Page 36 - ABILITY Magazine - Avril Lavigne Issue

36 ABILITY
Hedren: Oh, I do, don’t I? And beautiful, too. My birth- day was 10 days after the operation, and my whole fam- ily came out for my birthday. Our photographer took a picture of us and I thought, My God. No studio could put a family picture together like this. I have my neck brace on in the picture, but who cares?
Cooper: With the Baby Boomer generation, there are so many people who are aging and having different issues, so there’s more discussion about it than ever in history. Eventually that’s going to create a shift, and generations coming up behind the boomers will benefit by having more understanding of the later years.
Hedren: Absolutely. I concur. Look at what’s happening to Dakota.
Cooper: I haven’t seen Fifty Shades of Grey.
Hedren: I haven’t seen it either.
Cooper: I don’t know if you should, from what I’m hearing.
Hedren: I don’t know. Maybe some day I will. She was just out here on Sunday. We just love each other so much. I don’t know why I’m so hesitant about seeing it, but Melanie is, too.
Cooper: I don’t have children, but to see your child in things that are kind of provocative... I might have to close my eyes through certain parts. But they don’t have a problem watching your movies?
Hedren: No. (laughs) The Birds is a little frightening for kids, but for different reasons.
Cooper: Lia, did you ever see The Birds?
Martirosyan: I did. It’s pretty intense.
Hedren: It’s very, very frightening, and what made it even more frightening is that we used real birds.
Martirosyan: How did you feel about how the birds were treated during the filming?
Hedren: I so respected the bird trainer, Ray Berwick, because he loved those birds, and protected them.
Cooper: How did they do the scenes where the birds banged into the glass?
Hedren: Those were fake birds thrown at the glass. One of the ravens was so sweet that Ray wouldn’t teach him all the bad things to do, like peck people and dive-bomb. That raven became my buddy. He’d come up and sit in my dressing room on the set, play with my makeup, and throw it on the floor. I’d walk around on the set with him on my shoulders.
Cooper: Have you had any birds on the preserve?
Hedren: A flock of ravens live here, and of course they’re meat eaters, so they’re lucky to have a home where we serve 300 to 400 pounds of meat every day.
Cooper: But they don’t eat enough to where it upsets the big cats?
Hedren: No. Many of the cats just look at them. The birds know which of the cats they can steal from, and which they can’t. In the spring you see the birds trying to teach their young about which cats are okay to steal from. And you know how some teenagers are, “I can do this,” and of course those are the birds that get killed.
Cooper: Where do you get the meat?
Hedren: It’s a scientific recipe created by a zoological veterinarian. The beef has all the minerals and vitamins the animals would get if they were living in Africa. It’s a major task, to be feeding those cats all the time, but our animals are extremely healthy. We have very, very few sick ones.
Cooper: How many times a week do they eat?