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Downloaded from
YTS.MX
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[TV static drones]
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[bright tone]
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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX
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[anticipatory string music]
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♪ ♪
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- I remember it was Sunday
morning after Thanksgiving.
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I was 11 years old,
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and I had spent the night
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at my best friend Tracy's
house.
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♪ ♪
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The clock radio went off
and woke me up,
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and I heard a news report say
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my mom's body was found
off the coast of Catalina.
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♪ ♪
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The next thing I knew,
my stepdad's driver
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was there with our nanny,
Willie Mae.
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They had come to pick me up
and take me home.
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♪ ♪
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It had rained,
and the streets were wet,
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and I was asking,
"Is Mommy okay?"
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But they were
just comforting me,
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and they weren't really
telling me what happened.
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♪ ♪
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When I got home,
I got into my mom's bed
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and tried to comfort myself.
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I said, "Maybe she just has
a broken leg
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or something like that."
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Then my stepdad came back.
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I went down the steps,
and I could tell,
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just when I looked
at his face,
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that something awful
had happened.
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♪ ♪
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The day my mom died,
my entire world was shattered,
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and our family
has never been the same.
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♪ ♪
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Since then, there's been
so much speculation
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and focus on how she died
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that it's overshadowed
her life's work
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and who she was
as a person.
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I'm Natasha Gregson Wagner,
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and my mom was Natalie Wood.
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[gentle orchestral waltz]
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♪ ♪
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- Hello, Natalie.
- Oh, hello again.
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Please sit down.
- Thank you.
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How's the food?
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- Best location food
I ever ate.
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- Well, I must say,
you certainly seem
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to thrive on it.
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- Well, I was brought up on it.
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I've been eating lunch
on the set
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since I was four years old.
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- That's correct.
Natalie's a movie veteran.
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Been in pictures since 1941.
Is that correct?
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- That's right.
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My original real name
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was Natalia Nikolaevna
Zakharenko.
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Zakharenko was always
being mispronounced.
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It was very difficult,
so my parents
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changed their name to Gurdin,
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and then that
got mispronounced a lot,
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so when I was five years old
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and William Goetz
put me into my first film,
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he that that Gurdin
was not a good name,
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and at this point,
I was being called Natasha,
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which is really a nickname
for Natalia,
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so he chose Natalie,
and then he chose Wood
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in honor of his friend
Sam Wood, the director.
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So that's how I got named.
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Oh, daisies
on your coffeepot!
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They're my favorite flower.
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- With Natalie Wood,
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one of the most fascinating
things about her is,
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generations of people
watched her grow up,
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and so it was congruent
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with what was happening
with their own development.
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- No, Mom.
We haven't gone too far.
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- When you're an adolescent,
you're a very different person
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than you were when you were
five years old,
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and she certainly was that
but on steroids,
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'cause she was a movie star.
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- Wish me luck!
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I'm gonna make a noise
in the world!
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- The business she was in
is a tough business,
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and to survive
in that business,
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you had to have
a tough side to you,
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and so I think she had
to develop that.
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But it wasn't comfortable.
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What she really wanted to do
was to laugh and have fun
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and just be a regular person.
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But mainly,
she had a big heart,
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and that showed up
in her work.
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- You can't pinpoint what it is
that draws you to a character.
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You just suddenly say,
"I know her.
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I know that I can make her
be real."
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- People knew she was smart
and incredibly well-organized,
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and in a town
where women were
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not always respected,
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not in their work
and not socially,
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she was an exception.
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[bell rings]
She knew how it should be lit,
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she knew how the sound
should be,
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she knew how she should look,
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and she sure knew how to give
a great performance.
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- I know this may come
as a great big shock
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to the both of you,
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but underneath
all this hair and skin
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is a human girl
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with all the regular things
going for me,
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and believe it or not,
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I don't want to spend
the rest of my life
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married to a man
who's doing me a big favor!
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Primarily, I'm an actress,
and I think that at the point
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when you're a star,
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mainly, I was thinking
of the work,
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not of the stardom
that follows it.
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I've enjoyed the part
where you act,
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where the red light goes on
and the camera rolls
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and you really can do
your work,
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and in the film business,
there are so many other things
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that enter
into making it possible
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for those moments
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where you just are able
to do your craft
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without the interference
of a lot of other things.
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[gentle music]
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♪ ♪
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- I always knew
that she was an actor,
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but, you know,
around the house,
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my mom didn't wear
a lot of makeup,
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and she was very casual,
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so I would look at her
and think,
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"What is--what's the big deal
about you, lady?"
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But then she and my stepdad
would get dressed up,
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and they would go out
to dinner or something,
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and she was amazing-looking.
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But we weren't raised
by someone
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who seemed like a movie star
at all.
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All she just seemed
was sort of larger than life
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but not because
she was famous,
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more because she was just her.
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♪ ♪
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- I was seven
when she passed away,
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and I feel like my memories
of her
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are just ever-evolving.
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You know, there's
her beautiful face
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and her voice
and her hands
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and all those things
that I remember.
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But when I try to think
of my mom now,
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it's so hard;
like, I will literally
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come across a picture,
and I'll just look at it,
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and I'll look at it
a little bit more, thinking,
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"Is that really my mom?
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How is it that she's my mom?"
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I just have
this famous mother,
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and she's like
this mythology character.
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I--you know.
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I hope one day,
I'll get to a place
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where I can really access
the true feeling
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that this was my mother,
that I came from her
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and that she was mine
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for a short time, you know?
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Like, I feel like
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it's just been very hard
to hold on to that.
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- I have two fathers.
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My biological father
is Richard Gregson.
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I call him Daddy Gregson.
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My stepfather
is Robert Wagner,
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who everyone calls RJ,
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and I call him
Daddy Wagner.
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My mom was the one
that started calling them
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Daddy Gregson
and Daddy Wagner
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to clarify who was who
in case people got confused.
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[laughs] And then it's just
nicknames that have stuck.
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From the age of two,
I was primarily raised
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by my Daddy Wagner,
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and in all that time,
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he treated me
like his own blood.
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♪ ♪
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So, Dad,
I just want to say
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that I'm really excited
to talk to you about my mom...
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- Yes, I am too.
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- And everything
we've been through,
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the highs and the lows,
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how we've always stayed
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connected
through all of it.
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- I don't think there's a day
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that has ever gone by
in my life that
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there hasn't been a moment
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that I haven't thought
about Natalie
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and how much
she meant to me
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in my heart
and in my soul.
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We started so young.
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To see her evolve
over the years
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into the woman that she was
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was very special.
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- How did you two meet?
I want to hear both versions.
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- Well, actually,
when I was ten years old
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and RJ was about 18,
I guess,
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when you were first
under contract,
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I remember walking down
the hallway with my mother,
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and I saw him,
and I said to my mother,
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"When I grow up,
I wish that I could marry him."
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- Did you really?
- I really did.
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- Did you really know
that she...
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- Well, I didn't know it then.
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It sure could've saved me
a lot of trouble,
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I'll tell you.
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[laughter]
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- Could I ask for your
version of when you met?
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- When I came
into Natalie's life,
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I was sort of
a Happy Jack Squirrel kid,
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you know, with nothing
on my mind much but my hair
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and...
[laughter]
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She sort of resisted me
a bit, actually,
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at the beginning, because--
- I did?
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- I was--yeah, well,
I was so different
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than all the rest of the--
- I don't remember that.
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- Well, yes, you did,
and then I finally started
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taking you--I remember
I took you out on--
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- On my 18th birthday, mm-hmm.
- On your 18th birthday.
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I took her out
on her birthday,
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July 20, 1956.
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I had done a picture
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with Spencer Tracy
called "The Mountain,"
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and we went to the premiere,
and that sort of started it.
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- Everybody knew
about Robert Wagner,
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and my dad
had introduced me to RJ
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when I was maybe nine
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when he did "Prince Valiant,"
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which was, at the time,
my favorite movie,
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and there he was,
Prince Valiant.
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There was
nobody handsomer.
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And he was so kind to me.
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- On December 6, 1957,
I made a reservation
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at a restaurant
in Beverly Hills
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called Romanoff's.
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Man, I got Natalie down there,
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and I opened a bottle
of champagne.
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- We had some champagne,
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and I suddenly looked
in my glass,
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and there was a ring in it,
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00:10:00.250 --> 00:10:02.042
and I took the ring out
and looked,
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and he said, "Look, guys,"
and, "My God, what is this?"
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00:10:05.209 --> 00:10:06.834
Then he said,
"Look on the inside,"
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00:10:06.918 --> 00:10:09.292
and it said, "Marry me."
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[laughs]
[applause]
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♪ ♪
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- We got married
in Scottsdale, Arizona,
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and I got
a private railroad car.
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00:11:01.918 --> 00:11:04.292
♪ ♪
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After the ceremony,
we went to the private car,
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and a big train came by
and picked us up,
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00:11:09.834 --> 00:11:11.918
and off we went to Chicago.
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It was pretty exciting.
256
00:11:13.959 --> 00:11:19.834
♪ ♪
257
00:11:19.918 --> 00:11:21.751
- Maybe we should stay too.
258
00:11:21.834 --> 00:11:23.292
- Well, I think
you ought to go.
259
00:11:23.375 --> 00:11:24.959
I really think you ought to.
260
00:11:25.042 --> 00:11:26.584
Maybe she'll be better
by the morning.
261
00:11:26.667 --> 00:11:28.083
Here.
262
00:11:28.167 --> 00:11:30.042
- Will you come back
to the apartment?
263
00:11:30.125 --> 00:11:32.209
- Yeah, yeah.
It's 695 Park Avenue.
264
00:11:32.292 --> 00:11:34.083
Yeah, I'll come back.
265
00:11:34.167 --> 00:11:36.542
- I loved working
with RJ and Natalie.
266
00:11:36.626 --> 00:11:37.667
There was something about her
267
00:11:37.751 --> 00:11:39.417
that was
incredibly ingratiating.
268
00:11:39.500 --> 00:11:42.584
She made you feel important,
not her.
269
00:11:42.667 --> 00:11:44.584
Something that's one
of the tricks of life
270
00:11:44.667 --> 00:11:46.250
and success
271
00:11:46.334 --> 00:11:48.542
is to make other people
feel important
272
00:11:48.626 --> 00:11:50.751
when they're around you,
not because you are
273
00:11:50.834 --> 00:11:51.959
an important person.
274
00:11:52.042 --> 00:11:53.751
- While here,
still enjoying the plaudits
275
00:11:53.834 --> 00:11:55.292
for his
"In Love and War" role,
276
00:11:55.375 --> 00:11:56.500
is Robert Wagner
277
00:11:56.584 --> 00:11:58.000
with his lovely wife,
Natalie Wood.
278
00:11:58.083 --> 00:12:01.375
- The studios were always
anxious to get publicity,
279
00:12:01.459 --> 00:12:02.751
and at that time,
280
00:12:02.834 --> 00:12:05.125
the movie magazines
were the thing--
281
00:12:05.209 --> 00:12:07.334
"Photoplay," "Modern Screen"--
282
00:12:07.417 --> 00:12:09.542
and Natalie and I
were one of the hot things
283
00:12:09.626 --> 00:12:10.626
for the magazines,
284
00:12:10.709 --> 00:12:12.292
so they were very much
involved
285
00:12:12.375 --> 00:12:13.626
in our relationship.
286
00:12:13.709 --> 00:12:16.751
- Nat and RJ
were both major stars,
287
00:12:16.834 --> 00:12:20.083
and I didn't feel like one
was outshining the other.
288
00:12:20.167 --> 00:12:22.918
There's a sort of royalty
to that business,
289
00:12:23.000 --> 00:12:26.209
and RJ and Nat
were that royalty.
290
00:12:26.292 --> 00:12:29.834
♪ ♪
291
00:12:31.375 --> 00:12:34.500
- So why don't we start
by you telling me
292
00:12:34.584 --> 00:12:35.959
how you and my mom met?
293
00:12:36.042 --> 00:12:38.167
- Oh, okay.
[coughs]
294
00:12:38.250 --> 00:12:40.459
Let's see.
How did we meet?
295
00:12:40.542 --> 00:12:44.334
Well, I met your mother
and Daddy Wagner
296
00:12:44.417 --> 00:12:47.083
the same day,
the same moment,
297
00:12:47.167 --> 00:12:51.292
because I was working
for the director Elia Kazan,
298
00:12:51.375 --> 00:12:53.459
and I was
a production assistant
299
00:12:53.542 --> 00:12:55.459
on "Splendor in the Grass."
300
00:12:55.542 --> 00:12:57.626
There, I had to go
and get your mother
301
00:12:57.709 --> 00:12:58.876
every morning.
302
00:12:58.959 --> 00:13:01.417
Therefore,
we talked an awful lot,
303
00:13:01.500 --> 00:13:04.375
and it was clear to me
304
00:13:04.459 --> 00:13:08.000
that there was trouble
in their marriage.
305
00:13:08.083 --> 00:13:09.667
- Mm.
306
00:13:09.751 --> 00:13:12.876
- I discovered that my mom
had written an article
307
00:13:13.000 --> 00:13:15.375
for "Ladies' Home Journal"
in 1966
308
00:13:15.459 --> 00:13:16.876
that was never published.
309
00:13:16.959 --> 00:13:17.876
It was called
310
00:13:17.959 --> 00:13:20.417
"Public Property,
Private Person."
311
00:13:20.500 --> 00:13:23.209
It was amazing
to read this article.
312
00:13:23.292 --> 00:13:25.500
I found out so many things
about my mom's life
313
00:13:25.584 --> 00:13:26.542
that I didn't know,
314
00:13:26.626 --> 00:13:28.667
especially during
a really challenging time
315
00:13:28.751 --> 00:13:30.751
for her.
316
00:13:30.834 --> 00:13:33.292
- "After two years
of marriage,
317
00:13:33.375 --> 00:13:35.209
"things began to change.
318
00:13:35.292 --> 00:13:37.334
"We were aware
that we had problems,
319
00:13:37.417 --> 00:13:40.209
"but we tried to avoid
the real conflicts.
320
00:13:40.292 --> 00:13:43.167
"We maintained a superficially
happy relationship
321
00:13:43.250 --> 00:13:45.834
"and hoped that by pretending
there was nothing wrong,
322
00:13:45.918 --> 00:13:47.792
"the problems would go away.
323
00:13:47.876 --> 00:13:50.542
"How do you separate
reality from illusion
324
00:13:50.626 --> 00:13:54.209
"when you have been trapped
in make-believe all your life?
325
00:13:54.292 --> 00:13:56.792
"Marriage requires patience
and work,
326
00:13:56.876 --> 00:13:59.918
"as well as the capacity
to accept another human being,
327
00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:02.250
"flaws and all,
without cloaking him
328
00:14:02.334 --> 00:14:05.042
in a smothering mantle
of perfection."
329
00:14:06.626 --> 00:14:09.959
- With the pressure of being
this wonderful couple
330
00:14:10.042 --> 00:14:13.500
and the marriage starting
to have difficulties in it,
331
00:14:13.584 --> 00:14:16.083
I could feel it unraveling,
and so could she,
332
00:14:16.167 --> 00:14:17.375
and that time,
333
00:14:17.459 --> 00:14:20.500
her career really started
to catch on fire.
334
00:14:20.584 --> 00:14:22.125
It was like striking a match.
335
00:14:22.209 --> 00:14:24.876
And when she did "Splendor"
with Kazan,
336
00:14:24.959 --> 00:14:27.792
I mean, this was
a dream come true for her.
337
00:14:27.876 --> 00:14:30.667
- "Though nothing
can bring back the hour
338
00:14:30.751 --> 00:14:32.834
"of splendor in the grass,
339
00:14:32.918 --> 00:14:35.292
"glory in the flower,
340
00:14:35.375 --> 00:14:38.000
"we will grieve not,
341
00:14:38.083 --> 00:14:42.167
"rather find the strength
342
00:14:42.250 --> 00:14:46.167
in what remains behind."
343
00:14:46.250 --> 00:14:48.209
- And on that picture,
she knew
344
00:14:48.292 --> 00:14:51.459
that she was not
Kazan's first choice,
345
00:14:51.542 --> 00:14:53.167
and she was out to prove
346
00:14:53.250 --> 00:14:56.292
that she was
a serious actress.
347
00:14:56.375 --> 00:14:58.375
- Miss Metcalf,
348
00:14:58.459 --> 00:15:00.042
may I please be e--
349
00:15:01.167 --> 00:15:03.876
[sobbing]
350
00:15:03.959 --> 00:15:05.792
The opportunity
to work with Kazan
351
00:15:05.876 --> 00:15:07.417
was just fantastic,
352
00:15:07.500 --> 00:15:09.918
but it was emotionally
a very demanding role,
353
00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:11.959
and it--I don't know.
354
00:15:12.042 --> 00:15:15.375
It had quite an effect
on my life, I think.
355
00:15:15.459 --> 00:15:18.459
- "As RJ and I struggled
to make our marriage work,
356
00:15:18.542 --> 00:15:21.042
"the problems
continued to pile up.
357
00:15:21.125 --> 00:15:23.584
"After finishing work
on 'Splendor in the Grass,'
358
00:15:23.667 --> 00:15:25.876
"I went directly
into 'West Side Story'
359
00:15:25.959 --> 00:15:29.375
"for another solid
and rigorous eight months.
360
00:15:29.459 --> 00:15:31.709
"The rest of the cast
had been rehearsing together
361
00:15:31.792 --> 00:15:33.918
"for a month
while I finished 'Splendor.'
362
00:15:34.000 --> 00:15:36.375
"Now I had to cram
four weeks of rehearsals
363
00:15:36.459 --> 00:15:37.876
"into weekends.
364
00:15:37.959 --> 00:15:39.167
"I was worn out,
365
00:15:39.250 --> 00:15:41.167
"and I didn't have time
to be the kind of wife
366
00:15:41.250 --> 00:15:42.918
"I wanted to be.
367
00:15:43.000 --> 00:15:44.626
"During this hectic period,
368
00:15:44.709 --> 00:15:46.125
"RJ went through an ordeal
369
00:15:46.209 --> 00:15:48.125
"that all performers,
including myself,
370
00:15:48.209 --> 00:15:49.292
"have to face.
371
00:15:49.375 --> 00:15:51.626
"His career hit
a momentary lull.
372
00:15:51.709 --> 00:15:53.792
"Sometimes I waited
for him to complain
373
00:15:53.876 --> 00:15:55.167
"or start a fight,
374
00:15:55.250 --> 00:15:57.792
"but his calm exterior
remained intact.
375
00:15:57.876 --> 00:16:00.667
His coolness
drove me frantic."
376
00:16:01.918 --> 00:16:05.417
- My career was not igniting
like hers was,
377
00:16:05.500 --> 00:16:08.751
but that wasn't really
a very big factor
378
00:16:08.834 --> 00:16:11.375
in the fact
that we separated
379
00:16:11.459 --> 00:16:12.584
and then finally divorced.
380
00:16:12.667 --> 00:16:15.375
It was the pressure on her
and her career
381
00:16:15.459 --> 00:16:17.375
that caused that, and also,
382
00:16:17.459 --> 00:16:19.167
I think that
I might have been able
383
00:16:19.250 --> 00:16:20.542
to handle it
a little bit better.
384
00:16:20.626 --> 00:16:21.751
If I'd have been
a little bit older
385
00:16:21.834 --> 00:16:23.000
and had more experience,
386
00:16:23.083 --> 00:16:24.375
I might have been able
387
00:16:24.459 --> 00:16:26.000
to have worked it out.
388
00:16:26.083 --> 00:16:28.000
- Any rumors
that you've heard--
389
00:16:28.083 --> 00:16:29.792
I mean, I'm here to say
390
00:16:29.876 --> 00:16:32.667
that Warren Beatty,
who was her costar
391
00:16:32.751 --> 00:16:34.334
in "Splendor in the Grass,"
392
00:16:34.417 --> 00:16:37.667
was not the problem at all,
393
00:16:37.751 --> 00:16:40.375
and there definitely
did not develop
394
00:16:40.459 --> 00:16:42.500
a relationship
between them
395
00:16:42.584 --> 00:16:46.918
until long after
"Splendor" had wrapped.
396
00:16:47.000 --> 00:16:49.083
- We were separated,
and Warren, I think,
397
00:16:49.167 --> 00:16:52.334
was very much taken by her,
and why wouldn't he be?
398
00:16:52.417 --> 00:16:54.250
But that was
a very difficult time
399
00:16:54.334 --> 00:16:56.292
because I was so upset
400
00:16:56.375 --> 00:16:58.417
and so disturbed
by everything,
401
00:16:58.500 --> 00:17:00.083
I was ready
to go after him.
402
00:17:00.167 --> 00:17:01.584
I can talk about that
pretty easily now,
403
00:17:01.667 --> 00:17:04.000
but at the time,
it was a little bit difficult,
404
00:17:04.083 --> 00:17:05.542
as you can imagine.
405
00:17:05.626 --> 00:17:08.334
- The relationship between her
and Warren Beatty was hot.
406
00:17:08.417 --> 00:17:09.709
You could almost not look
at them.
407
00:17:09.792 --> 00:17:11.042
Your eyes were gonna burn out.
408
00:17:11.125 --> 00:17:13.584
They were so good-looking.
