As I've been researching into Sir Hitchcock I found out some information about how he worked with actors, and the way he viewed them while making a film.
Hitchcock was uninterested with the 'method' style of acting. He thought actors should just focus on getting the right performance, and let directors and screenwriters work on developing the character and showing it's dimensions. Once apparently asked by Paul Newman what his character's motivation was, Hitchcock replied - "Your salary."
In my humble opinion, Hitchcock's approach to acting, and his way of working with actors is somewhat narrow minded. However, of all the Hitchcock films I've seen, there is rarely a bad performance, apart from some of the slightly ham acting in his early films. So maybe his approach to make the actors merely perform the lines rather than have them delve into the character's pysche and try to figure out a motivation was just good directing.
Hitchcock often saw actors as nothing more than props perhaps. He was one of the first 'official' Auteurs, and his work is experimental, so he saw no real reliance on actors, as a huge amount of his films are told through camera movements and placement etc...
Perhaps Alfred's feelings for actors are summed up with a famous quote that was attributed to him - "actors are like cattle."
He maintaned however that he said "actors should be treated like cattle."
Which isn't really much better.
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