filming what would become one of the most iconic movie scenes ever. A Dallas-born stripper who worked in Las Vegas, Renfro was one of the first Pl***oy Bunnies.
Among the major promotional items for this movie was a lengthy coming attractions trailer (filmed in several languages) of Hitchcock taking the audience on a seemingly lighthearted tour of the house and motel. At the end, Hitchcock pulls open a shower curtain to reveal a close-up of a woman screaming. The actress is not Leigh, but Vera Miles wearing a wig similar to Miss Leigh's hairstyle. The logo "Psycho" simultaneously comes onto the screen and cleverly covers Miss Miles' eyes so that the switch is not easily discernible.
Tony Curtis, Leigh's husband at the time, claimed in his autobiography that "Psycho"'s success, and the fact that all anyone wanted to talk to her about was the shower scene, drove his wife to drink, which eventually led to her breakdown and their divorce. (IMDb)
Happy Birthday, Janet Leigh!