Suzanne Pleshette (1937-2008) who played Annie in The Birds was interviewed on February 9th 2006 in Los Angeles

“For me he was wonderful, generous and loving, and I had a wonderful experience with him. We’ve heard many stories about how controlling he was, and what I think Hitchcock was trying to do was protect his vision of the film, which most directors do, some more subtly than others. But I coming from the theatre, am used to collaborating and not knowing that Mr. Hitchcock didn’t want to collaborate with me. So instead of not listening to me, he was very attentive, and sometimes even listened to some of my ideas, and he always made me feel that I had something to say and that what I had to do was valuable. He was very generous, the only people who don’t welcome that kind of collaboration are insecure people who aren’t very good.”