409
00:17:13.667 --> 00:17:14.834
- I was alone,
410
00:17:14.918 --> 00:17:16.751
I didn't have anybody
in my life,
411
00:17:16.834 --> 00:17:19.918
and I just couldn't stay
in Los Angeles anymore
412
00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:21.417
and be alone,
413
00:17:21.500 --> 00:17:23.083
and I made a decision
414
00:17:23.167 --> 00:17:24.292
to move to Europe.
415
00:17:24.375 --> 00:17:25.959
So I talked to her,
416
00:17:26.042 --> 00:17:28.375
and I said I was going
to Europe.
417
00:17:28.459 --> 00:17:30.834
"Do you feel like you'd want
to come there?"
418
00:17:30.918 --> 00:17:35.042
And she said,
"No, I have other plans,"
419
00:17:35.125 --> 00:17:40.500
and I said, "Okay,"
and I hung up the phone,
420
00:17:40.584 --> 00:17:41.792
and that was it.
421
00:17:43.334 --> 00:17:44.959
- "Neither Warren nor I
was ready
422
00:17:45.042 --> 00:17:46.918
"for a permanent relationship,
423
00:17:47.000 --> 00:17:50.626
"although our romance lasted
approximately two years.
424
00:17:50.709 --> 00:17:54.167
"Our affair was a collision
from start to finish.
425
00:17:54.250 --> 00:17:56.751
"While RJ never did
express hostility,
426
00:17:56.834 --> 00:17:58.584
"Warren couldn't stop,
427
00:17:58.667 --> 00:18:01.334
"and I contributed
my share of fireworks too.
428
00:18:01.417 --> 00:18:03.334
"In fact, we were both
so confused
429
00:18:03.417 --> 00:18:05.459
"that we thought fighting
and hostility
430
00:18:05.542 --> 00:18:08.209
meant real emotional honesty."
431
00:18:09.709 --> 00:18:12.876
After her relationship
with Warren had broken up,
432
00:18:12.959 --> 00:18:15.667
my mom had a string
of relationships,
433
00:18:15.751 --> 00:18:17.083
and during the '60s,
434
00:18:17.167 --> 00:18:19.083
before she married
my Daddy Gregson,
435
00:18:19.167 --> 00:18:21.250
she had a couple
of broken engagements,
436
00:18:21.334 --> 00:18:23.417
one with Arthur Loew Jr.,
437
00:18:23.500 --> 00:18:25.834
who remained
a very close friend of hers,
438
00:18:25.918 --> 00:18:27.667
another with Ladislav Blatnik,
439
00:18:27.751 --> 00:18:30.834
who was known as the shoe king
of Venezuela,
440
00:18:30.918 --> 00:18:34.083
but I think that my mom
was longing
441
00:18:34.167 --> 00:18:36.918
to be taken care of
emotionally,
442
00:18:37.000 --> 00:18:38.959
and I think that's
what she was looking for
443
00:18:39.042 --> 00:18:40.792
during that time.
444
00:18:40.876 --> 00:18:42.751
- I was flattered
that I was, I think,
445
00:18:42.834 --> 00:18:44.918
the only one she ever dated
who was younger than she,
446
00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:46.918
and I was four years younger
than she was.
447
00:18:47.042 --> 00:18:49.542
Didn't bother me.
Didn't bother her.
448
00:18:49.626 --> 00:18:51.709
But it was never
gonna go anywhere.
449
00:18:51.792 --> 00:18:53.751
It was never supposed
to go anywhere.
450
00:18:53.834 --> 00:18:55.918
It was fun
for as long as it lasted,
451
00:18:56.000 --> 00:18:59.334
and it--the friendship lasted
way beyond the dating period.
452
00:18:59.417 --> 00:19:01.542
[somber music]
453
00:19:01.626 --> 00:19:03.042
- "For the first time
in my life,
454
00:19:03.125 --> 00:19:05.042
"I considered, in horror,
455
00:19:05.125 --> 00:19:07.083
"the possibility
that I might join
456
00:19:07.167 --> 00:19:09.709
"that sad parade
of famous movie ladies
457
00:19:09.792 --> 00:19:12.042
"who wind up
desperately lonely
458
00:19:12.125 --> 00:19:14.751
"with nothing more substantial
to sustain them
459
00:19:14.834 --> 00:19:17.250
"than their scrapbooks
and old photos
460
00:19:17.334 --> 00:19:20.959
"and memories of romances
and divorces.
461
00:19:21.042 --> 00:19:24.417
"My ex-husband's first child
had just been born.
462
00:19:24.500 --> 00:19:27.167
"I cried when I heard
the news.
463
00:19:27.250 --> 00:19:29.709
"It wasn't only
from the sense of loss I felt
464
00:19:29.792 --> 00:19:31.584
"for something
we never shared.
465
00:19:31.667 --> 00:19:34.959
It was also happiness
for him."
466
00:19:35.042 --> 00:19:36.459
- My mom's name
was Marion Marshall
467
00:19:36.542 --> 00:19:38.417
when she was
in the picture business,
468
00:19:38.500 --> 00:19:41.500
Marion Donen when she was
married to Stanley Donen,
469
00:19:41.584 --> 00:19:43.083
and she had two boys,
470
00:19:43.167 --> 00:19:45.250
my brothers Josh Donen
and Peter Donen,
471
00:19:45.334 --> 00:19:47.459
who are eight and ten years
older than me.
472
00:19:47.542 --> 00:19:49.500
♪ ♪
473
00:19:49.584 --> 00:19:52.334
- I left Los Angeles
and lived in Rome
474
00:19:52.417 --> 00:19:54.167
for three years,
475
00:19:54.250 --> 00:19:55.417
and I saw Marion,
476
00:19:55.500 --> 00:19:56.959
and Marion and I
started going out,
477
00:19:57.042 --> 00:19:59.083
traveling all over Europe
together,
478
00:19:59.167 --> 00:20:00.459
and fell in love
with each other
479
00:20:00.542 --> 00:20:04.167
and got married and came back
to the United States.
480
00:20:04.250 --> 00:20:06.542
She had two sons,
Peter and Josh.
481
00:20:06.626 --> 00:20:07.876
I loved these two boys,
482
00:20:07.959 --> 00:20:09.709
and we had
a wonderful life together,
483
00:20:09.792 --> 00:20:13.334
and I had a daughter with her
called Katie,
484
00:20:13.417 --> 00:20:15.959
and that was a joy in my life.
485
00:20:21.751 --> 00:20:23.375
- Here we are in Wales
486
00:20:23.459 --> 00:20:26.000
at my father
Richard Gregson's house.
487
00:20:26.083 --> 00:20:29.334
My dad has Parkinson's
at this point in his life,
488
00:20:29.417 --> 00:20:32.876
and this might be
one of the last times
489
00:20:32.959 --> 00:20:35.250
we get to speak about my mom.
490
00:20:59.834 --> 00:21:02.667
- I was with her
the night she met your father.
491
00:21:02.751 --> 00:21:04.334
They started seeing
each other, dating,
492
00:21:04.417 --> 00:21:06.918
and it got serious.
493
00:21:07.000 --> 00:21:08.667
- Richard Gregson
was my agent,
494
00:21:08.751 --> 00:21:10.500
and then he became
a producer
495
00:21:10.584 --> 00:21:11.751
from being my agent,
496
00:21:11.834 --> 00:21:13.375
and right from the beginning,
I saw him
497
00:21:13.459 --> 00:21:16.292
as a very, very smart,
elegant guy
498
00:21:16.375 --> 00:21:18.292
and very, very sophisticated,
499
00:21:18.375 --> 00:21:21.334
more so than any of the agents
that I knew in Hollywood.
500
00:21:21.417 --> 00:21:23.459
And I was best man
at their wedding.
501
00:21:23.542 --> 00:21:25.542
- I remember a story
with him saying
502
00:21:25.626 --> 00:21:28.792
that he asked all his wives
to marry him
503
00:21:28.876 --> 00:21:30.792
but they turned him down,
504
00:21:30.876 --> 00:21:33.167
so he then had to wait
for them to ask him.
505
00:21:33.250 --> 00:21:35.375
And eventually,
Natalie asked him
506
00:21:35.459 --> 00:21:37.083
to marry him,
and they'd been together
507
00:21:37.167 --> 00:21:38.751
for three or four years
at that time.
508
00:21:38.834 --> 00:21:41.209
- And they had
a big, big, fancy wedding
509
00:21:41.292 --> 00:21:43.584
at a Russian church,
Russian ceremony,
510
00:21:43.667 --> 00:21:45.584
and it was beautiful.
511
00:21:45.667 --> 00:21:52.667
♪ ♪
512
00:21:53.792 --> 00:21:55.542
- How long have you
been married now?
513
00:21:55.626 --> 00:21:56.834
- Five months.
- Five months.
514
00:21:56.918 --> 00:21:59.334
- Five months.
And they said it wouldn't last.
515
00:21:59.417 --> 00:22:02.500
[laughter]
- Don't say that!
516
00:22:02.584 --> 00:22:03.792
- And you've been quoted
as saying
517
00:22:03.876 --> 00:22:05.000
you wouldn't now take a film
518
00:22:05.083 --> 00:22:07.375
that was thousands of miles
apart?
519
00:22:07.459 --> 00:22:08.834
- Not if it meant
being away from Richard,
520
00:22:08.918 --> 00:22:11.042
no, I wouldn't.
521
00:22:11.125 --> 00:22:12.667
- How long have you
been married, Robert?
522
00:22:12.751 --> 00:22:14.250
- 11 years.
523
00:22:14.334 --> 00:22:16.918
[applause]
524
00:22:17.000 --> 00:22:18.250
[laughs]
525
00:22:18.334 --> 00:22:20.751
- And what advice would you
give this young couple?
526
00:22:20.834 --> 00:22:23.417
- Yes, Redford,
tell us what to do.
527
00:22:23.500 --> 00:22:26.417
- Well, just try to keep track
528
00:22:26.500 --> 00:22:27.959
of how many years
you're married
529
00:22:28.042 --> 00:22:31.459
and, you know, remember
the dates when they come up.
530
00:22:31.542 --> 00:22:32.918
- That's right, 'cause somebody
asked you last week,
531
00:22:33.000 --> 00:22:34.626
and they said, "What day
were you married on?"
532
00:22:34.709 --> 00:22:37.709
and simultaneously,
I said May 30th,
533
00:22:37.792 --> 00:22:39.500
and he said May 31st.
534
00:22:39.584 --> 00:22:41.417
- You don't need to ask
who was wrong, right?
535
00:22:41.500 --> 00:22:42.876
- Yeah.
- [laughs]
536
00:23:02.125 --> 00:23:04.459
- There's nothing
quite like finding out
537
00:23:04.542 --> 00:23:05.959
for the very first time
538
00:23:06.042 --> 00:23:07.083
that you're gonna be pregnant
539
00:23:07.167 --> 00:23:09.500
and to go through
that first pregnancy.
540
00:23:09.584 --> 00:23:13.500
There's just nothing ever
quite as miraculous as that.
541
00:23:13.584 --> 00:23:15.959
Ah.
- She didn't "get pregnant."
542
00:23:16.042 --> 00:23:18.792
She got pregnant
because she wanted a baby,
543
00:23:18.876 --> 00:23:20.959
so she was doing
what she wanted
544
00:23:21.042 --> 00:23:23.918
and doing it well,
and then the work,
545
00:23:24.000 --> 00:23:25.375
she put it aside
for a while.
546
00:23:25.459 --> 00:23:26.751
She knew she'd get back to it.
547
00:23:26.834 --> 00:23:28.792
There was nothing
more important to Natalie
548
00:23:28.876 --> 00:23:31.417
than being a mom;
that was really clear.
549
00:23:31.500 --> 00:23:35.584
- I once walked in,
and she was coddling you,
550
00:23:35.667 --> 00:23:37.959
and she just looked up at me
and said,
551
00:23:38.042 --> 00:23:43.250
"Who needs show business
when one has this?"
552
00:23:43.334 --> 00:23:46.375
My God, you were
the spitting image of her,
553
00:23:46.459 --> 00:23:48.167
you know, when you were born
and a child.
554
00:23:48.250 --> 00:23:50.167
It was incredible.
555
00:23:50.250 --> 00:23:51.751
- Before Natasha was born,
556
00:23:51.834 --> 00:23:53.834
she would do
a great deal of things with us.
557
00:23:53.918 --> 00:23:55.709
We'd go out,
we'd go to SeaWorld,
558
00:23:55.792 --> 00:23:57.083
we'd go to Disneyland,
559
00:23:57.167 --> 00:23:59.375
but then
when Natasha was born,
560
00:23:59.459 --> 00:24:02.667
her sole focus, really,
I would say, was on Natasha.
561
00:24:02.751 --> 00:24:04.375
♪ ♪
562
00:24:13.375 --> 00:24:17.334
- Richard felt that Natalie
was so involved
563
00:24:17.417 --> 00:24:19.125
and emotionally connected
to Natasha
564
00:24:19.209 --> 00:24:21.751
that there wasn't any room
for him,
565
00:24:21.834 --> 00:24:23.667
so he did something
really stupid
566
00:24:23.751 --> 00:24:25.542
and got thrown out.
567
00:24:25.626 --> 00:24:27.542
- What happened when you
and Mommy got divorced?
568
00:24:45.792 --> 00:24:47.000
- Changed the locks, I think.
569
00:24:57.125 --> 00:24:58.709
- I love the story
570
00:24:58.792 --> 00:25:00.500
about how you
and Mommy reconnected
571
00:25:00.584 --> 00:25:03.125
at your friend
John Foreman's party.
572
00:25:03.209 --> 00:25:05.083
- We saw each other
at this party,
573
00:25:05.167 --> 00:25:07.667
and so the sparks
sort of flew a little bit,
574
00:25:07.751 --> 00:25:09.542
and then I offered
to drive her home,
575
00:25:09.626 --> 00:25:12.209
and I did drive her home
and dropped her off
576
00:25:12.292 --> 00:25:13.918
and said good night
to her, and...
577
00:25:14.000 --> 00:25:17.751
- And then she got
into her house on Bentley
578
00:25:17.834 --> 00:25:20.751
and started to cry,
579
00:25:20.834 --> 00:25:22.250
and then what did you do?
580
00:25:22.334 --> 00:25:24.250
- I drove down the street,
and I stopped,
581
00:25:24.334 --> 00:25:27.459
and I had tears in my eyes
as well.
582
00:25:27.542 --> 00:25:28.709
- Because you guys realized
583
00:25:28.792 --> 00:25:30.751
that you still missed
each other.
584
00:25:30.834 --> 00:25:33.500
- How come you got married
to Bob Wagner again?
585
00:25:33.584 --> 00:25:34.792
- Again?
- I mean, and how does it feel
586
00:25:34.876 --> 00:25:38.042
when you marry your husband
after you divorced him?
587
00:25:38.125 --> 00:25:39.500
And if you don't want
to talk about it, we'll pass.
588
00:25:39.584 --> 00:25:40.584
- Oh, it feels terrific.
589
00:25:40.667 --> 00:25:41.834
I don't mind talking about it.
- Okay.
590
00:25:41.918 --> 00:25:43.209
- I was just fortunate,
you know?
591
00:25:43.292 --> 00:25:45.375
Timing was on our side.
592
00:25:45.459 --> 00:25:48.667
We happened to meet at a time
when we were both free.
593
00:25:48.751 --> 00:25:51.626
The fact that we both had
feelings toward the other one
594
00:25:51.709 --> 00:25:53.083
we didn't keep to ourselves.
595
00:25:53.167 --> 00:25:54.667
I mean, we managed
to convey that.
596
00:25:54.751 --> 00:25:57.667
Because I really had no idea
that RJ
597
00:25:57.751 --> 00:26:00.500
felt something still toward me,
even though I knew that I did,
598
00:26:00.584 --> 00:26:03.125
and he felt the same way
and didn't know if I did.
599
00:26:03.209 --> 00:26:07.167
But luckily, we didn't
keep that to ourselves.
600
00:26:07.250 --> 00:26:11.584
- I came into Natalie's life
through RJ.
601
00:26:11.667 --> 00:26:15.083
RJ married my mother,
602
00:26:15.167 --> 00:26:17.042
and when RJ
and my mother divorced,
603
00:26:17.125 --> 00:26:19.334
I remained very close to RJ,
604
00:26:19.417 --> 00:26:23.000
so when he started
seeing Natalie again,
605
00:26:23.083 --> 00:26:26.459
naturally, that's how I was
introduced to Natalie,
606
00:26:26.542 --> 00:26:28.709
and after college,
607
00:26:28.792 --> 00:26:31.626
Natalie said, "Come and live
in our guest house,"
608
00:26:31.709 --> 00:26:33.876
and I stayed there for years,
609
00:26:33.959 --> 00:26:35.334
and that's when we became
really close.
610
00:26:35.417 --> 00:26:37.500
You know, and it was clear,
seeing them together,
611
00:26:37.584 --> 00:26:40.167
that they loved each other,
but it was more.
612
00:26:40.250 --> 00:26:44.042
It seemed to me that they
should be together.
613
00:26:44.125 --> 00:26:46.876
This seemed right.
614
00:26:46.959 --> 00:26:49.375
- When you and Mommy
got back together,
615
00:26:49.459 --> 00:26:52.083
she was a mom
and you were a dad.
616
00:26:52.167 --> 00:26:53.626
- That's right.
- And you guys had had
617
00:26:53.709 --> 00:26:55.167
ten years between.
618
00:26:55.250 --> 00:26:57.626
So had you both
really grown up?
619
00:26:57.709 --> 00:26:58.834
- I think so.
620
00:26:58.918 --> 00:27:00.209
You know,
when we were younger,
621
00:27:00.292 --> 00:27:02.334
we were very interested
in our careers
622
00:27:02.417 --> 00:27:03.918
and where we could go
with it,
623
00:27:04.000 --> 00:27:06.834
and that became less important
the second time.
624
00:27:06.918 --> 00:27:09.876
I mean, it had more
to do with us
625
00:27:09.959 --> 00:27:13.209
and you and Katie.
626
00:27:13.292 --> 00:27:15.250
- It was pretty exciting
to be a part of that
627
00:27:15.334 --> 00:27:16.834
relationship
and that love affair.
628
00:27:17.459 --> 00:27:19.626
And then they got married
the second time around
629
00:27:19.709 --> 00:27:21.167
on the "Ramblin' Rose,"
630
00:27:21.250 --> 00:27:22.334
and it was just
an incredible day.
631
00:27:22.417 --> 00:27:23.709
It was a small group
of people,
632
00:27:23.792 --> 00:27:25.375
probably about 30 people.
633
00:27:25.459 --> 00:27:28.626
[gentle music]
634
00:27:28.709 --> 00:27:30.542
- We got married
in Paradise Cove,
635
00:27:30.626 --> 00:27:32.709
and then we went
from Paradise Cove
636
00:27:32.792 --> 00:27:33.876
over to the Isthmus,
637
00:27:33.959 --> 00:27:36.209
and we spent our honeymoon
in Catalina.
638
00:27:36.292 --> 00:27:39.334
♪ ♪
639
00:27:39.417 --> 00:27:41.500
- Clearly, RJ was
the love of her life,
640
00:27:41.584 --> 00:27:42.709
because when they got
back together,
641
00:27:42.792 --> 00:27:45.667
it was like just two parts
of the same whole
642
00:27:45.751 --> 00:27:47.000
coming together again,
643
00:27:47.083 --> 00:27:49.334
and I saw her
in a more complete way.
644
00:27:49.417 --> 00:27:51.792
You know,
she was totally happy.
645
00:27:51.876 --> 00:27:54.250
♪ ♪
646
00:27:54.334 --> 00:27:56.083
- Natalie, you tried
natural childbirth
647
00:27:56.167 --> 00:27:57.417
with your second child.
648
00:27:57.500 --> 00:27:59.417
- Well, with my first child,
I did have--
649
00:27:59.500 --> 00:28:00.751
- You tried it?
- I was awake,
650
00:28:00.834 --> 00:28:02.042
and I watched Natasha
being born.
651
00:28:02.125 --> 00:28:03.584
- Mm-hmm.
- And with Courtney,
652
00:28:03.667 --> 00:28:05.083
suddenly, there were
complications,
653
00:28:05.167 --> 00:28:08.417
you know, after about
17 or 18 hours of labor,
654
00:28:08.500 --> 00:28:10.584
and all of a sudden,
the doctor said,
655
00:28:10.667 --> 00:28:12.626
"Oh, no, this is gonna be
an emergency section,"
656
00:28:12.709 --> 00:28:13.918
and he got Courtney out
in two minutes,
657
00:28:14.000 --> 00:28:15.250
saved her life.
658
00:28:15.334 --> 00:28:18.834
♪ ♪
659
00:28:18.918 --> 00:28:22.167
- I was born March 9, 1974,
660
00:28:22.250 --> 00:28:23.876
and I think there was a big--
661
00:28:23.959 --> 00:28:25.959
like, a whole thing
in the paper
662
00:28:26.042 --> 00:28:28.876
saying that, like,
I was near death and--
663
00:28:28.959 --> 00:28:31.292
but I was the lovechild.
