Hitchcock Didn’t Have a Belly Button: Karen Black Interview by Johan Grimonprez

During the making of Double Take, professional Hitchcock doppelgänger Ron Burrage pointed director Johan Grimonprez to a story doing the rounds online: supposedly, the Master of Suspense didn’t have a belly button. This captured the imagination of Grimonprez, as it implied that Hitchcock had not actually been born at all—an interesting extra layer on the hall of mirrors he was constructing in Double Take.

Through his editor, Grimonprez got in touch with actress Karen Black, who had worked with Hitchcock on Family Plot and could confirm the rumor. In this interview clip, she turns out to be a wonderful storyteller, even providing her own convincing Hitchcock impersonation.