Hollywood rebel Kim Novak on life as a star – and why she walked away

She was the No 1 box office star in the late 1950s, but for decades Kim Novak – the star of Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece Vertigo – has lived a life of quiet seclusion.

- Nadia Khomami

Now, at 92, the last of the great movie stars of Hollywood's golden era is back in the spotlight. She is being honoured with a lifetime achievement award at the Venice film festival, where a documentary about her life and career, Kim Novak's Vertigo, is also premiering.

For Novak, it is a tribute to her lifelong refusal to be controlled and manipulated by Hollywood – or anyone else. "It's incredible to feel appreciated, and to receive this gift before the end of my life," she says in her unmistakable husky voice when we meet on Zoom. "I think I'm being honoured as much for being authentic as for my acting. It has sort of come full circle."

Novak's haunting performance in Vertigo – as both Madeleine, an enigmatic society wife, and Judy, the shop assistant hired to impersonate her – is at the heart of what makes the film the greatest of all time. She brings a fragile presence to the parts, rooted in the fact that the story felt personal.

"I identified so much with Judy and Madeleine because they were both being told to change who they really were," she says. "They had to become something that didn't represent them."

The actor's devotion to preserving her identity can be traced back to her childhood and her early years in Hollywood.

Born Marilyn Novak in Chicago to a railway dispatcher and a factory worker, both Czech immigrants, she grew up in a rough neighbourhood where she endured bullying for being different.

She found refuge in art, studying at the Art Institute of Chicago and supporting herself with modelling jobs. During a trip to Los Angeles she was spotted by Columbia Pictures, which signed her in 1954.