[laughs]
664
00:28:31.375 --> 00:28:38.250
♪ ♪
665
00:28:39.250 --> 00:28:41.459
- I had had Katie
with Marion,
666
00:28:41.542 --> 00:28:44.167
and she had had Natasha
with Richard,
667
00:28:44.250 --> 00:28:46.417
and we had Courtney together,
668
00:28:46.500 --> 00:28:49.459
so we were--we were thrilled.
669
00:28:49.542 --> 00:28:52.209
- Do you know something more
the second time around?
670
00:28:52.292 --> 00:28:54.876
- I know to appreciate him
for what--
671
00:28:54.959 --> 00:28:56.500
- Oh, you're taking
the blame, huh?
672
00:28:56.584 --> 00:28:57.626
You didn't appreciate him
first time around?
673
00:28:57.709 --> 00:28:58.959
- No, no, no.
Not necessarily.
674
00:28:59.042 --> 00:29:01.083
I think we both appreciate
each other more,
675
00:29:01.167 --> 00:29:04.250
and I think we know
each other better as people,
676
00:29:04.334 --> 00:29:05.792
and we're kind of
on the same wavelength.
677
00:29:05.876 --> 00:29:07.292
You know, we like to do
the same things,
678
00:29:07.375 --> 00:29:09.083
and we like
hanging out together.
679
00:29:09.167 --> 00:29:10.751
We like hanging out
with the kids.
680
00:29:10.834 --> 00:29:14.375
♪ ♪
681
00:29:14.459 --> 00:29:16.334
- When we got married,
we were living in the Springs.
682
00:29:16.417 --> 00:29:18.834
I had this home
in Palm Springs.
683
00:29:18.918 --> 00:29:20.500
And then we found this house
684
00:29:20.584 --> 00:29:22.876
on Cañon Drive
in Beverly Hills,
685
00:29:22.959 --> 00:29:25.709
and then we bought that
and moved into there.
686
00:29:28.959 --> 00:29:31.834
- When we were all very much
a family in the '70s,
687
00:29:31.918 --> 00:29:34.042
it was you, Mommy,
Courtney, and I,
688
00:29:34.125 --> 00:29:36.125
and Katie came
and lived with us,
689
00:29:36.209 --> 00:29:37.959
and that was our group
690
00:29:38.042 --> 00:29:40.834
with visits
from Josh and Peter,
691
00:29:40.918 --> 00:29:43.292
Sarah, Charlotte,
and Hugo.
692
00:29:43.375 --> 00:29:45.000
- The guest house
was rather filled, wasn't it?
693
00:29:45.083 --> 00:29:46.918
- Yeah, it was always
turning over,
694
00:29:47.000 --> 00:29:48.125
and many, many dogs,
695
00:29:48.209 --> 00:29:49.959
many cats, many birds,
many--
696
00:29:50.042 --> 00:29:51.209
- Lizards.
- Lizards.
697
00:29:51.292 --> 00:29:53.292
- Ducks.
- [laughs]
698
00:29:53.375 --> 00:29:56.542
- We had this amazing nanny
named Willie Mae
699
00:29:56.626 --> 00:29:58.250
who lived with us
until she passed away
700
00:29:58.334 --> 00:30:00.209
at the age of 90.
701
00:30:00.292 --> 00:30:01.417
- Great lady.
702
00:30:01.500 --> 00:30:04.209
- I was really attached
to Willie Mae.
703
00:30:04.292 --> 00:30:06.500
I was always much more
attached to Willie Mae,
704
00:30:06.584 --> 00:30:07.751
really, than my mom.
705
00:30:07.834 --> 00:30:09.459
I felt that Natasha
had my mom
706
00:30:09.542 --> 00:30:10.751
and I had Willie Mae.
707
00:30:10.834 --> 00:30:12.334
And then, you know,
we had each other,
708
00:30:12.417 --> 00:30:15.000
but I just--I don't know
what it was about Willie Mae.
709
00:30:15.083 --> 00:30:17.042
I just loved Willie Mae
so much.
710
00:30:17.125 --> 00:30:19.834
- Willie Mae Worthen
was the nanny,
711
00:30:19.918 --> 00:30:21.000
who I adored.
712
00:30:21.083 --> 00:30:22.209
Everybody adored her.
713
00:30:22.292 --> 00:30:25.667
She was this six-foot giant
from down South,
714
00:30:25.751 --> 00:30:28.292
very brusque but loving.
715
00:30:28.375 --> 00:30:30.751
She was part of the family.
716
00:30:30.834 --> 00:30:33.334
And I was Natalie Wood's
personal assistant
717
00:30:33.417 --> 00:30:34.667
for four years.
718
00:30:34.751 --> 00:30:36.375
My office was literally
719
00:30:36.459 --> 00:30:38.417
in the corner
of the master bedroom.
720
00:30:38.500 --> 00:30:40.626
These two were in bed.
[laughs]
721
00:30:40.709 --> 00:30:43.083
It was quite--
it was quite funny, actually,
722
00:30:43.167 --> 00:30:46.417
to be in that situation,
having come from an office.
723
00:30:46.500 --> 00:30:50.500
And Natalie would give
incredible parties,
724
00:30:50.584 --> 00:30:51.918
but the main one each year
725
00:30:52.000 --> 00:30:53.959
would be
the New Year's Eve party.
726
00:30:54.042 --> 00:30:55.000
The guests would come.
727
00:30:55.083 --> 00:30:56.876
There would be
George Segal and his wife.
728
00:30:56.959 --> 00:30:59.209
There would be Gregory Peck,
Jimmy Stewart,
729
00:30:59.292 --> 00:31:00.709
Roddy McDowall.
730
00:31:00.792 --> 00:31:01.918
- I look to my right,
731
00:31:02.000 --> 00:31:04.083
and there I saw,
732
00:31:04.167 --> 00:31:06.125
I swear to God,
733
00:31:06.209 --> 00:31:09.375
Fred Astaire singing
Cole Porter
734
00:31:09.459 --> 00:31:11.042
with a pianist
accompanying him,
735
00:31:11.125 --> 00:31:12.417
and he finished his song,
736
00:31:12.500 --> 00:31:14.042
and everybody burst
into applause.
737
00:31:14.125 --> 00:31:15.584
- Those parties were the best.
738
00:31:15.667 --> 00:31:17.417
You'd be talking
to someone
739
00:31:17.500 --> 00:31:21.125
and turn around, and, ooh,
Sir Laurence Olivier.
740
00:31:21.209 --> 00:31:23.292
Now I have to figure out
what kind of conversation
741
00:31:23.375 --> 00:31:25.125
I can have with him.
742
00:31:25.209 --> 00:31:29.292
And the house was just
so full of love
743
00:31:29.375 --> 00:31:31.292
and happiness,
744
00:31:31.375 --> 00:31:34.459
it made you feel good
to be there.
745
00:31:34.542 --> 00:31:35.626
- So many people
coming and going
746
00:31:35.709 --> 00:31:37.959
in the Cañon Drive house
that were not only famous
747
00:31:38.042 --> 00:31:39.292
but just friends, you know,
748
00:31:39.375 --> 00:31:40.584
really, really great friends.
749
00:31:40.667 --> 00:31:42.626
They had parties
all the time.
750
00:31:42.709 --> 00:31:44.375
You know,
our holidays were huge.
751
00:31:44.459 --> 00:31:46.459
Courtney got as many presents
at Natasha's birthday
752
00:31:46.542 --> 00:31:49.042
as Natasha got
at Courtney's birthday.
753
00:31:49.125 --> 00:31:52.042
[gentle piano music]
754
00:31:52.125 --> 00:31:59.125
♪ ♪
755
00:32:00.417 --> 00:32:02.000
- Everything was heaven.
756
00:32:02.083 --> 00:32:05.334
The house was so beautiful
and also welcoming,
757
00:32:05.417 --> 00:32:07.834
and Natalie was so candid,
758
00:32:07.918 --> 00:32:10.292
and the focus was the children,
not the grown-ups.
759
00:32:10.375 --> 00:32:13.876
♪ ♪
760
00:32:13.959 --> 00:32:16.500
- I remember the parties.
I remember the laughter.
761
00:32:16.584 --> 00:32:18.834
I remember they were
so in love with each other,
762
00:32:18.918 --> 00:32:20.876
and my mom would always say,
763
00:32:20.959 --> 00:32:22.542
"Oh, RJ, honestly!"
764
00:32:22.626 --> 00:32:24.751
but then she would, like,
break out laughing.
765
00:32:24.834 --> 00:32:26.792
They were just always
laughing.
766
00:32:26.876 --> 00:32:29.500
- That connection
that they had
767
00:32:29.584 --> 00:32:31.417
is what I remember
growing up.
768
00:32:31.500 --> 00:32:34.083
And they were always
buying each other presents,
769
00:32:34.167 --> 00:32:36.459
and my mom
was always concocting
770
00:32:36.542 --> 00:32:38.125
some kind
of an incredible surprise
771
00:32:38.209 --> 00:32:40.375
for my dad
that she would tell us about.
772
00:32:41.751 --> 00:32:44.209
- The most important thing
for me is my family
773
00:32:44.292 --> 00:32:46.083
and my husband, my kids.
774
00:32:46.167 --> 00:32:47.709
That's why we like spending
a lot of time on the boat,
775
00:32:47.792 --> 00:32:50.042
where we really are
just a family
776
00:32:50.125 --> 00:32:52.709
and there aren't a lot
of other things to relate to.
777
00:32:52.792 --> 00:32:55.626
- We got a boat together,
the "Splendour,"
778
00:32:55.709 --> 00:32:57.751
and we spent most weekends
779
00:32:57.834 --> 00:32:59.584
and most vacations
in Catalina.
780
00:32:59.667 --> 00:33:01.667
We spent a lot of time
on that island.
781
00:33:03.125 --> 00:33:05.167
- Natalie never cooked at home,
782
00:33:05.250 --> 00:33:07.667
but she would always
cook breakfast on the boat,
783
00:33:07.751 --> 00:33:09.918
and it was huevos rancheros,
784
00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:12.000
and she enjoyed the boat.
785
00:33:12.083 --> 00:33:15.042
You know, she'd have
the hat on and the outfit.
786
00:33:15.125 --> 00:33:17.167
It was fun for the family,
and it was fun
787
00:33:17.250 --> 00:33:20.375
for RJ and Natalie
to get away as well.
788
00:33:20.459 --> 00:33:27.542
♪ ♪
789
00:33:31.834 --> 00:33:34.209
- My parents were very relaxed
on the boat.
790
00:33:34.292 --> 00:33:36.918
They'd bring other friends,
or we'd bring our friends.
791
00:33:37.000 --> 00:33:39.292
We'd go to Catalina.
We'd go to Emerald Bay.
792
00:33:39.375 --> 00:33:40.751
We'd go to the Isthmus.
793
00:33:40.834 --> 00:33:43.834
And it was a really happy time
for us there.
794
00:33:46.959 --> 00:33:49.375
- As we reported earlier,
actress Natalie Wood
795
00:33:49.459 --> 00:33:50.709
was found dead today.
796
00:33:50.792 --> 00:33:52.417
Her body was discovered
fully clothed
797
00:33:52.500 --> 00:33:54.792
in waters
off Santa Catalina Island.
798
00:33:54.876 --> 00:33:57.042
Los Angeles County officials
can only confirm
799
00:33:57.125 --> 00:33:59.334
the 43-year-old Ms. Wood
drowned,
800
00:33:59.417 --> 00:34:01.876
but nothing further
on the circumstances.
801
00:34:01.959 --> 00:34:04.584
David Burrington reports.
802
00:34:04.667 --> 00:34:06.167
- Natalie Wood
and her husband,
803
00:34:06.250 --> 00:34:07.626
actor Robert Wagner,
804
00:34:07.709 --> 00:34:09.292
had sailed to Catalina Island
805
00:34:09.375 --> 00:34:12.000
to spend the holiday weekend
with friends.
806
00:34:12.083 --> 00:34:14.083
Apparently, they had returned
to their yacht,
807
00:34:14.167 --> 00:34:16.459
the "Splendour,"
after dinner,
808
00:34:16.542 --> 00:34:18.167
when Natalie went back out
on the water
809
00:34:18.250 --> 00:34:19.751
in this rubber boat.
810
00:34:19.834 --> 00:34:22.459
Exactly what happened then,
nobody knows,
811
00:34:22.542 --> 00:34:24.959
but her body was found
after dawn this morning
812
00:34:25.042 --> 00:34:28.125
in a small cove
not far from the rubber boat.
813
00:34:28.209 --> 00:34:29.918
- It was on the news,
814
00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:32.500
and I called our mutual friend
Leonard Gershe,
815
00:34:32.584 --> 00:34:35.000
and I said,
"Is Natalie all right?"
816
00:34:35.083 --> 00:34:38.125
And he said, "No.
Nat's..."
817
00:34:38.209 --> 00:34:41.125
[somber music]
818
00:34:41.209 --> 00:34:42.626
♪ ♪
819
00:34:42.709 --> 00:34:44.626
Natalie was gone.
820
00:34:44.709 --> 00:34:47.667
- I remember being devastated
by that news
821
00:34:47.751 --> 00:34:52.167
and, having such affection
for her,
822
00:34:52.250 --> 00:34:53.959
hurt by the news.
823
00:34:54.042 --> 00:34:55.542
- The phone rang,
824
00:34:55.626 --> 00:34:57.167
and I pick up the phone...
825
00:34:57.250 --> 00:35:01.209
[clears throat]
And RJ screams
826
00:35:01.292 --> 00:35:02.834
into the phone...
827
00:35:02.918 --> 00:35:04.334
[sighs]
828
00:35:04.417 --> 00:35:06.667
♪ ♪
829
00:35:06.751 --> 00:35:08.834
"She's gone!"
830
00:35:08.918 --> 00:35:12.125
- My brother Peter Donen
called me--my late brother--
831
00:35:12.209 --> 00:35:13.792
called me about 6:00
in the morning,
832
00:35:13.876 --> 00:35:16.292
and he--I picked up my phone
in my room,
833
00:35:16.375 --> 00:35:20.292
and he said, "Natalie's dead.
She drowned."
834
00:35:20.375 --> 00:35:22.000
And I thought to myself,
"Well, she drowned,
835
00:35:22.083 --> 00:35:23.375
but she'll be back, right?"
836
00:35:23.459 --> 00:35:25.083
I mean, that weird thing
that you think
837
00:35:25.167 --> 00:35:26.959
when you hear
something like that.
838
00:35:27.042 --> 00:35:28.334
- I was walking
along the beach,
839
00:35:28.417 --> 00:35:30.042
and it was early
in the morning,
840
00:35:30.125 --> 00:35:32.834
and I saw my brother
841
00:35:32.918 --> 00:35:34.459
came out onto the beach,
842
00:35:34.542 --> 00:35:36.417
and he came over to me;
he put his arms around me.
843
00:35:36.500 --> 00:35:38.751
He said, "Natalie's died."
844
00:35:38.834 --> 00:35:41.125
And I was just
in a state of shock.
845
00:35:41.209 --> 00:35:44.292
- That was one
of the worst mornings
846
00:35:44.375 --> 00:35:46.876
that we've ever experienced.
847
00:35:46.959 --> 00:35:51.375
So we got in the car
and went over to Cañon,
848
00:35:51.459 --> 00:35:54.000
and already, there was press
out in the street
849
00:35:54.083 --> 00:35:56.042
and cameras
and all of that,
850
00:35:56.125 --> 00:35:58.292
and we were there
before RJ was there.
851
00:35:58.375 --> 00:36:00.667
- Eventually, RJ came home,
852
00:36:00.751 --> 00:36:02.250
and we went downstairs,
853
00:36:02.334 --> 00:36:05.500
and he came in
looking like death.
854
00:36:05.584 --> 00:36:09.000
- I remember Willie Mae
woke me up,
855
00:36:09.083 --> 00:36:13.584
and I could hear
my sister Natasha crying,
856
00:36:13.667 --> 00:36:15.250
and I saw all of these people
857
00:36:15.334 --> 00:36:16.959
in the living room,
858
00:36:17.042 --> 00:36:18.751
and I was walking
down the steps,
859
00:36:18.834 --> 00:36:21.250
and my dad was at the edge
of the steps,
860
00:36:21.334 --> 00:36:23.792
and he said to me, "You know,
you're not gonna see
861
00:36:23.876 --> 00:36:25.167
your mom anymore."
862
00:36:25.250 --> 00:36:29.000
- He said,
"But I want you to know
863
00:36:29.083 --> 00:36:31.209
"that we're going to be
all right.
864
00:36:31.292 --> 00:36:33.167
"We're staying together,
865
00:36:33.250 --> 00:36:35.042
"we're still a family,
866
00:36:35.125 --> 00:36:37.584
and we're gonna get
through this."
867
00:36:37.667 --> 00:36:40.876
It was heavy-duty stuff,
868
00:36:40.959 --> 00:36:43.584
and he just clung on to them
869
00:36:43.667 --> 00:36:45.375
and they on him.
870
00:36:45.459 --> 00:36:48.584
- It's like, the instant
that my mom passed away
871
00:36:48.667 --> 00:36:52.292
is like the air in the balloon
that was our life, you know,
872
00:36:52.375 --> 00:36:54.292
it just--it just--
873
00:36:54.375 --> 00:36:57.250
you know, it just--
the party was over.
874
00:37:03.667 --> 00:37:06.667
- I remember hearing
that my grandma fainted,
875
00:37:06.751 --> 00:37:08.459
but I remember
that I didn't want
876
00:37:08.542 --> 00:37:10.125
to be around my grandma
877
00:37:10.209 --> 00:37:12.667
because she was
too hysterical.
878
00:37:12.751 --> 00:37:15.417
I think I was more
of a private griever,
879
00:37:15.500 --> 00:37:20.083
and my grandma
was so kind of colorful
880
00:37:20.167 --> 00:37:22.792
with her grief,
881
00:37:22.876 --> 00:37:25.417
so I didn't feel safe
around her.
882
00:37:25.500 --> 00:37:28.250
- I remember my grandmother
being really--
883
00:37:28.334 --> 00:37:30.959
I mean, talk about someone
that was checked out.
884
00:37:31.042 --> 00:37:33.167
I mean, she would just faint,
you know.
885
00:37:33.250 --> 00:37:35.209
She was very dramatic too.
886
00:37:35.292 --> 00:37:37.000
I mean, there would be times
where you would hear
887
00:37:37.083 --> 00:37:39.584
that, like, she suddenly
just got frightened
888
00:37:39.667 --> 00:37:40.709
and she ran into a wall
889
00:37:40.792 --> 00:37:41.876
because she wasn't
paying attention.
890
00:37:41.959 --> 00:37:44.042
I mean, she was just--
you know, this was a woman
891
00:37:44.125 --> 00:37:46.083
that was grief-stricken
892
00:37:46.167 --> 00:37:50.667
and whose whole life
revolved around her daughter.
893
00:37:50.751 --> 00:37:53.334
[pizzicato music]
894
00:37:53.417 --> 00:37:55.584
- My mom's parents,
my grandparents,
895
00:37:55.667 --> 00:37:57.876
were Nick and Maria Gurdin.
896
00:37:57.959 --> 00:38:00.083
They spoke with these
thick Russian accents
897
00:38:00.167 --> 00:38:01.792
because they were
both immigrants
898
00:38:01.876 --> 00:38:04.542
who met and married
in San Francisco.
899
00:38:04.626 --> 00:38:07.500
My mom called her parents
Mud and Fad,
900
00:38:07.584 --> 00:38:09.626
short for Mudda and Fadda.
901
00:38:09.709 --> 00:38:12.125
My mom was the middle child
of three girls.
902
00:38:12.209 --> 00:38:14.500
She had an older half sister
named Olga
903
00:38:14.584 --> 00:38:16.542
who was ten years older
than her
904
00:38:16.626 --> 00:38:20.459
and a younger sister, Lana,
who was eight years younger.
905
00:38:20.542 --> 00:38:23.042
- My parents moved
from San Francisco
906
00:38:23.125 --> 00:38:26.125
to Santa Rosa
when I was about two, I think,
907
00:38:26.209 --> 00:38:28.876
and then a movie company
came to Santa Rosa
908
00:38:28.959 --> 00:38:31.500
on location, and they needed
a little girl
909
00:38:31.584 --> 00:38:33.375
to drop an ice cream cone
and cry,
910
00:38:33.459 --> 00:38:36.292
and I think my mama gave me
a little nudge
911
00:38:36.375 --> 00:38:38.083
in the right direction
and said,
912
00:38:38.167 --> 00:38:39.751
"Why don't you go talk
to that nice man,
913
00:38:39.834 --> 00:38:41.417
sing him some of your songs?"
914
00:38:41.500 --> 00:38:43.959
And...
[laughs]
915
00:38:44.042 --> 00:38:47.167
So I did, and he chose me
to drop the ice cream cone,
916
00:38:47.250 --> 00:38:50.918
and then he remembered me
a year later
917
00:38:51.000 --> 00:38:52.667
when he was doing
"Tomorrow is Forever."
