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Dakota Johnson says grandma Tippi Hedren still has '13 or 14' big cats

The "Birds" actress previously had dozens, Johnson added.

ByGood Morning America via logo
May 25, 2020, 2:13 PM

"Fifty Shades of Grey" star Dakota Johnson has confirmed that her grandma, screen legend Tippi Hedren, still has a passion for big cats.

In an interview with U.K. talk show host Graham Norton, Johnson said that "The Birds" star Hedren has "13 or 14 lions and tigers."

Johnson, whose mother is Hedren's daughter Melanie Griffith, said that the collection used to be closer to 60.

"By the time I was born they were all in huge compounds," she added. "It was a lot safer and it wasn't as totally psycho as it was when they first started."

Hedren, 90, and her ex-husband, late film producer Noel Marshall, famously began to adopt lions in 1971 to make a movie called "Roar" about a scientist living with big cats. According to Entertainment Weekly, by the time principal photography on the film began five years later, the animal cast included 132 lions, tigers, leopards, cougars and jaguars -- and a 10,000-pound bull elephant.

Marshall's son John, who appears in the film alongside his then-step-sister Griffith, told the magazine that 72 people were injured in the movie's production.

"In hindsight, I know how stupid it was to do this film," he said. "I am amazed no one died."

PHOTO: In this undated file photo, actress Tippi Hedren poses with "Kenya," a playful, fully grown cheetah.
In this undated file photo, actress Tippi Hedren poses with "Kenya," a playful, fully grown cheetah.
Getty Images, FILE
PHOTO: Actress Tippi Hedren talks on a cell phone at her Saugus Animal reserve with a full grown female lion, Nov. 16, 1983, in Saugus, Calif.
Actress Tippi Hedren talks on a cell phone at her Saugus Animal reserve with a full grown female lion, Nov. 16, 1983, in Saugus, Calif.
Paul Harris/Getty Images, FILE
PHOTO: Actress and activist Tippi Hedren is shown in the kitchen of her home in Acton, Calif., in 1994. Hedren's home is the Shambala Preserve, 80 acres that house and maintain lions, tigers, leopards and any sort of big cat that needs a home.
Actress and activist Tippi Hedren is shown in the kitchen of her home in Acton, Calif., in 1994. Hedren's home is the Shambala Preserve, 80 acres that house and maintain lions, tigers, leopards and any sort of big cat that needs a home.
Eddie Sanderson/Getty Images, FILE

Hedren, who split from Marshall in 1982, later founded the Roar Foundation, which supports the Shambala Preserve animal sanctuary in Acton, California. She also wrote a book about her animals, "Cats of Shambala."