Editing Anthony Perkins (section)

===Friendships===

[[File:Anthony-Perkins-Sophia-Loren-Laughing.png|thumb|Perkins with Sophia Loren on the set of ''Five Miles to Midnight'', 1961]]

Throughout his time in Hollywood, Perkins worked with a host of famous personalities, many of whom remembered him fondly. Among his costars and leading ladies, there was usually mutual endearment. [[Sophia Loren]] remembered Perkins's dressing room for 1958's ''Desire Under the Elms'' as looking like a monk's cell, and she was often photographed smiling and laughing with him when they reunited in Europe a few years afterward.<ref name="Loren 2014"/> In the press, Perkins discussed how his main objective while making 1959's ''Green Mansions'' was only to make [[Audrey Hepburn]] laugh every day, and Elaine Aiken recalled that Perkins often diverted her attention away from her plate on "dates" so he could steal some of her food. "I don't think we ever discussed [him being gay, which Aiken knew about], it didn't matter," she recalled. "It didn't bother me. I just wanted a friend."{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=118}} A similar bond was forged between Perkins and [[Venetia Stevenson]], to whom he would "unburden" himself. "[Perkins] would sleep over and tell me sad stories," Stevenson told Tab Hunter. "He was totally crazy about you."{{sfn|Hunter|2006|p=139}} She also mentioned to biographer Charles Winecoff, "We were real friends, and he would sleep over at my house [which was a block away from Perkins and Hunter's apartments] in the same bed. But there was never, ever any{{nbsp}}... well, you know. If you have a friend of the opposite sex who's gay, it's just in the air. You know what I mean?"{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=121}}

Although he got on famously with women, he also had many friendships with men. Despite [[Alfred Hitchcock]]'s infamous saying that "actors are cattle,"<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/may/12/when-hitchcock-met-truffaut-hitchcock-truffaut-documentary-cannes|title='Actors are cattle:' when Hitchcock met Truffaut|website=The Guardian|date=May 12, 2015 |access-date=January 14, 2022}}</ref> he got along well with Perkins on the set of ''Psycho''. Hitchcock accepted many of Perkins's ideas for the character of Norman Bates, including the suggestion that he should nibble on candy corn. Even after Perkins moved to France, he was a common addition to Hitchcock's dinner table.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://filmschoolrejects.com/anthony-perkins-psycho-performance/|title=Anthony Perkins Will Always Frighten Us in "Psycho"|website=Film School Rejects|date=June 25, 2020 |access-date=January 14, 2022}}</ref> Perkins was also a favorite of [[Orson Welles]], whom he collaborated with four times.{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=2}}

Perhaps the most famous of his male friendships was with [[Stephen Sondheim]], whom he briefly lived with for a time. Since penning ''Evening Primrose'' for Perkins, which was the only project of Sondheim's Perkins actually starred, Perkins became a muse to him, inspiring many musicals, where Sondheim cast him in all the leads. Perkins, however, turned all of these down, mostly due to scheduling conflicts.{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=288}} When discussing Perkins and the process of writing ''The Last of Sheila'' together, Sondheim said, "I knew he had exactly my mind and take and he's much more into murder mysteries than I am, so we started to plot it. We spent a couple of months plotting it, and had such a good time we decided to go ahead and write it. I think the most fun I've ever had writing anything was writing [''The Last of Sheila''{{'}}s] screenplay."<ref name="auto"/> Sondheim was later named the godfather to both of Perkins's children{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=343}} and was present at Perkins's final birthday party.{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=456}}