918
00:38:52.751 --> 00:38:54.125
His name was Irving Pichel,
919
00:38:54.209 --> 00:38:55.792
and he wrote to my parents
and said
920
00:38:55.876 --> 00:38:57.751
that he would like
to have me come
921
00:38:57.834 --> 00:38:59.626
to Los Angeles
and do a screen test
922
00:38:59.709 --> 00:39:02.125
because he had a part
for a young German girl,
923
00:39:02.209 --> 00:39:04.918
and against
my father's deeper wishes,
924
00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:07.709
my mother and I
traveled down by train,
925
00:39:07.792 --> 00:39:10.042
and I made the screen test,
got the part,
926
00:39:10.125 --> 00:39:13.792
and it seemed a good idea
to move down to Los Angeles,
927
00:39:13.876 --> 00:39:16.209
which we then did,
and my father began working
928
00:39:16.292 --> 00:39:19.500
in the miniature prop
department at the studios,
929
00:39:19.584 --> 00:39:21.209
so we would sometimes
bump into each other.
930
00:39:21.292 --> 00:39:23.542
We were both working.
931
00:39:23.626 --> 00:39:25.834
Shall we go away soon,
Father?
932
00:39:25.918 --> 00:39:28.375
[mournful orchestral music]
933
00:39:28.459 --> 00:39:29.876
- Go?
934
00:39:29.959 --> 00:39:32.209
- You said maybe
we would leave here.
935
00:39:32.292 --> 00:39:35.000
- I was her first leading man,
936
00:39:35.083 --> 00:39:37.709
and for six or seven takes,
937
00:39:37.792 --> 00:39:40.125
I kept blowing my lines.
938
00:39:40.209 --> 00:39:41.834
Not Natalie.
939
00:39:41.918 --> 00:39:43.334
I think it was
her first picture,
940
00:39:43.417 --> 00:39:46.375
but she was already
a perfect little pro.
941
00:39:46.459 --> 00:39:47.959
- Well, young lady,
what's your name?
942
00:39:48.042 --> 00:39:50.250
- Susan Walker.
What's yours?
943
00:39:50.334 --> 00:39:52.459
- Mine?
Kriss Kringle.
944
00:39:52.542 --> 00:39:55.042
I'm Santa Claus.
945
00:39:55.125 --> 00:39:57.792
Oh, you don't believe that,
do you?
946
00:39:57.876 --> 00:39:59.000
- Mm-mm.
947
00:39:59.083 --> 00:40:00.751
You see, my mother's
Mrs. Walker,
948
00:40:00.834 --> 00:40:03.626
the lady who hired you.
- Oh.
949
00:40:03.709 --> 00:40:04.792
- But I must say,
950
00:40:04.876 --> 00:40:06.417
you're the best-looking one
I've ever seen.
951
00:40:06.500 --> 00:40:08.250
- Really?
- Your beard doesn't have
952
00:40:08.334 --> 00:40:10.125
one of those things
that goes over your ears.
953
00:40:10.209 --> 00:40:11.584
- Well, that's because
it's real,
954
00:40:11.667 --> 00:40:13.876
just like I'm
really Santa Claus.
955
00:40:13.959 --> 00:40:17.000
- What stands out about
Natalie Wood's performance
956
00:40:17.083 --> 00:40:19.667
in "Miracle on 34th Street"
is,
957
00:40:19.751 --> 00:40:21.125
there's no artifice.
958
00:40:21.209 --> 00:40:24.500
She's so watchful
and skeptical
959
00:40:24.584 --> 00:40:28.209
and very sure-seeming
in who she was,
960
00:40:28.292 --> 00:40:30.500
and then in the end,
she had the same dreams
961
00:40:30.584 --> 00:40:33.167
and fantasies
as everybody else,
962
00:40:33.250 --> 00:40:36.751
and I think that's what was
so appealing about it.
963
00:40:39.459 --> 00:40:42.918
- "The reality of Hollywood
was a dash of cold water.
964
00:40:43.000 --> 00:40:45.500
"Instead of glamour,
I found myself immersed
965
00:40:45.584 --> 00:40:47.626
"in work and study.
966
00:40:47.709 --> 00:40:49.167
"By the time I was 12,
967
00:40:49.250 --> 00:40:52.375
"my father suffered the first
of a series of heart attacks.
968
00:40:52.459 --> 00:40:54.876
"For a few years,
he couldn't work at all.
969
00:40:54.959 --> 00:40:57.626
"This meant my acting
was the sole economic support
970
00:40:57.709 --> 00:40:59.292
"of my family,
971
00:40:59.375 --> 00:41:00.709
"and therefore, getting jobs
972
00:41:00.792 --> 00:41:03.542
"became a tremendous
responsibility.
973
00:41:03.626 --> 00:41:05.042
"Sometimes I had nightmares
974
00:41:05.125 --> 00:41:08.959
about the family starving
if I didn't act."
975
00:41:09.042 --> 00:41:10.542
- The story I remember
976
00:41:10.626 --> 00:41:11.584
Natalie telling me
about her mother
977
00:41:11.667 --> 00:41:14.000
was an audition she went to,
978
00:41:14.083 --> 00:41:17.209
and her mother felt
it hadn't gone terribly well,
979
00:41:17.292 --> 00:41:19.918
and on the way
out of the studio,
980
00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:22.292
she said to Natalie,
981
00:41:22.375 --> 00:41:24.500
"Well, that wasn't very good,
was it?
982
00:41:24.584 --> 00:41:26.834
No new shoes for your sister."
983
00:41:26.918 --> 00:41:28.167
Of course,
Natalie was called back
984
00:41:28.250 --> 00:41:30.209
and did get the role,
so presumably,
985
00:41:30.292 --> 00:41:32.542
Lana did get her new shoes.
986
00:41:32.626 --> 00:41:34.375
[thunder booming]
987
00:41:34.459 --> 00:41:36.083
But there was a lot
of pressure
988
00:41:36.167 --> 00:41:37.500
on young Natalie.
989
00:41:40.042 --> 00:41:42.000
- When she did a film
called "The Green Promise,"
990
00:41:42.083 --> 00:41:43.918
she injured her wrist...
991
00:41:47.709 --> 00:41:49.083
And it never healed properly,
992
00:41:49.167 --> 00:41:52.083
and so her wrist bone
was bigger
993
00:41:52.167 --> 00:41:53.584
on one wrist than the other,
994
00:41:53.667 --> 00:41:55.584
and she felt
self-conscious about it,
995
00:41:55.667 --> 00:41:58.959
so she always wore
a bracelet to cover it up.
996
00:41:59.042 --> 00:42:00.459
- She had a bracelet
she always wore,
997
00:42:00.542 --> 00:42:03.083
and it covered up
a thing on her wrist,
998
00:42:03.167 --> 00:42:05.000
and it always
kind of made me think,
999
00:42:05.083 --> 00:42:06.876
"This is a woman
in total control
1000
00:42:06.959 --> 00:42:10.584
but had a flaw
that she was aware of."
1001
00:42:10.667 --> 00:42:12.918
Didn't mean anything,
but in a way,
1002
00:42:13.000 --> 00:42:16.584
it made me feel a connection
with her vulnerability
1003
00:42:16.667 --> 00:42:19.167
and this childhood stardom
that she had had
1004
00:42:19.250 --> 00:42:21.375
that she was
childhood star, huge.
1005
00:42:21.459 --> 00:42:24.209
- Don't you know that children
should be seen and not heard?
1006
00:42:24.292 --> 00:42:25.918
- Not according to Jeremiah.
1007
00:42:26.000 --> 00:42:27.334
"Say not I am a child,
1008
00:42:27.417 --> 00:42:29.626
"for thou shalt go
to all that I shalt send thee,
1009
00:42:29.709 --> 00:42:32.542
and whatsoever I command thee,
thou shalt speak."
1010
00:42:32.626 --> 00:42:35.042
- Steven, will you take her
away from here?
1011
00:42:35.125 --> 00:42:36.751
- Did you not feel
that you were missing
1012
00:42:36.834 --> 00:42:38.542
a lot of the fun
of being a child?
1013
00:42:38.626 --> 00:42:40.292
- Well, I wasn't aware of it
at the time, you know?
1014
00:42:40.375 --> 00:42:41.626
I mean, I guess
I wasn't aware
1015
00:42:41.709 --> 00:42:44.125
that other kids
did other things.
1016
00:42:44.209 --> 00:42:47.209
And then
when I was about 12,
1017
00:42:47.292 --> 00:42:48.959
I started going
to a regular school
1018
00:42:49.042 --> 00:42:50.459
in between jobs,
1019
00:42:50.542 --> 00:42:52.626
and I did feel
a bit of a misfit then
1020
00:42:52.709 --> 00:42:53.834
during that period,
1021
00:42:53.918 --> 00:42:55.792
because I was
so comfortable with adults
1022
00:42:55.876 --> 00:42:57.417
and rather uncomfortable
with kids,
1023
00:42:57.500 --> 00:42:59.292
having not been around
very many.
1024
00:42:59.375 --> 00:43:02.542
♪ ♪
1025
00:43:02.626 --> 00:43:05.375
- I met Natalie Wood
in junior high.
1026
00:43:05.459 --> 00:43:07.125
She was very nice,
very pleasant.
1027
00:43:07.209 --> 00:43:10.667
She wasn't, "Ha, look at me.
I'm a movie star,"
1028
00:43:10.751 --> 00:43:12.334
not with anyone in the school,
1029
00:43:12.417 --> 00:43:14.667
and they didn't treat her
like she was.
1030
00:43:14.751 --> 00:43:16.709
But we became fast friends,
1031
00:43:16.792 --> 00:43:19.334
and her mother
was very protective
1032
00:43:19.417 --> 00:43:22.334
of who she chatted with,
who she went out with,
1033
00:43:22.417 --> 00:43:25.000
and I passed
her mother's test.
1034
00:43:25.083 --> 00:43:28.417
[laughs]
So that was good.
1035
00:43:28.500 --> 00:43:31.125
- Natalie's parents
were very involved with her.
1036
00:43:31.209 --> 00:43:33.459
They knew everything
that she did
1037
00:43:33.542 --> 00:43:35.459
and where she went
and what she wore,
1038
00:43:35.542 --> 00:43:37.959
and they were
helicopter parents, you know?
1039
00:43:38.042 --> 00:43:41.626
They were always hovering
around her all the time.
1040
00:43:41.709 --> 00:43:44.792
- Natalie's father, Nick,
he was very quiet.
1041
00:43:44.876 --> 00:43:46.417
When I met him,
1042
00:43:46.500 --> 00:43:48.584
I think he had developed
a heart problem,
1043
00:43:48.667 --> 00:43:51.375
and he generally was
a quiet, gentle man,
1044
00:43:51.459 --> 00:43:52.417
that I knew.
1045
00:43:52.500 --> 00:43:54.751
Didn't have
a lot of dialogue with him,
1046
00:43:54.834 --> 00:43:56.542
but with Maria, I did.
1047
00:43:56.626 --> 00:43:58.250
She was a strange lady.
1048
00:43:58.334 --> 00:44:00.542
She would say, "Don't walk
on that side of the road
1049
00:44:00.626 --> 00:44:01.876
"when the sun is shining,
1050
00:44:01.959 --> 00:44:04.083
because you'll be struck down."
1051
00:44:04.167 --> 00:44:07.292
And lots of little fears.
1052
00:44:07.375 --> 00:44:10.334
- My grandma was
incredibly superstitious,
1053
00:44:10.417 --> 00:44:12.542
so she filled
my mom's head
1054
00:44:12.626 --> 00:44:15.000
with all kinds
of crazy stories.
1055
00:44:15.083 --> 00:44:19.167
- I've always been terrified--
still am--of water,
1056
00:44:19.250 --> 00:44:22.334
dark water, seawater
or, you know, river water.
1057
00:44:22.417 --> 00:44:25.667
- There's this story
that a gypsy told my grandma
1058
00:44:25.751 --> 00:44:29.375
that her second daughter
would become world-famous...
1059
00:44:30.626 --> 00:44:31.626
- Oh!
1060
00:44:31.709 --> 00:44:33.375
- But to beware
of dark water.
1061
00:44:36.000 --> 00:44:37.375
- Can you swim?
1062
00:44:37.459 --> 00:44:38.709
- A little!
1063
00:44:38.792 --> 00:44:40.626
- All right, cut.
1064
00:44:40.709 --> 00:44:42.459
- People are fixated
on the fact
1065
00:44:42.542 --> 00:44:44.250
that my mom was afraid
of dark water,
1066
00:44:44.334 --> 00:44:46.459
I think,
simply because she drowned.
1067
00:44:46.542 --> 00:44:48.584
But, you know, as a child,
she was in the pool with us
1068
00:44:48.667 --> 00:44:50.542
all the time, and she and I
1069
00:44:50.626 --> 00:44:52.918
never talked about her fear
of dark water,
1070
00:44:53.000 --> 00:44:56.500
so it never felt
like this big thing.
1071
00:44:56.584 --> 00:44:58.459
I mean, who likes dark water?
1072
00:44:58.542 --> 00:45:01.125
It's not very enticing.
1073
00:45:01.209 --> 00:45:03.542
But my grandma
was so fantastical.
1074
00:45:03.626 --> 00:45:07.334
She was so twirling
and swirling with stories
1075
00:45:07.417 --> 00:45:09.834
that I don't know what was real
and what wasn't.
1076
00:45:09.918 --> 00:45:11.918
- I remember Natalie
was in bed,
1077
00:45:12.042 --> 00:45:13.584
studying her script,
1078
00:45:13.667 --> 00:45:17.209
and Maria was in one
of the second bedrooms,
1079
00:45:17.292 --> 00:45:20.542
and all of a sudden,
she started to tremble,
1080
00:45:20.626 --> 00:45:22.167
and her eyes rolled up,
1081
00:45:22.250 --> 00:45:25.459
and I dashed
back into the room to Natalie.
1082
00:45:25.542 --> 00:45:27.667
I put her on the bed,
and I said, "Natalie,
1083
00:45:27.751 --> 00:45:29.334
"your mother, she's ill.
1084
00:45:29.417 --> 00:45:31.792
I think she's having
an epileptic fit."
1085
00:45:31.876 --> 00:45:33.834
And so Natalie said...
1086
00:45:35.209 --> 00:45:37.876
"She'll be all right
in a minute."
1087
00:45:37.959 --> 00:45:39.250
Never blinked an eye.
1088
00:45:39.334 --> 00:45:41.042
And it was from then I learned
1089
00:45:41.125 --> 00:45:44.751
that this was a regular habit
of Maria's to get attention.
1090
00:45:44.834 --> 00:45:46.751
- My mom's
very complicated relationship
1091
00:45:46.834 --> 00:45:48.876
with my grandma
and being a daughter
1092
00:45:48.959 --> 00:45:51.250
of a narcissistic,
controlling,
1093
00:45:51.334 --> 00:45:53.626
possessive mother--
1094
00:45:53.709 --> 00:45:56.167
I mean, that's played out
in so many of her films.
1095
00:45:56.250 --> 00:46:00.125
- On "Gypsy," your mother
actually said to me,
1096
00:46:00.209 --> 00:46:01.792
"I don't know
how I'm gonna play
1097
00:46:01.876 --> 00:46:03.834
this last scene,"
1098
00:46:03.918 --> 00:46:07.167
and I just nearly fell
on the floor, and I said,
1099
00:46:07.250 --> 00:46:09.918
"What?"
[both laugh]
1100
00:46:10.000 --> 00:46:12.542
"You don't know
how to play that scene?
1101
00:46:12.626 --> 00:46:15.083
"I mean, just look
at Rosalind Russell in the eye
1102
00:46:15.167 --> 00:46:17.792
"and pretend
it's your mother,
1103
00:46:17.876 --> 00:46:19.959
"it's Maria Gurdin,
1104
00:46:20.042 --> 00:46:21.459
and you got it."
1105
00:46:21.542 --> 00:46:24.792
- Mama, look at me now!
I'm a star!
1106
00:46:24.876 --> 00:46:26.626
Look!
Look how I live!
1107
00:46:26.709 --> 00:46:29.334
Look at my friends.
Look where I'm going.
1108
00:46:29.417 --> 00:46:31.000
I'm not staying in burlesque.
1109
00:46:31.083 --> 00:46:33.626
I'm moving,
maybe up, maybe down,
1110
00:46:33.709 --> 00:46:36.125
but wherever it is,
I'm enjoying it.
1111
00:46:36.209 --> 00:46:37.959
I'm having the time of my life
1112
00:46:38.042 --> 00:46:39.417
because for the first time,
1113
00:46:39.500 --> 00:46:42.042
it is my life,
and I love it.
1114
00:46:42.125 --> 00:46:43.584
I love every second of it,
1115
00:46:43.667 --> 00:46:46.375
and I'll be damned if you're
gonna take it away from me!
1116
00:46:46.459 --> 00:46:48.000
- Her mother was
1117
00:46:48.083 --> 00:46:50.959
like a lot of mothers
of successful people.
1118
00:46:51.042 --> 00:46:52.709
She was determined
1119
00:46:52.792 --> 00:46:55.250
that her daughter
was going to be successful,
1120
00:46:55.334 --> 00:46:58.667
I think,
and Natalie was.
1121
00:46:58.751 --> 00:47:02.876
- I think she once told me
that she didn't really decide
1122
00:47:02.959 --> 00:47:05.417
that that was
what she wanted to do
1123
00:47:05.500 --> 00:47:07.000
was be an actress
1124
00:47:07.083 --> 00:47:10.167
until Nick Ray
and "Rebel,"
1125
00:47:10.250 --> 00:47:11.792
and then it was clear to her
1126
00:47:11.876 --> 00:47:14.542
that she was not
just being pushed by her mother
1127
00:47:14.626 --> 00:47:16.042
any longer.
- Mm-hmm.
1128
00:47:17.584 --> 00:47:19.792
- He looks at me like
1129
00:47:19.876 --> 00:47:23.417
I was the ugliest thing
in the world.
1130
00:47:23.500 --> 00:47:25.459
He doesn't like my friends.
1131
00:47:25.542 --> 00:47:28.542
He doesn't like one thing
about me.
1132
00:47:28.626 --> 00:47:32.876
And he called me...
1133
00:47:32.959 --> 00:47:36.250
he called me a dirty tramp!
1134
00:47:36.334 --> 00:47:38.209
My own father!
1135
00:47:38.292 --> 00:47:41.375
- It was a very important film
for me personally
1136
00:47:41.459 --> 00:47:43.709
because up until then,
I had worked as a child,
1137
00:47:43.792 --> 00:47:46.042
and I had always just done
as I was told.
1138
00:47:46.125 --> 00:47:47.667
I was--you know,
"You do this picture next,
1139
00:47:47.751 --> 00:47:49.000
and then you do
that picture next,"
1140
00:47:49.083 --> 00:47:51.584
and I was
a rather dutiful child.
1141
00:47:51.667 --> 00:47:54.751
And when my parents read
the script of "Rebel,"
1142
00:47:54.834 --> 00:47:56.417
they said,
"Oh, no, not this one,"
1143
00:47:56.500 --> 00:47:57.709
'cause this, you know,
showed parents
1144
00:47:57.792 --> 00:48:00.292
in a rather unsympathetic
light,
1145
00:48:00.375 --> 00:48:02.167
and yet I read it, and for
the first time in my life,
1146
00:48:02.250 --> 00:48:03.459
I said, "Oh, wait a minute.
1147
00:48:03.542 --> 00:48:05.709
I have to do this.
I love this."
1148
00:48:05.792 --> 00:48:07.792
You know, I love Judy,
and I felt
1149
00:48:07.876 --> 00:48:11.000
very much of a connection,
identification with the part,
1150
00:48:11.083 --> 00:48:13.667
and I guess I was going
through my first rebellion.
1151
00:48:13.751 --> 00:48:16.042
- My mom wanted to make
"Rebel Without a Cause"
1152
00:48:16.125 --> 00:48:18.292
because she knew
that it was gonna take her
1153
00:48:18.375 --> 00:48:21.000
away from these sort
of good little girl roles
1154
00:48:21.083 --> 00:48:22.918
into leading lady roles,
1155
00:48:23.000 --> 00:48:26.083
and so she fought really hard
to get that part.
1156
00:48:26.167 --> 00:48:27.584
- When I was 15 years old
1157
00:48:27.667 --> 00:48:28.959
and doing
"Rebel Without a Cause,"
1158
00:48:29.042 --> 00:48:30.417
at that time,
1159
00:48:30.500 --> 00:48:31.667
the director and the studios
and so forth
1160
00:48:31.751 --> 00:48:32.918
said I was too young,
1161
00:48:33.000 --> 00:48:34.083
even though I was
exactly the right age.
1162
00:48:34.167 --> 00:48:35.459
They were sort of testing
older girls,
1163
00:48:35.542 --> 00:48:38.751
and they also saw me
in pigtails with a pinafore,
1164
00:48:38.834 --> 00:48:40.125
because those were
the kind of parts
1165
00:48:40.209 --> 00:48:42.083
that I was associated with.
1166
00:48:42.167 --> 00:48:43.459
So I tested for it
1167
00:48:43.542 --> 00:48:45.000
a number of times,
as a matter of fact.
1168
00:48:45.083 --> 00:48:46.334
Well, it's all right now.
1169
00:48:46.417 --> 00:48:48.500
You're our baby now.
1170
00:48:48.584 --> 00:48:50.626
I think I also got
into a car accident,
1171
00:48:50.709 --> 00:48:52.792
and instead of telling them
to call my parents,
1172
00:48:52.876 --> 00:48:54.000
I told them to call
the director
1173
00:48:54.083 --> 00:48:55.167
because one of the policemen
1174
00:48:55.250 --> 00:48:57.500
called me
a juvenile delinquent,
1175
00:48:57.584 --> 00:48:58.876
and I said, "Oh, well,
then that must mean
1176
00:48:58.959 --> 00:49:02.626
that I have the part."
[laughs]
1177
00:49:02.709 --> 00:49:04.834
"Call Nick Ray."
1178
00:49:04.918 --> 00:49:05.959
- There's sort of
a famous story
1179
00:49:06.042 --> 00:49:08.042
where she went
to the Chateau Marmont
1180
00:49:08.125 --> 00:49:09.209
to get together
with Nicholas Ray,
1181
00:49:09.292 --> 00:49:10.792
the director
of "Rebel Without a Cause,"
1182
00:49:10.876 --> 00:49:13.459
and something intimate went on
with the two of them,
1183
00:49:13.542 --> 00:49:14.667
a risky business back then.
1184
00:49:14.751 --> 00:49:17.125
She was underage,
and he was older,
1185
00:49:17.209 --> 00:49:18.667
right, so that would've been
a problem today.
1186
00:49:18.751 --> 00:49:21.250
- I met Nicholas Ray
a couple of times
1187
00:49:21.334 --> 00:49:23.709
even before
she was in "Rebel,"
1188
00:49:23.792 --> 00:49:27.667
and I knew when we went
to Nicholas Ray's apartment
1189
00:49:27.751 --> 00:49:29.876
that I never went upstairs.
1190
00:49:30.542 --> 00:49:32.834
And she would tell me
the next day or two
1191
00:49:32.918 --> 00:49:35.500
she just thought she was
in love with Nicholas Ray,
1192
00:49:35.584 --> 00:49:37.792
and I said,
"Natalie, he's so old."
1193
00:49:37.876 --> 00:49:39.709
She's, "Well, you know
I like older men."
1194
00:49:39.792 --> 00:49:41.375
I said, "But this
is really old."
1195
00:49:41.459 --> 00:49:43.876
- At no time did any
of the gentlemen
1196
00:49:43.959 --> 00:49:45.959
who were considered
your bosses--
1197
00:49:46.042 --> 00:49:47.667
did they ever ask you
to do something
1198
00:49:47.751 --> 00:49:51.334
that might be considered
immoral?
1199
00:49:51.417 --> 00:49:52.959
- No.
1200
00:49:55.584 --> 00:49:57.209
[light music]
1201
00:49:57.292 --> 00:50:01.167
- Natalie is a product
of the studio system:
1202
00:50:01.250 --> 00:50:03.167
getting there on time
in the morning,
1203
00:50:03.250 --> 00:50:04.959
working all day long,
1204
00:50:05.042 --> 00:50:07.667
knowing all of her lines
all the time.
1205
00:50:07.751 --> 00:50:10.083
That was the training
in that system,
1206
00:50:10.167 --> 00:50:13.792
and she came out of it
in such a good way.
1207
00:50:13.876 --> 00:50:15.334
Not everybody did,
1208
00:50:15.417 --> 00:50:16.751
because that system
1209
00:50:16.834 --> 00:50:19.584
controlled everything
in your life.
1210
00:50:19.667 --> 00:50:22.083
You were just told
what pictures you're gonna do
1211
00:50:22.167 --> 00:50:24.918
and what time to report.
1212
00:50:25.000 --> 00:50:26.834
- She was owned by the studio,
1213
00:50:26.918 --> 00:50:28.375
and she didn't want
to be owned.
1214
00:50:28.459 --> 00:50:30.709
She wanted to have control
over the choices.
1215
00:50:30.792 --> 00:50:33.500
I mean, if she's gonna spend
three months doing a film,
1216
00:50:33.584 --> 00:50:35.209
she wants to believe in it,
1217
00:50:35.292 --> 00:50:37.626
so she took on Jack Warner
and told him,
1218
00:50:37.709 --> 00:50:38.876
"I'm gonna go on strike
1219
00:50:38.959 --> 00:50:40.250
"because I don't like
the roles
1220
00:50:40.334 --> 00:50:42.542
that you're choosing for me."
1221
00:50:42.626 --> 00:50:45.250
- The suspension lasted
about 18 months,
1222
00:50:45.334 --> 00:50:47.334
so that--the punishment was
1223
00:50:47.417 --> 00:50:49.334
that if you wouldn't work
for them,
1224
00:50:49.417 --> 00:50:50.834
you couldn't work
anywhere else either.
1225
00:50:50.918 --> 00:50:52.000
- Right.
- It wasn't that I was
1226
00:50:52.083 --> 00:50:52.959
trying to get more money.
1227
00:50:53.042 --> 00:50:54.959
That really wasn't it at all.
1228
00:50:55.042 --> 00:50:57.626
But what I eventually did get
the right to do
1229
00:50:57.709 --> 00:51:01.626
was the right to choose
one picture a year
1230
00:51:01.709 --> 00:51:02.959
that, you know,
was my choice.
1231
00:51:03.042 --> 00:51:04.542
The first one
that I was able to choose
1232
00:51:04.626 --> 00:51:05.792
was "West Side Story."
1233
00:51:05.876 --> 00:51:08.125
Tonight is the real beginning
of my life
1234
00:51:08.209 --> 00:51:10.751
as a young lady of America.
1235
00:51:10.834 --> 00:51:13.584
- With "West Side Story,"
she became iconic,
1236
00:51:13.667 --> 00:51:15.125
a great legend.
1237
00:51:15.209 --> 00:51:18.250
I remember going
to train stations with Natalie
1238
00:51:18.334 --> 00:51:20.209
or going to airports with her,
1239
00:51:20.292 --> 00:51:23.417
and there--hundreds of people
would recognize her.
1240
00:51:23.500 --> 00:51:26.125
- Madre de Dios,
I will do anything.
1241
00:51:26.209 --> 00:51:27.792
Make me die,
1242
00:51:27.876 --> 00:51:30.000
only please make it
to be true!
1243
00:51:30.083 --> 00:51:32.375
- Today she would never
be cast in that role
1244
00:51:32.459 --> 00:51:34.125
because she's not
Puerto Rican.
1245
00:51:34.209 --> 00:51:35.584
That was obviously
a different time.
1246
00:51:35.667 --> 00:51:36.626
- It's sort of interesting
1247
00:51:36.709 --> 00:51:38.626
that Natalie Wood
would not have
1248
00:51:38.709 --> 00:51:42.500
one of her iconic roles today,
for sure.
1249
00:51:42.584 --> 00:51:45.334
- You didn't get nominated
for an Academy Award
1250
00:51:45.417 --> 00:51:46.334
for "West Side Story,"
1251
00:51:46.417 --> 00:51:48.834
but there was
a particular reason why.
1252
00:51:48.918 --> 00:51:50.584
- Well, I was nominated
for "Splendor in the Grass."
1253
00:51:50.667 --> 00:51:52.459
- Right.
[both laugh]
1254
00:51:52.542 --> 00:51:55.042
- By the age of 25,
my mom had been nominated
1255
00:51:55.125 --> 00:51:56.125
for three Oscars.
1256
00:51:56.209 --> 00:51:58.292
She was nominated
for Best Supporting Actress
1257
00:51:58.375 --> 00:51:59.918
for "Rebel Without a Cause,"
1258
00:52:00.000 --> 00:52:01.626
she was nominated
for Best Actress
1259
00:52:01.709 --> 00:52:02.959
for "Splendor in the Grass,"
1260
00:52:03.042 --> 00:52:04.459
and she was nominated
for Best Actress
1261
00:52:04.542 --> 00:52:06.584
for "Love with
the Proper Stranger."
1262
00:52:06.667 --> 00:52:09.000
Unfortunately,
she never won,
1263
00:52:09.083 --> 00:52:10.918
but I remember, in 1980,
1264
00:52:11.000 --> 00:52:12.042
my parents getting dressed up
1265
00:52:12.125 --> 00:52:13.876
to go
to the Golden Globe Awards,
1266
00:52:13.959 --> 00:52:15.042
and she won.
1267
00:52:15.125 --> 00:52:17.709
- Natalie Wood.
[applause]
1268
00:52:17.792 --> 00:52:20.209
- She won a Golden Globe
for the television version
1269
00:52:20.292 --> 00:52:23.709
of "From Here to Eternity"
with William Devane.
1270
00:52:23.792 --> 00:52:25.792
- This really feels nice.
1271
00:52:25.876 --> 00:52:28.042
Thank you very much.
1272
00:52:28.125 --> 00:52:30.000
I'm completely surprised.
1273
00:52:30.083 --> 00:52:32.334
- She always had the ability
1274
00:52:32.417 --> 00:52:34.918
to recognize good material,
1275
00:52:35.000 --> 00:52:37.042
and when she did "Splendor"
1276
00:52:37.125 --> 00:52:40.417
and after "West Side Story"
was a tremendous hit,
1277
00:52:40.500 --> 00:52:42.375
she could start to make
her own decisions
1278
00:52:42.459 --> 00:52:43.792
on what she wanted to do
1279
00:52:43.876 --> 00:52:45.459
and what was available
for her.
1280
00:52:45.542 --> 00:52:47.000
She stepped out there
and took risks.
1281
00:52:47.083 --> 00:52:49.042
- I'm a female
past the age of consent.
1282
00:52:49.125 --> 00:52:51.792
I was the first woman to edit
the newspaper at my college.
1283
00:52:51.876 --> 00:52:53.751
And I shall remain
handcuffed to this door
1284
00:52:53.834 --> 00:52:56.125
until I become
the first female reporter
1285
00:52:56.209 --> 00:52:58.334
of the "New York Sentinel."
- Over my dead body.
1286
00:52:58.417 --> 00:53:00.083
- In "The Great Race,"
1287
00:53:00.167 --> 00:53:02.083
even though
it was a comedy,
1288
00:53:02.167 --> 00:53:04.375
she still was playing
a character
1289
00:53:04.459 --> 00:53:07.667
who was defending women,
believed in women,
1290
00:53:07.751 --> 00:53:09.292
but she found out
that she was not
1291
00:53:09.375 --> 00:53:12.083
being paid or treated equally
1292
00:53:12.167 --> 00:53:14.334
to Tony Curtis
and Jack Lemmon,
1293
00:53:14.417 --> 00:53:17.417
so she went to all kinds
of extremes
1294
00:53:17.500 --> 00:53:19.417
to make sure
that everything was equal,
1295
00:53:19.500 --> 00:53:21.167
down to the length
1296
00:53:21.250 --> 00:53:23.125
of the phone cord
in their rooms.
1297
00:53:23.209 --> 00:53:24.876
- And she was one
of the few women
1298
00:53:24.959 --> 00:53:27.918
that had the power
to do that at that time.
1299
00:53:28.000 --> 00:53:29.709
There weren't a lot of women
that did
1300
00:53:29.792 --> 00:53:31.542
and who were outspoken enough
1301
00:53:31.626 --> 00:53:34.042
and could back it up
with her knowledge,
1302
00:53:34.125 --> 00:53:35.834
and everyone
who worked with her knew it.
1303
00:53:35.918 --> 00:53:37.292
They all learned from her.
1304
00:53:37.375 --> 00:53:38.417
- There's a picture of her
1305
00:53:38.500 --> 00:53:40.375
where she's
at the head of the table,
1306
00:53:40.459 --> 00:53:42.959
and then there's
her publicist, her agent,
1307
00:53:43.042 --> 00:53:44.334
her business manager.
1308
00:53:44.417 --> 00:53:45.792
They all work for her.
1309
00:53:45.876 --> 00:53:47.000
She's the only woman,
1310
00:53:47.083 --> 00:53:48.709
and she's
at the head of the table.
1311
00:53:48.792 --> 00:53:51.417
And she wasn't afraid
to be empowered.
1312
00:53:53.250 --> 00:53:55.250
- I certainly owe
the beginning
1313
00:53:55.334 --> 00:53:57.000
of my career in film to her
1314
00:53:57.083 --> 00:53:59.834
'cause I was an actor
on Broadway in the theater,
1315
00:53:59.918 --> 00:54:02.334
and so she came to see
a play that I was in,
1316
00:54:02.417 --> 00:54:04.000
came backstage to say hello.
1317
00:54:04.083 --> 00:54:06.417
I was very flattered,
and then that was that.
1318
00:54:06.500 --> 00:54:08.250
Then a while later,
when they were getting her
1319
00:54:08.334 --> 00:54:10.918
to do "Inside Daisy Clover,"
my name came up,
1320
00:54:11.000 --> 00:54:13.167
but I wasn't known at all
in Hollywood,
1321
00:54:13.250 --> 00:54:15.209
and she was the one
1322
00:54:15.292 --> 00:54:18.000
that stuck up for me
and said, "I want him."
1323
00:54:18.083 --> 00:54:20.334
And there were a lot of people
that tried to resist that,
1324
00:54:20.417 --> 00:54:21.500
said,
"Well, he's just not known,
1325
00:54:21.584 --> 00:54:23.500
and you're a big star
and he's not," and so forth.
1326
00:54:23.584 --> 00:54:25.792
She--"I don't care.
I want to do it with him."
1327
00:54:25.876 --> 00:54:27.834
There was a young lady
named Cherry
1328
00:54:27.918 --> 00:54:31.250
who used to get swacked
on sweet sherry.
1329
00:54:31.334 --> 00:54:33.500
And when they said--
1330
00:54:33.584 --> 00:54:34.876
uh, when they said.
1331
00:54:34.959 --> 00:54:38.125
What--what...
what--what--help me!
1332
00:54:38.209 --> 00:54:40.125
- Um...
- When they said what?
1333
00:54:40.209 --> 00:54:41.542
- Um...
- Do you think
1334
00:54:41.626 --> 00:54:43.959
it's a sensible drink?
1335
00:54:44.042 --> 00:54:45.375
- That's good.
1336
00:54:47.042 --> 00:54:48.584
She replied...
1337
00:54:52.334 --> 00:54:53.375
Not very.
1338
00:54:54.542 --> 00:54:57.292
So once that happened
and we made that film,
1339
00:54:57.375 --> 00:54:59.042
then we went into
"This Property Is Condemned,"
1340
00:54:59.125 --> 00:55:00.417
which she was desperate
to make.
1341
00:55:00.500 --> 00:55:03.209
She's, "Well, I'd like
to stay connected to Bob,"
1342
00:55:03.292 --> 00:55:05.209
so she just sort of
carried me along.
1343
00:55:05.292 --> 00:55:06.959
- Just because some people
might think I'm beautiful,
1344
00:55:07.042 --> 00:55:09.334
that doesn't mean
I'm everybody's property.
1345
00:55:09.417 --> 00:55:11.125
- If you really thought
you were beautiful,
1346
00:55:11.209 --> 00:55:12.459
you wouldn't be
anybody's property.
1347
00:55:12.542 --> 00:55:13.751
You'd be your own girl.
1348
00:55:13.834 --> 00:55:16.542
- I am my own girl,
Mr. Legate,
1349
00:55:16.626 --> 00:55:18.667
and I certainly don't need
some smart aleck like you
1350
00:55:18.751 --> 00:55:20.667
to come along and point out
the error of my ways.
1351
00:55:20.751 --> 00:55:23.292
- When I watch her films,
I straddle a fine line
1352
00:55:23.375 --> 00:55:26.209
between being caught
in her performance
1353
00:55:26.292 --> 00:55:30.709
and then searching for clues
about who she was.
1354
00:55:30.792 --> 00:55:33.000
I think many of the movies
that my mom chose
1355
00:55:33.083 --> 00:55:36.751
had a cathartic aspect,
"Daisy Clover" especially.
1356
00:55:36.834 --> 00:55:38.584
The scene
in the recording booth
1357
00:55:38.667 --> 00:55:40.709
where she's supposed
to dub herself
1358
00:55:40.792 --> 00:55:42.542
and we can't hear her
'cause we're outside
1359
00:55:42.626 --> 00:55:44.709
of the recording booth
but she's screaming...
1360
00:55:44.792 --> 00:55:46.250
- [screams]
1361
00:55:46.334 --> 00:55:48.083
- That's how she felt
on the inside.
1362
00:55:48.167 --> 00:55:49.459
She was screaming
on the inside,
1363
00:55:49.542 --> 00:55:51.876
but nobody can hear her
because she was
1364
00:55:51.959 --> 00:55:54.751
owned by the studio.
1365
00:55:54.834 --> 00:55:56.417
- You have, in "Daisy Clover,"
1366
00:55:56.500 --> 00:55:58.417
the really brilliant
crack-up scene.
1367
00:55:58.500 --> 00:56:00.542
You have another one
in "Splendor in the Grass"
1368
00:56:00.626 --> 00:56:01.876
in the bathtub.
1369
00:56:01.959 --> 00:56:04.042
Those scenes must have been
difficult to do.
1370
00:56:04.125 --> 00:56:06.292
- I think they're
the kind of scenes
1371
00:56:06.375 --> 00:56:08.876
that one does just have to,
you know,
1372
00:56:08.959 --> 00:56:10.209
get into a certain mood,
1373
00:56:10.292 --> 00:56:12.542
and it's the kind of thing
that you can't do
1374
00:56:12.626 --> 00:56:14.417
very many times
over and over again.
1375
00:56:14.500 --> 00:56:17.542
No, Mom!
I'm not spoiled!
1376
00:56:17.626 --> 00:56:20.125
I'm not spoiled, Mom!
- Deanie...
1377
00:56:20.209 --> 00:56:21.918
- I'm just as fresh
and I'm virginal
1378
00:56:22.000 --> 00:56:23.417
like the day I was born, Mom!
1379
00:56:23.500 --> 00:56:25.000
- Stop it!
Stop it!
1380
00:56:25.083 --> 00:56:27.292
- In the time that my mom
came of age,
1381
00:56:27.375 --> 00:56:30.125
nervous breakdowns
and mental institutions
1382
00:56:30.209 --> 00:56:31.876
and suicide,
1383
00:56:31.959 --> 00:56:34.042
that was more
of a taboo thing.
1384
00:56:34.125 --> 00:56:36.125
There was a stigma
about all that stuff.
1385
00:56:36.209 --> 00:56:37.209
- Deanie, come back here!
1386
00:56:37.292 --> 00:56:38.918
- And in
"Splendor in the Grass,"
1387
00:56:39.000 --> 00:56:41.417
she tries to commit suicide
in the water,
1388
00:56:41.500 --> 00:56:44.626
and then she goes
to a mental institution
1389
00:56:44.709 --> 00:56:46.167
for two years.
1390
00:56:46.250 --> 00:56:47.417
- She hasn't spoken
a word of sense
1391
00:56:47.500 --> 00:56:49.959
since they brought her
in here.
1392
00:56:50.042 --> 00:56:51.751
- But in 1964,
1393
00:56:51.834 --> 00:56:53.918
three years after "Splendor"
was released,
1394
00:56:54.000 --> 00:56:55.834
these themes
were actually reflected
1395
00:56:55.918 --> 00:56:57.751
in her real life.
1396
00:56:57.834 --> 00:56:59.918
While she was filming
"The Great Race,"
1397
00:57:00.000 --> 00:57:02.500
she felt lonely and unhappy
1398
00:57:02.584 --> 00:57:05.334
and afraid of never being able
to maintain
1399
00:57:05.417 --> 00:57:08.000
a stable
and healthy relationship,
1400
00:57:08.083 --> 00:57:10.209
so she took
enough sleeping pills
1401
00:57:10.292 --> 00:57:11.876
to kill herself.
1402
00:57:11.959 --> 00:57:13.667
When I found out
about all this,
1403
00:57:13.751 --> 00:57:16.334
my Daddy Wagner
told me to talk to Mart
1404
00:57:16.417 --> 00:57:18.500
because he was spending
the night at her house
1405
00:57:18.584 --> 00:57:19.709
when it happened.
1406
00:57:19.792 --> 00:57:22.500
- It was an overdose
and a half.
1407
00:57:22.584 --> 00:57:24.959
I mean, God almighty,
she was out.
1408
00:57:25.042 --> 00:57:27.292
And I was told that,
1409
00:57:27.375 --> 00:57:29.250
you know, after they pumped
her stomach, they didn't know
1410
00:57:29.334 --> 00:57:30.792
whether she was gonna
pull through or not,
1411
00:57:30.876 --> 00:57:32.542
but she did.
1412
00:57:32.626 --> 00:57:34.209
- She spent the weekend
in the hospital,
1413
00:57:34.292 --> 00:57:35.417
and on Monday morning,
1414
00:57:35.500 --> 00:57:37.292
she was back at work
on "The Great Race."
1415
00:57:37.375 --> 00:57:39.292
But I don't necessarily look
at that night
1416
00:57:39.375 --> 00:57:40.709
as a suicide attempt.
1417
00:57:40.792 --> 00:57:43.209
It was really
a cry for help.
1418
00:57:43.292 --> 00:57:44.709
After she swallowed the pills,
1419
00:57:44.792 --> 00:57:46.667
she banged on Mart's door,
1420
00:57:46.751 --> 00:57:49.209
so obviously,
she wanted to live.
1421
00:57:49.292 --> 00:57:51.125
- I read that you were
in analysis--
1422
00:57:51.209 --> 00:57:52.375
I don't know
if this is correct or not--
1423
00:57:52.459 --> 00:57:54.250
eight year--for eight years,
five days a week,
1424
00:57:54.334 --> 00:57:56.000
in Freudian analysis.
- Mm-hmm.
1425
00:57:56.083 --> 00:57:58.167
- You must have dry-cleaned
your mother and father,
1426
00:57:58.250 --> 00:57:59.709
I mean,
during that period of time.
1427
00:57:59.792 --> 00:58:01.751
- Well, I sorted out
a few problems.
1428
00:58:01.834 --> 00:58:05.167
Dr. Judd,
don't they realize I'm me?
1429
00:58:05.250 --> 00:58:08.292
I don't think I could ever
go back home again.
1430
00:58:08.375 --> 00:58:10.834
I don't think I could ever
feel the same way
1431
00:58:10.918 --> 00:58:12.792
I used to feel about them.
1432
00:58:13.584 --> 00:58:15.709
- We didn't talk a lot
about her childhood,
1433
00:58:15.792 --> 00:58:17.584
but I knew some things,
1434
00:58:17.667 --> 00:58:19.334
and she needed some help,
1435
00:58:19.417 --> 00:58:22.000
and she wasn't gonna get that
from her mom,
1436
00:58:22.083 --> 00:58:25.083
and it probably went
way back, undoubtedly,
1437
00:58:25.167 --> 00:58:26.125
all of it.
1438
00:58:26.209 --> 00:58:30.417
So with her own
significant intelligence
1439
00:58:30.500 --> 00:58:32.292
and a good therapist,
1440
00:58:32.375 --> 00:58:36.083
she was able to make sense
of some pretty severe nonsense
1441
00:58:36.167 --> 00:58:37.626
that had come and gone her way.
1442
00:58:37.709 --> 00:58:38.876
- How do you know?
1443
00:58:38.959 --> 00:58:40.417
- Because I've been
your analyst for three years.
1444
00:58:40.500 --> 00:58:41.459
I know what you're capable of,
1445
00:58:41.542 --> 00:58:42.751
and I know what you're not
capable of.
1446
00:58:42.834 --> 00:58:43.876
- Would you like to bet?
1447
00:58:43.959 --> 00:58:45.250
- My reputation in psychiatry
1448
00:58:45.334 --> 00:58:47.000
against anything you care
to put up.
1449
00:58:47.083 --> 00:58:48.292
- Will this be enough?
1450
00:58:48.375 --> 00:58:50.375
I feel I got a great deal
out of analysis,
1451
00:58:50.459 --> 00:58:52.375
and I think a lot of people
think that analysis
1452
00:58:52.459 --> 00:58:54.209
makes one become introspective,
1453
00:58:54.292 --> 00:58:55.334
and I think it does
the opposite.
1454
00:58:55.417 --> 00:58:56.542
I think it opens you.
1455
00:58:56.626 --> 00:58:58.000
I think it frees you
from being
1456
00:58:58.083 --> 00:59:01.042
locked into your own--
worrying about yourself.
1457
00:59:01.125 --> 00:59:02.751
- One of
the most wonderful things
1458
00:59:02.834 --> 00:59:05.209
that she ever did for me was,
she convinced me
1459
00:59:05.292 --> 00:59:07.000
to get into analysis,
1460
00:59:07.083 --> 00:59:09.417
and it saved my life,
without question.
1461
00:59:09.500 --> 00:59:13.417
- I remember the day
that I saw Barbra Streisand
1462
00:59:13.500 --> 00:59:15.667
come to the set
to talk to Natalie
1463
00:59:15.751 --> 00:59:20.292
about how to block off time
to see your psychiatrist
1464
00:59:20.375 --> 00:59:22.542
during a movie,
'cause stars didn't have that
1465
00:59:22.626 --> 00:59:23.792
in their contracts
at that time,
1466
00:59:23.876 --> 00:59:25.876
but she did.
1467
00:59:25.959 --> 00:59:27.918
There was nothing
out-of-bounds with Natalie.
1468
00:59:28.000 --> 00:59:30.417
I felt so comfortable with her.
1469
00:59:30.500 --> 00:59:33.542
- Here's a toast to Bob
and Carol and Ted and Alice.
1470
00:59:33.626 --> 00:59:35.375
- That's a good--
I'll drink to us.
1471
00:59:35.459 --> 00:59:36.542
- Hats and horns.
- [laughing] Four...
1472
00:59:36.626 --> 00:59:38.918
of the grooviest people
I've ever known.
1473
00:59:39.000 --> 00:59:40.876
- This movie
was about infidelity
1474
00:59:40.959 --> 00:59:42.125
and these encounter groups
1475
00:59:42.209 --> 00:59:44.751
where people were looking
into their real me
1476
00:59:44.834 --> 00:59:48.334
and all the things that were
spanking new at the time
1477
00:59:48.417 --> 00:59:50.000
and very controversial.
1478
00:59:50.083 --> 00:59:51.834
- It just seems wrong.
1479
00:59:51.918 --> 00:59:53.125
- Oh, it's not.
1480
00:59:53.209 --> 00:59:54.834
Look, it's just nice feelings.
1481
00:59:54.918 --> 00:59:56.834
It's something that we've
never done before.
1482
00:59:56.918 --> 01:00:00.167
It's physical fun.
It's just sex.
1483
01:00:00.250 --> 01:00:02.500
- I was not sure of it.
1484
01:00:02.584 --> 01:00:04.459
I thought
it might be exploitative
1485
01:00:04.542 --> 01:00:07.500
in terms of the sexual aspect
of it,
1486
01:00:07.584 --> 01:00:10.959
but Natalie brought
what the film needed:
1487
01:00:11.042 --> 01:00:12.667
not only a star
1488
01:00:12.751 --> 01:00:16.083
but a quality of intelligence
1489
01:00:16.167 --> 01:00:19.500
that an audience
could identify with.
1490
01:00:19.584 --> 01:00:21.792
And even the scene
1491
01:00:21.876 --> 01:00:24.209
when we're all
in bed together,
1492
01:00:24.292 --> 01:00:26.834
I wore two pairs
of jockey shorts,
1493
01:00:26.918 --> 01:00:30.918
but Natalie made it
so easy
1494
01:00:31.000 --> 01:00:32.375
and so natural.
1495
01:00:32.459 --> 01:00:35.876
So that was a great gift
for all of us.
1496
01:00:35.959 --> 01:00:39.292
- In 1970, she had just
come off a big success
1497
01:00:39.375 --> 01:00:41.125
with "Bob & Carol
& Ted & Alice."
1498
01:00:41.209 --> 01:00:44.417
My Daddy Gregson called her
"rich and happy"
1499
01:00:44.500 --> 01:00:46.918
because she owned points
in that film,
1500
01:00:47.000 --> 01:00:49.375
and so I think she was
in a really good place
1501
01:00:49.459 --> 01:00:51.042
at that time.
1502
01:00:51.125 --> 01:00:54.000
[peaceful music]
1503
01:00:54.083 --> 01:00:57.500
- At one point,
you had unbelievable power
1504
01:00:57.584 --> 01:00:58.876
for a female
1505
01:00:58.959 --> 01:01:00.834
when you were
one of the few females
1506
01:01:00.918 --> 01:01:02.959
who could get a picture made,
1507
01:01:03.042 --> 01:01:06.584
and then you seemed
to opt out of stardom.
1508
01:01:06.667 --> 01:01:08.167
Why?
1509
01:01:08.250 --> 01:01:10.500
- Oh, gosh, Rona,
I don't know.
1510
01:01:10.584 --> 01:01:13.751
I've been acting
since I was five, really,
1511
01:01:13.834 --> 01:01:17.083
and I think that I came
to a point in my life
1512
01:01:17.167 --> 01:01:19.709
where I felt that I wanted
to live some of my life
1513
01:01:19.792 --> 01:01:20.876
without work,
1514
01:01:20.959 --> 01:01:24.000
because I'd always been
so absorbed in work.
1515
01:01:24.083 --> 01:01:27.209
And I also got married
and wanted to have children,
1516
01:01:27.292 --> 01:01:30.584
and I really just enjoyed
being with them.
1517
01:01:30.667 --> 01:01:33.542
[gentle piano music]
1518
01:01:33.626 --> 01:01:38.709
♪ ♪
1519
01:01:38.792 --> 01:01:41.876
- After I was born in 1970,
1520
01:01:41.959 --> 01:01:43.834
my mom took a break
from acting
1521
01:01:43.918 --> 01:01:46.209
for maybe four or five years
1522
01:01:46.292 --> 01:01:49.292
because she wanted to be
a stay-at-home mom.
1523
01:01:49.375 --> 01:01:50.375
And then slowly, you know,
1524
01:01:50.459 --> 01:01:53.167
the acting bug
came back around,
1525
01:01:53.250 --> 01:01:56.167
and so she did start to feel
the need to go back to work.
1526
01:01:56.250 --> 01:01:57.292
- May I come in?
1527
01:01:57.375 --> 01:01:58.876
- Why the hell not?
1528
01:01:58.959 --> 01:02:00.125
Better late than never.
1529
01:02:00.209 --> 01:02:02.584
- And then when Courtney
and I were getting older,
1530
01:02:02.667 --> 01:02:03.959
she wanted to act
1531
01:02:04.042 --> 01:02:06.626
with the knowledge
of being a mother.
1532
01:02:06.709 --> 01:02:07.918
- All right.
1533
01:02:08.000 --> 01:02:10.083
That's little Cassie,
always obedient.
1534
01:02:10.167 --> 01:02:11.792
Kiss your mother.
Go to confession.
1535
01:02:11.876 --> 01:02:13.500
Change the baby.
Shut your mouth.
1536
01:02:13.584 --> 01:02:16.459
- "The Cracker Factory"
was a big television event
1537
01:02:16.542 --> 01:02:18.000
of that time,
1538
01:02:18.083 --> 01:02:22.000
and it was very unusual
that a big movie star
1539
01:02:22.083 --> 01:02:25.083
was going to portray
a character on television
1540
01:02:25.167 --> 01:02:27.250
that had so many flaws.
1541
01:02:27.334 --> 01:02:29.000
And I played her daughter,
1542
01:02:29.083 --> 01:02:30.959
and I remember her
being excited
1543
01:02:31.042 --> 01:02:33.876
about playing real struggles
of people's families
1544
01:02:34.000 --> 01:02:35.584
and about being real.
1545
01:02:35.667 --> 01:02:37.834
- It was a book that I just
thought was wonderful,
1546
01:02:37.918 --> 01:02:39.709
and I thought
what made it unusual
1547
01:02:39.792 --> 01:02:41.167
is the woman's real wit
1548
01:02:41.250 --> 01:02:42.751
and her way of dealing
1549
01:02:42.834 --> 01:02:44.792
with the problems
that she had.
1550
01:02:44.876 --> 01:02:46.918
And I think it wasn't only
about alcoholism.
1551
01:02:47.000 --> 01:02:49.334
I think it was also
about the many pressures
1552
01:02:49.417 --> 01:02:53.834
that face a woman,
wife, mother today.
1553
01:02:53.918 --> 01:02:58.125
- I would hear discussions
with Natalie and RJ
1554
01:02:58.209 --> 01:02:59.250
'cause here they are
in the bed,
1555
01:02:59.334 --> 01:03:00.626
and I'm over here at the desk.
1556
01:03:00.709 --> 01:03:03.626
RJ was doing "Hart to Hart,"
1557
01:03:03.709 --> 01:03:05.459
and Natalie would say,
"Well, I've got the script,
1558
01:03:05.542 --> 01:03:07.959
'Meteor' with Sean Connery."
1559
01:03:08.042 --> 01:03:10.542
And he'd say, "Well, okay,
I have a break
1560
01:03:10.626 --> 01:03:14.083
during this time,"
because their main rule was,
1561
01:03:14.167 --> 01:03:16.042
they wouldn't both
be working at the same time,
1562
01:03:16.125 --> 01:03:18.083
that somebody would be home
for the children.
1563
01:03:18.167 --> 01:03:19.876
- It doesn't look like
you're ready to jump rope.
1564
01:03:19.959 --> 01:03:21.375
- Well, I think
I'm gonna watch,
1565
01:03:21.459 --> 01:03:23.292
and I'll let the Harts
jump rope today.
1566
01:03:23.375 --> 01:03:24.417
But we do jump rope at home,
1567
01:03:24.500 --> 01:03:25.542
and the kids
are gonna jump rope,
1568
01:03:25.626 --> 01:03:27.375
Courtney, Natasha, Katie.
1569
01:03:27.459 --> 01:03:29.042
- I love jump rope.
1570
01:03:29.125 --> 01:03:31.167
- Why?
- Because.
1571
01:03:31.250 --> 01:03:32.959
- Does it make you feel good?
- Yes.
1572
01:03:33.042 --> 01:03:34.334
- Do you recommend it?
1573
01:03:34.417 --> 01:03:35.834
- I don't know.
1574
01:03:35.918 --> 01:03:39.042
- I think women today
are trying to have it all
1575
01:03:39.125 --> 01:03:41.876
in the sense
that we don't just choose
1576
01:03:41.959 --> 01:03:43.792
to be one thing
or the other.
1577
01:03:43.876 --> 01:03:46.417
We don't just say, "Well,
now we're gonna give up career,
1578
01:03:46.500 --> 01:03:49.292
"sacrifice our life,
and be a wife and a mother,
1579
01:03:49.375 --> 01:03:51.834
or we're gonna be
a career woman, pursue that."
1580
01:03:51.918 --> 01:03:56.209
I mean, I think a lot of us
are trying to do
1581
01:03:56.292 --> 01:03:57.667
all of it, you know,
1582
01:03:57.751 --> 01:04:00.918
without having, you know,
one suffer.
1583
01:04:01.000 --> 01:04:02.918
- I think it was difficult
for her.
1584
01:04:03.000 --> 01:04:05.918
She was torn by wanting
1585
01:04:06.000 --> 01:04:08.751
to be there
with her children
1586
01:04:08.834 --> 01:04:11.167
in a family unit with RJ
1587
01:04:11.250 --> 01:04:13.709
and to fulfill
this other side of her
1588
01:04:13.792 --> 01:04:14.918
that was her core,
1589
01:04:15.000 --> 01:04:18.542
and I think that was
a real growing pressure.
1590
01:04:18.626 --> 01:04:19.876
- Marker.
1591
01:04:19.959 --> 01:04:21.792
- With your children
growing up,
1592
01:04:21.876 --> 01:04:25.375
with your going back
into doing more movies,
1593
01:04:25.459 --> 01:04:29.209
how would you like to see
your 40th birthday approached?
1594
01:04:29.292 --> 01:04:30.792
- Oh, gosh.
1595
01:04:30.876 --> 01:04:33.209
Well, I would like to...work.
1596
01:04:33.292 --> 01:04:34.542
I would like to keep working,
1597
01:04:34.626 --> 01:04:37.000
not necessarily
at a faster speed,
1598
01:04:37.083 --> 01:04:38.918
but I'd like to be able
to do good parts.
1599
01:04:39.042 --> 01:04:40.626
I loved working
in "West Side Story,"
1600
01:04:40.709 --> 01:04:41.876
but I wouldn't go back.
1601
01:04:41.959 --> 01:04:43.000
Today's what counts,
1602
01:04:43.083 --> 01:04:45.083
and RainTree helps you
make the most of it.
1603
01:04:45.167 --> 01:04:47.375
- She was going through
a transition in age,
1604
01:04:47.459 --> 01:04:50.334
which Hollywood was not
very accepting of,
1605
01:04:50.417 --> 01:04:53.459
and even now, it's a problem
once you get those crow's-feet,
1606
01:04:53.542 --> 01:04:54.459
you know?
1607
01:04:54.542 --> 01:04:55.959
Maybe you don't get
the great roles.
1608
01:04:56.042 --> 01:04:58.626
- If you're like me, you don't
want to go back in time.
1609
01:04:58.709 --> 01:05:00.709
You want to stay ahead of it.
1610
01:05:00.792 --> 01:05:02.459
- But she was unsinkable.
1611
01:05:02.542 --> 01:05:04.751
She would accept that,
"Yes, I'm now 40,"
1612
01:05:04.834 --> 01:05:06.542
which seems like nothing now,
1613
01:05:06.626 --> 01:05:07.584
"and I'm gonna work,
and I'm gonna be
1614
01:05:07.667 --> 01:05:10.375
a woman my age,
and it's gonna be great."
1615
01:05:10.459 --> 01:05:13.792
- Come on, now.
Stop holding things back.
1616
01:05:13.876 --> 01:05:15.375
- All right, God damn it.
1617
01:05:15.459 --> 01:05:17.083
I'm not sorry
they're getting divorced.
1618
01:05:17.167 --> 01:05:19.250
I mean, I am sorry
they're getting divorced.
1619
01:05:19.334 --> 01:05:21.375
[both laugh]
1620
01:05:21.459 --> 01:05:23.334
- She had, like,
two personalities,
1621
01:05:23.417 --> 01:05:25.334
both of which
she controlled,
1622
01:05:25.417 --> 01:05:28.000
but when she chose
to be a movie star,
1623
01:05:28.083 --> 01:05:30.459
she was all made up.
1624
01:05:30.542 --> 01:05:32.250
- And, honey...
- Yeah.
1625
01:05:32.334 --> 01:05:34.375
- While you're finishing
your hot dog,
1626
01:05:34.459 --> 01:05:35.918
think of this.
1627
01:05:36.000 --> 01:05:38.876
I'm not wearing anything
underneath my coat.
1628
01:05:38.959 --> 01:05:41.167
- You're kidding.
1629
01:05:43.167 --> 01:05:45.626
So she was very wise
1630
01:05:45.709 --> 01:05:48.667
about how she dispensed
herself,
1631
01:05:48.751 --> 01:05:50.667
the commercial side of her.
1632
01:05:50.751 --> 01:05:52.918
- My mom had
a great publicist
1633
01:05:53.000 --> 01:05:55.334
named George Kirvey,
and he felt,
1634
01:05:55.417 --> 01:05:57.667
when she was hitting
her 40s,
1635
01:05:57.751 --> 01:05:59.792
that it was time
to revamp her image.
1636
01:05:59.876 --> 01:06:01.667
- I was working
for "Look" magazine
1637
01:06:01.751 --> 01:06:04.209
and "People" magazine,
1638
01:06:04.292 --> 01:06:06.209
and George Kirvey said,
1639
01:06:06.292 --> 01:06:10.250
"Maybe, you know, we want
to change Natalie's image
1640
01:06:10.334 --> 01:06:13.626
"to some more sensual,
maybe a little sexier,
1641
01:06:13.709 --> 01:06:17.334
and more of the '70s time,"
and we did that,
1642
01:06:17.417 --> 01:06:19.000
and we
really accomplished that.
1643
01:06:19.083 --> 01:06:20.709
It's been written about:
I changed
1644
01:06:20.792 --> 01:06:23.792
the whole professional look
of Natalie Wood.
1645
01:06:25.000 --> 01:06:29.834
This is my favorite photo
of Natalie Wood.
1646
01:06:29.918 --> 01:06:33.417
This is published
all around the world.
1647
01:06:33.500 --> 01:06:37.000
And this is the "Anastasia"
poster portrait
1648
01:06:37.083 --> 01:06:39.918
that we did for--
you hold it up--
1649
01:06:40.000 --> 01:06:41.876
for the Ahmanson Theatre.
1650
01:06:41.959 --> 01:06:45.959
- It was an exciting time
for her professionally.
1651
01:06:46.042 --> 01:06:48.000
I remember
having conversations
1652
01:06:48.083 --> 01:06:49.542
with her and George
1653
01:06:49.626 --> 01:06:52.751
about her first
stage appearance
1654
01:06:52.834 --> 01:06:54.125
in "Anastasia."
1655
01:06:54.209 --> 01:06:56.375
She was petrified
of the stage
1656
01:06:56.459 --> 01:06:58.918
but wanted to overcome it.
1657
01:06:59.000 --> 01:07:00.250
- During that time that Mommy
1658
01:07:00.334 --> 01:07:02.417
was thinking
about "Anastasia,"
1659
01:07:02.500 --> 01:07:04.250
you were working really hard.
1660
01:07:04.334 --> 01:07:05.584
- Well, we were still doing
"Hart to Hart."
1661
01:07:05.667 --> 01:07:07.125
- You were doing
"Hart to Hart."
1662
01:07:07.209 --> 01:07:09.167
- I was in Hawaii,
you know, on location
1663
01:07:09.250 --> 01:07:10.542
when she was doing
"Brainstorm"
1664
01:07:10.626 --> 01:07:12.584
in North Carolina.
1665
01:07:12.667 --> 01:07:15.250
- In 1981, when my mom
passed away,
1666
01:07:15.334 --> 01:07:18.167
she was in the middle
of filming "Brainstorm,"
1667
01:07:18.250 --> 01:07:21.209
starring Christopher Walken
and Louise Fletcher.
1668
01:07:21.292 --> 01:07:23.584
She was shooting on location
in North Carolina,
1669
01:07:23.667 --> 01:07:25.125
and it was kind of a big deal
1670
01:07:25.209 --> 01:07:28.125
because that was
the first time that my mom
1671
01:07:28.209 --> 01:07:29.125
and my Daddy Wagner
1672
01:07:29.209 --> 01:07:30.751
would be working
at the same time.
1673
01:07:30.834 --> 01:07:32.834
- I think I can get it
down to size
1674
01:07:32.918 --> 01:07:34.459
and make it look attractive,
1675
01:07:34.542 --> 01:07:38.375
maybe something
like stereo headphones.
1676
01:07:38.459 --> 01:07:40.417
- I'm not worried about that.
I know you can.
1677
01:07:40.500 --> 01:07:43.125
It's Michael.
1678
01:07:43.209 --> 01:07:46.125
You're gonna have to work
very closely with him.
1679
01:07:46.209 --> 01:07:47.584
Is that a problem?
1680
01:07:47.667 --> 01:07:49.250
- No.
1681
01:07:49.334 --> 01:07:50.918
That won't be any problem.
1682
01:07:51.000 --> 01:07:52.792
- Okay.
- Not for me.
1683
01:07:52.876 --> 01:07:55.083
- At first,
I was very intimidated
1684
01:07:55.167 --> 01:07:56.626
with the idea of working
with Natalie Wood.
1685
01:07:56.709 --> 01:07:58.417
This is
an extremely experienced
1686
01:07:58.500 --> 01:08:00.334
and competent actress,
1687
01:08:00.417 --> 01:08:03.959
and Chris Walken is kind of
an experimental performer,
1688
01:08:04.042 --> 01:08:05.876
and he's so extraordinary.
1689
01:08:05.959 --> 01:08:07.417
So I never felt any problem
1690
01:08:07.500 --> 01:08:10.125
with trying to make them
fit together as a couple.
1691
01:08:10.209 --> 01:08:11.334
From a director's standpoint,
1692
01:08:11.417 --> 01:08:12.918
I thought
it was gonna work fine.
1693
01:08:13.000 --> 01:08:15.709
But one of the things
that I wanted to comment on
1694
01:08:15.792 --> 01:08:17.500
in the context
of this interview
1695
01:08:17.584 --> 01:08:19.834
is that there was a love scene
between the two,
1696
01:08:19.918 --> 01:08:21.292
a sex scene, actually,
1697
01:08:21.375 --> 01:08:23.667
and I found out
in the shooting of that scene
1698
01:08:23.751 --> 01:08:26.334
that there was
almost no physical charisma
1699
01:08:26.417 --> 01:08:27.834
between them at all,
1700
01:08:27.918 --> 01:08:30.626
and so that made me believe,
in retrospect now,
1701
01:08:30.709 --> 01:08:32.500
that the suggestion that there
was some love triangle
1702
01:08:32.584 --> 01:08:35.292
between Natalie and Christopher
and RJ or something like that,
1703
01:08:35.375 --> 01:08:36.792
whatever anybody
would make of it,
1704
01:08:36.876 --> 01:08:37.959
is not true.
1705
01:08:38.042 --> 01:08:39.417
I just think
it's impossible.
1706
01:08:39.500 --> 01:08:42.125
- Based on conversations
I had with Natalie,
1707
01:08:42.209 --> 01:08:44.292
she was not having an affair.
1708
01:08:44.375 --> 01:08:46.709
That's based on what
she was saying to me.
1709
01:08:48.417 --> 01:08:50.584
That's what I believe.
1710
01:08:51.167 --> 01:08:53.209
- How do you and your wife
manage to combine
1711
01:08:53.292 --> 01:08:56.584
two successful careers
and a good family life?
1712
01:08:56.667 --> 01:08:58.459
- She's
a really wonderful lady,
1713
01:08:58.542 --> 01:09:00.959
and she rather makes it all
work out.
1714
01:09:01.042 --> 01:09:03.375
You know, she really--
it's a very difficult thing
1715
01:09:03.459 --> 01:09:04.751
to be a mother and an actress
1716
01:09:04.834 --> 01:09:06.584
and have a career
and have a husband
1717
01:09:06.667 --> 01:09:08.209
and all of that.
1718
01:09:08.292 --> 01:09:10.209
It's difficult
because we haven't really
1719
01:09:10.292 --> 01:09:11.667
ever been apart this long.
1720
01:09:11.751 --> 01:09:13.167
This is the longest
we've been apart,
1721
01:09:13.250 --> 01:09:16.626
and it has been--I find it
very difficult, really,
1722
01:09:16.709 --> 01:09:18.834
because, you know,
we've been together so much,
1723
01:09:18.918 --> 01:09:21.792
and I think it's difficult
for anybody who's in love
1724
01:09:21.876 --> 01:09:24.000
to be...away from the one--
1725
01:09:24.083 --> 01:09:25.542
the person that they're
in love with.
1726
01:09:25.626 --> 01:09:27.375
- I think it really is
a question
1727
01:09:27.459 --> 01:09:28.918
of trying to figure out
how to use your time
1728
01:09:29.000 --> 01:09:30.000
the best way...
- Mm-hmm.
1729
01:09:30.083 --> 01:09:31.209
- And to be flexible.
1730
01:09:31.292 --> 01:09:32.584
Because I think the main thing
1731
01:09:32.667 --> 01:09:34.542
is to try to be together
as much as possible
1732
01:09:34.626 --> 01:09:36.167
so that everybody--you know,
1733
01:09:36.250 --> 01:09:37.250
so that you're
with your kids enough
1734
01:09:37.334 --> 01:09:40.584
and with your husband enough
and with yourself enough
1735
01:09:40.667 --> 01:09:43.959
and doing
your own thing enough.
1736
01:09:44.042 --> 01:09:45.584
- When she went
to North Carolina,
1737
01:09:45.667 --> 01:09:47.876
I remember that I would
write her these letters,
1738
01:09:47.959 --> 01:09:50.334
and I would cry
as I was writing the letter
1739
01:09:50.417 --> 01:09:51.459
'cause I missed her so much,
1740
01:09:51.542 --> 01:09:54.792
and then I would draw
around the tear,
1741
01:09:54.876 --> 01:09:57.000
and then I would write "tear"
with an arrow...
1742
01:09:57.083 --> 01:09:58.709
[laughs]
Because obviously,
1743
01:09:58.792 --> 01:10:01.209
she couldn't see the tear
'cause it had dried up.
1744
01:10:01.292 --> 01:10:02.834
- Yeah, you did miss her a lot.
- Yeah.
1745
01:10:02.918 --> 01:10:05.000
I really missed her,
and I wasn't used
1746
01:10:05.083 --> 01:10:06.709
to her being gone,
1747
01:10:06.792 --> 01:10:09.876
so when she came back,
1748
01:10:09.959 --> 01:10:12.584
we were all really happy
to see her.
1749
01:10:12.667 --> 01:10:14.459
- We had wrapped
in North Carolina.
1750
01:10:14.542 --> 01:10:16.667
We were done
with the location shooting,
1751
01:10:16.751 --> 01:10:18.083
and we were going back to LA
1752
01:10:18.167 --> 01:10:20.834
to shoot the interiors
and set stuff back at MGMs
1753
01:10:20.918 --> 01:10:22.417
after the Thanksgiving
holiday.
1754
01:10:22.500 --> 01:10:24.959
- In 1981, we had Thanksgiving
together as a family
1755
01:10:25.042 --> 01:10:26.667
at the house on Cañon Drive.
1756
01:10:26.751 --> 01:10:29.209
A house full of people,
as always.
1757
01:10:29.292 --> 01:10:31.459
Natalie had returned
from North Carolina
1758
01:10:31.542 --> 01:10:33.500
to finish shooting
"Brainstorm" in Los Angeles,
1759
01:10:33.584 --> 01:10:35.834
and Daddy had come back
from Hawaii,
1760
01:10:35.918 --> 01:10:38.000
where he had been shooting
"Hart to Hart,"
1761
01:10:38.083 --> 01:10:40.751
and it was very rainy
and stormy that weekend.
1762
01:10:40.834 --> 01:10:42.417
Natalie and Daddy
would go out on the boat
1763
01:10:42.500 --> 01:10:43.417
a lot for weekends.
1764
01:10:43.500 --> 01:10:44.751
A lot of times,
the kids would go,
1765
01:10:44.834 --> 01:10:46.918
but in this case, they were
gonna have an adult weekend,
1766
01:10:47.000 --> 01:10:49.250
and I know that Natalie
had asked several people
1767
01:10:49.334 --> 01:10:50.417
to join them.
1768
01:10:50.500 --> 01:10:52.000
Christopher Walken
was in Los Angeles
1769
01:10:52.083 --> 01:10:53.083
to finish "Brainstorm."
1770
01:10:53.167 --> 01:10:54.709
He did not live
in Los Angeles.
1771
01:10:54.792 --> 01:10:56.334
And so naturally,
she asked him
1772
01:10:56.417 --> 01:10:57.500
to go on the boat.
1773
01:10:57.584 --> 01:11:00.000
And they asked
several other friends
1774
01:11:00.083 --> 01:11:01.125
that just didn't feel
comfortable
1775
01:11:01.209 --> 01:11:02.876
and didn't want to go.
1776
01:11:02.959 --> 01:11:06.667
- It's pouring with rain
the entire Thanksgiving.
1777
01:11:06.751 --> 01:11:08.792
We all were at dinner.
1778
01:11:08.876 --> 01:11:11.709
And I thought,
"Well, this is absurd."
1779
01:11:11.792 --> 01:11:13.209
I mean, besides trying
to get out of it
1780
01:11:13.292 --> 01:11:15.250
because, you know, it was clear
1781
01:11:15.334 --> 01:11:19.250
that RJ and Chris
were arguing all the time,
1782
01:11:19.334 --> 01:11:20.876
I didn't want
any part of it.
1783
01:11:20.959 --> 01:11:24.751
- I remember feeling that
it was a little bit tense,
1784
01:11:24.834 --> 01:11:28.250
and I remember staying later
with her
1785
01:11:28.334 --> 01:11:29.792
to see if she was okay
1786
01:11:29.876 --> 01:11:32.292
after we'd all had dinner,
1787
01:11:32.375 --> 01:11:34.626
and she told me
that she was
1788
01:11:34.709 --> 01:11:36.542
and that she'd been
under a lot of pressure
1789
01:11:36.626 --> 01:11:38.042
in the movie
1790
01:11:38.125 --> 01:11:40.709
and would I please come
on the boat,
1791
01:11:40.792 --> 01:11:42.751
but it was my son's birthday,
1792
01:11:42.834 --> 01:11:44.042
so I said to Natalie,
1793
01:11:44.125 --> 01:11:45.292
"I'm not gonna come
on the boat,
1794
01:11:45.375 --> 01:11:48.584
so we'll all have dinner
on the Sunday night,"
1795
01:11:48.667 --> 01:11:50.959
and that was the last time
I saw her.
1796
01:11:51.042 --> 01:11:53.500
- We sat up until all hours
of the night
1797
01:11:53.584 --> 01:11:55.500
on the last night, talking,
1798
01:11:55.584 --> 01:11:58.500
and she was anxious
about going on the boat
1799
01:11:58.584 --> 01:12:02.459
because she felt compromised.
1800
01:12:02.542 --> 01:12:05.334
She loved the life she had,
1801
01:12:05.417 --> 01:12:07.500
and she loved the work,
1802
01:12:07.584 --> 01:12:10.250
and she knew
she couldn't do both fully,
1803
01:12:10.334 --> 01:12:13.209
and these two men
actually represented
1804
01:12:13.292 --> 01:12:14.792
both sides of that argument.
1805
01:12:14.876 --> 01:12:16.918
You know, Chris was--
in her mind,
1806
01:12:17.000 --> 01:12:19.250
he was a free spirit,
an artist,
1807
01:12:19.334 --> 01:12:23.042
and RJ was a responsible
husband and father.
1808
01:12:23.125 --> 01:12:25.918
And I said to her
that I thought it was
1809
01:12:26.000 --> 01:12:27.667
important that she go
on the boat,
1810
01:12:27.751 --> 01:12:29.083
that it would give her
an opportunity
1811
01:12:29.167 --> 01:12:30.417
to work through all of this,
1812
01:12:30.500 --> 01:12:34.459
and...silly me.
1813
01:12:34.542 --> 01:12:39.417
- I've never forgiven myself
for not going,
1814
01:12:39.500 --> 01:12:40.834
because I'm sure
there would've been
1815
01:12:40.918 --> 01:12:43.918
a different dynamic somewhere.
1816
01:12:44.000 --> 01:12:46.584
- The last time
I saw my mom
1817
01:12:46.667 --> 01:12:49.042
was the day
after Thanksgiving
1818
01:12:49.125 --> 01:12:51.209
at our house
on Cañon Drive.
1819
01:12:51.292 --> 01:12:52.876
It was raining outside,
1820
01:12:52.959 --> 01:12:55.792
and I didn't want them
to go on the boat,
1821
01:12:55.876 --> 01:12:57.375
so I was hugging her,
and I was telling her,
1822
01:12:57.459 --> 01:12:59.626
"I love you, and I don't want
you to go on the boat,"
1823
01:12:59.709 --> 01:13:02.792
and she was comforting me
and telling me not to worry
1824
01:13:02.876 --> 01:13:04.500
and that everything
would be okay.
1825
01:13:04.584 --> 01:13:08.250
So a few hours later,
my parents left on the boat
1826
01:13:08.334 --> 01:13:10.417
for Catalina
with Christopher Walken,
1827
01:13:10.500 --> 01:13:12.334
who I didn't know very well,
1828
01:13:12.417 --> 01:13:14.459
and Dennis Davern,
who my parents hired
1829
01:13:14.542 --> 01:13:16.792
to take care
of the "Splendour."
1830
01:13:16.876 --> 01:13:19.626
- She'd called me
from Catalina,
1831
01:13:19.709 --> 01:13:22.417
and she left two messages
on my machine
1832
01:13:22.500 --> 01:13:24.459
saying, had I heard from RJ?
1833
01:13:24.542 --> 01:13:25.918
She and RJ
had had an argument
1834
01:13:26.000 --> 01:13:27.209
the night before.
1835
01:13:27.292 --> 01:13:28.792
The second was,
she had called back
1836
01:13:28.876 --> 01:13:31.209
to say everything was fine,
not to worry.
1837
01:13:32.209 --> 01:13:34.417
- On the first night,
Mommy had gone
1838
01:13:34.500 --> 01:13:37.626
onto Catalina Island
and stayed in a hotel,
1839
01:13:37.709 --> 01:13:38.751
right?
- In Avalon.
1840
01:13:38.834 --> 01:13:39.876
- In Avalon, right.
- Yeah.
1841
01:13:39.959 --> 01:13:42.083
And the reason for that
was because
1842
01:13:42.167 --> 01:13:45.334
we couldn't pick up a mooring
inside the harbor,
1843
01:13:45.417 --> 01:13:48.375
so we dropped the anchor
outside on the breakwater,
1844
01:13:48.459 --> 01:13:50.709
and it was
a very rough night,
1845
01:13:50.792 --> 01:13:53.500
and the boat was, you know,
just going up and down,
1846
01:13:53.584 --> 01:13:54.667
up and down,
1847
01:13:54.751 --> 01:13:56.209
and it was
very uncomfortable.
1848
01:13:56.292 --> 01:13:58.334
- So you guys
were kind of arguing.
1849
01:13:58.417 --> 01:13:59.834
- Yes,
that got your mother
1850
01:13:59.918 --> 01:14:02.167
very nervous,
and so we decided
1851
01:14:02.250 --> 01:14:03.375
that she'd go ashore,
1852
01:14:03.459 --> 01:14:05.959
and Chris and I stayed
on board the boat
1853
01:14:06.042 --> 01:14:07.167
and just took watches
to see
1854
01:14:07.250 --> 01:14:08.292
that it was all right
and everything,
1855
01:14:08.375 --> 01:14:10.292
and then she came back
on board the next morning,
1856
01:14:10.375 --> 01:14:13.167
and we decided
to go from Avalon
1857
01:14:13.250 --> 01:14:14.918
down to the Isthmus,
1858
01:14:15.000 --> 01:14:17.250
and we were gonna
show Chris that anyway,
1859
01:14:17.334 --> 01:14:19.125
'cause that's where
we spent our honeymoon
1860
01:14:19.209 --> 01:14:20.709
and all of that.
- Mm-hmm.
1861
01:14:20.792 --> 01:14:23.167
- And when we were
at the Isthmus,
1862
01:14:23.250 --> 01:14:25.918
we tied up there,
and I went to sleep
1863
01:14:26.000 --> 01:14:27.459
'cause I was really tired.
1864
01:14:27.542 --> 01:14:28.959
- From the night before.
- From the night before.
1865
01:14:29.042 --> 01:14:31.250
- Uh-huh.
- And when I woke up,
1866
01:14:31.334 --> 01:14:33.500
Chris and your mother
had gone to shore...
1867
01:14:33.584 --> 01:14:36.375
- Mm-hmm.
- To this bar that was there.
1868
01:14:36.459 --> 01:14:38.334
I met them.
I got a shore boat.
1869
01:14:38.417 --> 01:14:39.667
And, you know,
they had these boats
1870
01:14:39.751 --> 01:14:42.209
that came up, picked you up,
and I went and met them,
1871
01:14:42.292 --> 01:14:44.876
and we had dinner,
which was pretty nice,
1872
01:14:44.959 --> 01:14:49.667
and I remember I had, you know,
a few glasses of vino,
1873
01:14:49.751 --> 01:14:54.209
and I was feeling
pretty good, and...
1874
01:14:54.292 --> 01:14:58.500
we came back, you know,
to the boat.
1875
01:14:58.584 --> 01:15:00.626
I opened up
another bottle of wine
1876
01:15:00.709 --> 01:15:02.125
and had a couple more glasses
of wine,
1877
01:15:02.209 --> 01:15:06.292
and I sat there
with Chris, and...
1878
01:15:06.375 --> 01:15:08.918
we started talking, and...
1879
01:15:09.000 --> 01:15:11.751
he started to mention to me
about your mother
1880
01:15:11.834 --> 01:15:12.918
and how wonderful she was
1881
01:15:13.000 --> 01:15:14.751
and what a great actress
she was
1882
01:15:14.834 --> 01:15:16.417
and how he enjoyed
working with her,
1883
01:15:16.500 --> 01:15:18.375
and he said, "You know,
I think it's important
1884
01:15:18.459 --> 01:15:19.542
that she works,"
and I said,
1885
01:15:19.626 --> 01:15:21.751
"I think it's important
if you stay out of her life."
1886
01:15:21.834 --> 01:15:25.292
You know, I was
a little teed off about that.
1887
01:15:25.375 --> 01:15:27.209
Suddenly, he's telling me
1888
01:15:27.292 --> 01:15:30.250
what she should do
and how she should behave.
1889
01:15:30.334 --> 01:15:32.000
I got angry at that.
1890
01:15:32.083 --> 01:15:34.042
And so your mother
went down below,
1891
01:15:34.125 --> 01:15:36.250
our stateroom,
where we st--
1892
01:15:36.334 --> 01:15:38.042
our bedroom was down below,
1893
01:15:38.125 --> 01:15:40.542
and she went down below
to get ready to go to bed,
1894
01:15:40.626 --> 01:15:42.876
and I sat there with Chris,
and I said,
1895
01:15:42.959 --> 01:15:44.125
"Why don't you just"--
1896
01:15:44.209 --> 01:15:45.792
you know,
"Don't tell her what to do
1897
01:15:45.876 --> 01:15:47.584
and, "Stay out of her life,"
1898
01:15:47.667 --> 01:15:50.500
and I picked up the bottle
and smashed it on the table,
1899
01:15:50.584 --> 01:15:54.167
and, you know, I was really,
you know...
1900
01:15:54.250 --> 01:15:57.834
angry at him about it,
1901
01:15:57.918 --> 01:16:01.000
and as I look back at it,
unjustifiably so,
1902
01:16:01.083 --> 01:16:03.083
you know, but he ducked out,
1903
01:16:03.167 --> 01:16:06.918
went out, went up on the top
1904
01:16:07.000 --> 01:16:09.209
of the deck,
1905
01:16:09.292 --> 01:16:11.417
and I followed him out there,
1906
01:16:11.500 --> 01:16:14.876
and I was still saying to him,
you know,
1907
01:16:14.959 --> 01:16:16.375
"Just stay out of it, Chris."
1908
01:16:16.459 --> 01:16:17.792
You know, "Don't get
involved in it.
1909
01:16:17.876 --> 01:16:19.042
It's important.
She's got three children."
1910
01:16:19.125 --> 01:16:20.292
Da-da--you know.
- Yeah.
1911
01:16:20.375 --> 01:16:24.125
- I mean, I was also a little
high at the time, I might say.
1912
01:16:24.209 --> 01:16:25.250
But I calmed down.
1913
01:16:25.334 --> 01:16:30.250
You know, I guess
me being out in the air and...
1914
01:16:30.334 --> 01:16:32.667
Anyway, I calmed down,
1915
01:16:32.751 --> 01:16:35.667
and we went back down below
1916
01:16:35.751 --> 01:16:37.792
and talked for a while.
1917
01:16:37.876 --> 01:16:39.250
- You and Chris?
- Yeah.
1918
01:16:39.334 --> 01:16:41.709
- Uh-huh.
- And he went to his cabin,
1919
01:16:41.792 --> 01:16:44.500
which was up on the other part
of the--forward on the boat,
1920
01:16:44.584 --> 01:16:47.083
and Dennis--
1921
01:16:47.167 --> 01:16:50.083
I had Dennis--you know,
we swept up the glass
1922
01:16:50.167 --> 01:16:54.292
off the floor
and cleaned up the salon a bit.
1923
01:16:54.375 --> 01:16:57.375
And we talked about leaving
the next day
1924
01:16:57.459 --> 01:16:59.292
to go back to the mainland,
1925
01:16:59.375 --> 01:17:02.125
and then I went below,
and when I went below,
1926
01:17:02.209 --> 01:17:04.125
she wasn't there,
1927
01:17:04.209 --> 01:17:06.667
and so I looked around.
1928
01:17:06.751 --> 01:17:10.250
I looked in the bathroom,
and she wasn't in the bathroom,
1929
01:17:10.334 --> 01:17:13.334
and I went on the aft end
of the boat,
1930
01:17:13.417 --> 01:17:14.834
and the dinghy was gone,
1931
01:17:14.918 --> 01:17:16.209
and I came back up,
and I said--
1932
01:17:16.292 --> 01:17:18.417
I got Dennis and Chris.
1933
01:17:18.500 --> 01:17:19.584
I said, you know,
"Natalie's not here.
1934
01:17:19.667 --> 01:17:23.250
"She's...she's taken off,
1935
01:17:23.334 --> 01:17:24.542
"I guess, on the dinghy.
1936
01:17:24.626 --> 01:17:27.334
I better--did any of you
hear it?"
1937
01:17:27.417 --> 01:17:29.542
And we--n--see,
nobody heard anything.
1938
01:17:29.626 --> 01:17:30.751
- Right.
- I didn't hear anything.
1939
01:17:30.834 --> 01:17:31.959
I didn't hear
anything about--you know.
1940
01:17:32.042 --> 01:17:34.459
We would have heard it if--
I believe,
1941
01:17:34.542 --> 01:17:36.042
if the dinghy had fired up.
1942
01:17:36.125 --> 01:17:37.834
- Yes.
1943
01:17:37.918 --> 01:17:40.334
- So...
[sighs]
1944
01:17:40.417 --> 01:17:44.375
I...called a shore boat
1945
01:17:44.459 --> 01:17:46.000
when the guys come out,
'cause I thought
1946
01:17:46.083 --> 01:17:47.500
maybe she had gone back
to the restaurant
1947
01:17:47.584 --> 01:17:48.626
or back to the Isthmus,
1948
01:17:48.709 --> 01:17:49.834
where there were
these little slips
1949
01:17:49.918 --> 01:17:51.000
where you could put
your boat in and go in.
1950
01:17:51.083 --> 01:17:52.375
- I remember those.
1951
01:17:52.459 --> 01:17:54.250
- The dinghy wasn't there,
and she wasn't there,
1952
01:17:54.334 --> 01:17:55.542
and I yelled up,
and the guy says,
1953
01:17:55.626 --> 01:17:58.167
"Natalie up there?"
"No, she's not here."
1954
01:17:58.250 --> 01:18:01.083
I got back,
and the shore boat came back.
1955
01:18:01.167 --> 01:18:03.292
I said, "She's not--
she didn't go ashore,
1956
01:18:03.375 --> 01:18:05.083
at least to the Isthmus."
- Right.
1957
01:18:05.167 --> 01:18:08.250
- So it was then that we called
the shore patrol
1958
01:18:08.334 --> 01:18:09.876
and said, "Have you,
you know, seen anything?"
1959
01:18:09.959 --> 01:18:11.751
"No, we haven't seen anything."
1960
01:18:11.834 --> 01:18:13.417
We called the coast guard.
The coast guard came in.
1961
01:18:13.500 --> 01:18:17.751
And then, you know,
we waited for a long--
1962
01:18:17.834 --> 01:18:20.083
God, it seemed like forever
to me, and...
1963
01:18:20.167 --> 01:18:21.375
- 'Cause they were looking
for her, right?
1964
01:18:21.459 --> 01:18:23.000
- Yeah, they were looking
for her,
1965
01:18:23.083 --> 01:18:24.250
and this man that I knew
1966
01:18:24.334 --> 01:18:25.876
and that your mother knew,
Doug Bombard,
1967
01:18:25.959 --> 01:18:28.709
he took care of everything
in Catalina at that time
1968
01:18:28.792 --> 01:18:32.417
and had all the moorings,
of which we had one,
1969
01:18:32.500 --> 01:18:36.626
and he said, "We found her,"
1970
01:18:36.709 --> 01:18:40.125
and I said...
1971
01:18:40.209 --> 01:18:44.250
"Is she okay?"
and he said, "She's dead."
1972
01:18:44.334 --> 01:18:48.000
And...
1973
01:18:48.083 --> 01:18:51.250
everything just went out
from under me.
1974
01:18:51.334 --> 01:18:54.959
You know, just--it just--
everything just
1975
01:18:55.042 --> 01:18:58.709
went away from me, and...
1976
01:18:58.792 --> 01:19:01.542
we were all stunned,
everybody, and...
1977
01:19:01.626 --> 01:19:03.709
[somber music]
1978
01:19:03.792 --> 01:19:05.876
[sighs]
1979
01:19:05.959 --> 01:19:09.334
That night's gone
through my mind so many times,
1980
01:19:09.417 --> 01:19:13.250
you can imagine, and...
1981
01:19:13.334 --> 01:19:17.542
and I...
1982
01:19:17.626 --> 01:19:19.292
You know,
Chris was there with me.
1983
01:19:19.375 --> 01:19:24.667
He, by the way,
is a very stand-up guy
1984
01:19:24.751 --> 01:19:27.667
and a gentleman,
a true gentleman.
1985
01:19:27.751 --> 01:19:29.000
- I remember
that Mart told me
1986
01:19:29.083 --> 01:19:31.542
that he picked you
and Chris Walken up
1987
01:19:31.626 --> 01:19:33.667
at the helicopter...
- Pad, yeah.
1988
01:19:33.751 --> 01:19:36.000
- And you drove to see
Arthur Malin...
1989
01:19:36.083 --> 01:19:37.459
- Mm-hmm.
- Your therapist,
1990
01:19:37.542 --> 01:19:38.918
because you needed
to talk to him
1991
01:19:39.000 --> 01:19:41.292
about how you were gonna
tell Courtney and I.
1992
01:19:41.375 --> 01:19:44.584
- He said to me...
1993
01:19:44.667 --> 01:19:46.876
"RJ," he said,
"I'll just tell you one thing.
1994
01:19:46.959 --> 01:19:48.292
"Don't minimize it.
1995
01:19:48.375 --> 01:19:53.000
Just tell them actually
how devastating it is."
1996
01:19:53.083 --> 01:19:54.626
And I remember,
I took you in my arms,
1997
01:19:54.709 --> 01:19:56.792
and, you know, you were
at the bottom of the stairs.
1998
01:19:56.876 --> 01:19:58.751
You remember?
1999
01:19:58.834 --> 01:20:03.375
And I said about your mother.
2000
01:20:03.459 --> 01:20:07.209
- And then we were
all together.
2001
01:20:07.292 --> 01:20:09.667
- And we've been
all together.
2002
01:20:09.751 --> 01:20:11.959
- Yeah.
2003
01:20:12.042 --> 01:20:13.375
- Thank God.
2004
01:20:13.459 --> 01:20:15.709
- Yeah.
2005
01:20:15.792 --> 01:20:17.751
- This afternoon,
Natalie Wood was buried
2006
01:20:17.834 --> 01:20:19.709
in a private ceremony
in Los Angeles,
2007
01:20:19.792 --> 01:20:22.334
attended only by family
and close friends.
2008
01:20:22.417 --> 01:20:26.042
- The funeral
was another media storm.
2009
01:20:26.125 --> 01:20:29.000
They weren't allowed
into the cemetery,
2010
01:20:29.083 --> 01:20:31.083
but they got ladders
to get up on the wall,
2011
01:20:31.167 --> 01:20:33.709
and it was not very pleasant,
2012
01:20:33.792 --> 01:20:36.334
considering we were trying
to pay our respects
2013
01:20:36.417 --> 01:20:38.542
and hold ourselves together.
2014
01:20:38.626 --> 01:20:40.792
- There was photographers
everywhere,
2015
01:20:40.876 --> 01:20:42.250
taking our picture,
2016
01:20:42.334 --> 01:20:45.918
and I was thinking,
"How can they take my picture
2017
01:20:46.000 --> 01:20:50.667
"when I just said good-bye
to my mom?
2018
01:20:50.751 --> 01:20:52.542
It seems so wrong."
2019
01:20:52.626 --> 01:20:54.083
- I remember
your grandmother's
2020
01:20:54.167 --> 01:20:55.751
parting shot to me,
2021
01:20:55.834 --> 01:20:58.209
the last thing
that she ever said to me
2022
01:20:58.292 --> 01:20:59.542
at the funeral.
2023
01:20:59.626 --> 01:21:01.125
She came up to me and said,
2024
01:21:01.209 --> 01:21:02.918
"If you," meaning me,
2025
01:21:03.000 --> 01:21:06.542
"if you had been
on that boat,
2026
01:21:06.626 --> 01:21:10.083
my daughter would be alive."
2027
01:21:10.167 --> 01:21:15.209
♪ ♪
2028
01:21:15.292 --> 01:21:16.792
- The day after the funeral,
2029
01:21:16.876 --> 01:21:20.125
there was a big, bizarre,
hysterical party at the house.
2030
01:21:20.209 --> 01:21:22.626
RJ was in bed upstairs,
2031
01:21:22.709 --> 01:21:24.751
and there were
all these movie stars there.
2032
01:21:24.834 --> 01:21:26.792
It was really odd.
I mean, to me, it was odd.
2033
01:21:26.876 --> 01:21:30.500
It was like Madame Tussauds
brought to life, almost,
2034
01:21:30.584 --> 01:21:33.292
and Elizabeth Taylor was there
with the crystal ball,
2035
01:21:33.375 --> 01:21:36.167
and Shirley MacLaine
was gonna heal RJ,
2036
01:21:36.250 --> 01:21:39.334
and it was just really
completely surreal atmosphere,
2037
01:21:39.417 --> 01:21:40.500
I thought.
2038
01:21:40.584 --> 01:21:42.751
- I definitely was trying
to be strong
2039
01:21:42.834 --> 01:21:46.751
because my Daddy Wagner
was so very fragile.
2040
01:21:46.834 --> 01:21:50.959
I was worried
that if I was too upset
2041
01:21:51.042 --> 01:21:53.334
that it would be
too much for him
2042
01:21:53.417 --> 01:21:56.000
and he would just drop dead.
2043
01:21:56.083 --> 01:21:57.584
- He was really suffering,
2044
01:21:57.667 --> 01:22:00.542
and he didn't leave
the bed for days,
2045
01:22:00.626 --> 01:22:02.125
and then Willie Mae,
2046
01:22:02.209 --> 01:22:03.918
who was really part
of the family,
2047
01:22:04.000 --> 01:22:05.751
she came up to the bedroom,
and she said,
2048
01:22:05.834 --> 01:22:06.959
"RJ, you have to get up
2049
01:22:07.042 --> 01:22:08.209
"and get out of this bed
right now.
2050
01:22:08.292 --> 01:22:10.167
Your girls think
you're gonna die."
2051
01:22:10.250 --> 01:22:11.667
And that was that.
2052
01:22:11.751 --> 01:22:14.042
Thank God for Willie Mae,
you know?
2053
01:22:14.125 --> 01:22:15.542
- Well, I remember
Willie Mae,
2054
01:22:15.626 --> 01:22:17.500
she helped me get up,
2055
01:22:17.584 --> 01:22:20.500
and I pulled myself together,
and...
2056
01:22:20.584 --> 01:22:22.792
one foot went
in front of the other.
2057
01:22:22.876 --> 01:22:24.792
- Slowly.
2058
01:22:24.876 --> 01:22:27.125
- Very slowly.
2059
01:22:27.209 --> 01:22:29.626
- The press
didn't go away.
2060
01:22:29.709 --> 01:22:31.792
It was really horrible.
2061
01:22:31.876 --> 01:22:33.292
The children couldn't go out.
2062
01:22:33.375 --> 01:22:34.626
They could go
in the back garden,
2063
01:22:34.709 --> 01:22:36.584
but they certainly
couldn't go out the front,
2064
01:22:36.667 --> 01:22:40.834
and every friend that came up
to pay their respects,
2065
01:22:40.918 --> 01:22:42.459
click, click, click,
click, click.
2066
01:22:42.542 --> 01:22:45.584
- Most people can't imagine
what that's like,
2067
01:22:45.667 --> 01:22:47.834
to live in that kind
of a fishbowl,
2068
01:22:47.918 --> 01:22:50.334
and so RJ
2069
01:22:50.417 --> 01:22:53.167
didn't want to be at home
at Christmas.
2070
01:22:53.250 --> 01:22:55.876
- We then went away
for Christmas to Switzerland
2071
01:22:55.959 --> 01:22:57.709
to see his friend
David Niven
2072
01:22:57.792 --> 01:23:01.375
and be there and just get away
from the mania
2073
01:23:01.459 --> 01:23:02.375
that was going on
around the house
2074
01:23:02.459 --> 01:23:03.709
on Cañon Drive at the time.
2075
01:23:03.792 --> 01:23:05.125
- And RJ brought the kids,
2076
01:23:05.209 --> 01:23:07.000
encouraged by my father
2077
01:23:07.083 --> 01:23:08.375
to get out of town,
2078
01:23:08.459 --> 01:23:10.834
and found a chalet for RJ
2079
01:23:10.918 --> 01:23:14.042
not far
from my father's chalet.
2080
01:23:14.125 --> 01:23:17.667
- Soon after that,
my dad wanted us to go
2081
01:23:17.751 --> 01:23:20.959
to England to be
with Richard Gregson.
2082
01:23:21.042 --> 01:23:24.334
- It was New Year's Eve,
just after the accident.
2083
01:23:24.417 --> 01:23:26.918
There were reporters
hanging off the trees,
2084
01:23:27.000 --> 01:23:28.751
and RJ was walking
around the garden
2085
01:23:28.834 --> 01:23:30.959
with Richard in tears,
2086
01:23:31.042 --> 01:23:32.918
but at the same time,
we had a party.
2087
01:23:33.000 --> 01:23:35.626
You know, we had fun,
if that sounds odd.
2088
01:23:35.709 --> 01:23:37.250
- There was so much activity.
2089
01:23:37.334 --> 01:23:39.083
When we were traveling
and stuff,
2090
01:23:39.167 --> 01:23:41.834
that seemed rather comforting
to me.
2091
01:23:41.918 --> 01:23:44.417
I think it was
finally coming back home
2092
01:23:44.500 --> 01:23:46.250
and, like,
going back to school,
2093
01:23:46.334 --> 01:23:48.125
that didn't feel right.
2094
01:23:48.209 --> 01:23:50.083
- My parents had tried so hard
to give us
2095
01:23:50.167 --> 01:23:52.542
this very stabilized
and structured life,
2096
01:23:52.626 --> 01:23:56.542
and then when she died,
everything went upside down.
2097
01:23:56.626 --> 01:24:00.542
So I think it was a lot
of just surviving for a while.
2098
01:24:05.876 --> 01:24:09.167
- When I went to pay
the condolence call
2099
01:24:09.250 --> 01:24:10.918
to the Wagner house,
2100
01:24:11.000 --> 01:24:12.667
he was broken.
2101
01:24:12.751 --> 01:24:14.667
They were all broken.
2102
01:24:14.751 --> 01:24:17.626
And I had experienced loss
of my own.
2103
01:24:17.709 --> 01:24:20.959
I had lost my ex-husband
in a plane crash.
2104
01:24:21.042 --> 01:24:23.709
I knew what loss felt like.
2105
01:24:23.792 --> 01:24:27.083
- When Jill came into my life,
I was shattered.
2106
01:24:27.167 --> 01:24:29.751
I mean, I was totally empty,
2107
01:24:29.834 --> 01:24:32.751
and she had me by my elbow.
2108
01:24:32.834 --> 01:24:35.042
She was holding me up,
2109
01:24:35.125 --> 01:24:38.417
and I was a lot of weight.
2110
01:24:38.500 --> 01:24:40.417
- We did fall in love
2111
01:24:40.500 --> 01:24:43.459
but not exactly immediately.
2112
01:24:43.542 --> 01:24:45.459
There was such pain
2113
01:24:45.542 --> 01:24:47.417
from such a loss,
2114
01:24:47.500 --> 01:24:49.375
and it took time.
2115
01:24:49.459 --> 01:24:51.167
Fortunately for us,
2116
01:24:51.250 --> 01:24:53.542
it evolved into something
quite beautiful.
2117
01:24:53.626 --> 01:24:56.209
- You know, in the beginning,
when Daddy Wagner and Jill
2118
01:24:56.292 --> 01:24:57.500
started dating,
2119
01:24:57.584 --> 01:24:59.500
I would express to him
at times
2120
01:24:59.584 --> 01:25:01.584
that it was painful
and I didn't like it
2121
01:25:01.667 --> 01:25:04.000
and I didn't feel close
to Jill,
2122
01:25:04.083 --> 01:25:06.459
and she and I talked about it
in therapy.
2123
01:25:06.542 --> 01:25:10.667
I mean, it was definitely
a process.
2124
01:25:10.751 --> 01:25:13.709
- After my mom passed away
and even now,
2125
01:25:13.792 --> 01:25:15.792
I feel like I have
this ever-present echo
2126
01:25:15.876 --> 01:25:18.876
in my ear that just sounds
like it says...
2127
01:25:18.959 --> 01:25:20.834
[whispering] "That's
Natalie Wood's daughter.
2128
01:25:20.918 --> 01:25:22.667
That's
Natalie Wood's daughter."
2129
01:25:22.751 --> 01:25:24.083
You know, and I just hear that,
2130
01:25:24.167 --> 01:25:25.500
and the only thing
I can think of
2131
01:25:25.584 --> 01:25:29.292
that I have to balance
that weird feeling
2132
01:25:29.375 --> 01:25:32.876
is my sister Natasha,
you know, and my sister Katie.
2133
01:25:32.959 --> 01:25:35.751
I just thank God
we had each other during that
2134
01:25:35.834 --> 01:25:37.209
and just in life anyway,
2135
01:25:37.292 --> 01:25:40.334
because I'm so, so close
with my sisters.
2136
01:25:40.417 --> 01:25:43.709
- Courtney was so young.
She was only seven.
2137
01:25:43.792 --> 01:25:45.876
To think that she lost her mom
at that age
2138
01:25:45.959 --> 01:25:47.792
is unimaginable,
2139
01:25:47.876 --> 01:25:49.542
and I think she wanted
2140
01:25:49.626 --> 01:25:52.000
to numb the pain,
she wanted to stop it,
2141
01:25:52.083 --> 01:25:54.209
so she struggled with drugs
and alcohol
2142
01:25:54.292 --> 01:25:56.000
for a really long time,
2143
01:25:56.083 --> 01:25:58.834
and there were times
when I absolutely thought
2144
01:25:58.918 --> 01:26:00.709
that I would lose my sister.
2145
01:26:03.125 --> 01:26:04.834
- When we as a family
2146
01:26:04.918 --> 01:26:07.334
addressed
Courtney's struggles,
2147
01:26:07.417 --> 01:26:11.042
we were all able to speak
from our hearts
2148
01:26:11.125 --> 01:26:13.584
things, perhaps,
we hadn't vocalized before
2149
01:26:13.667 --> 01:26:15.375
of how we felt,
2150
01:26:15.459 --> 01:26:18.918
and I believe it brought us
closer as a family.
2151
01:26:19.000 --> 01:26:22.083
- The main thing
that sobriety has brought me
2152
01:26:22.167 --> 01:26:25.292
is that that is
where I can have
2153
01:26:25.375 --> 01:26:27.083
total control of my life.
2154
01:26:27.167 --> 01:26:28.459
I thought that the other night.
2155
01:26:28.542 --> 01:26:29.918
I thought, "You know what?
2156
01:26:30.000 --> 01:26:31.417
"I'm in control of my life now,
2157
01:26:31.500 --> 01:26:34.375
and I don't have to worry
about anything."
2158
01:26:34.459 --> 01:26:37.375
[gentle music]
2159
01:26:37.459 --> 01:26:40.542
- When my mom was alive,
she always said
2160
01:26:40.626 --> 01:26:42.209
that I wore my heart
on my sleeve,
2161
01:26:42.292 --> 01:26:45.209
and I did.
2162
01:26:45.292 --> 01:26:46.500
But when she died,
2163
01:26:46.584 --> 01:26:50.292
I didn't have a safe place
anymore to be vulnerable,
2164
01:26:50.375 --> 01:26:53.584
so I armored myself
to the outside world
2165
01:26:53.667 --> 01:26:55.334
with, "I'm fine.
I'm okay.
2166
01:26:55.417 --> 01:26:56.959
"I don't need your pity.
2167
01:26:57.042 --> 01:26:59.209
I'm just fine,
thank you very much."
2168
01:26:59.292 --> 01:27:01.125
But after my mom died,
2169
01:27:01.209 --> 01:27:02.876
I found a lot of strength
and clarity
2170
01:27:02.959 --> 01:27:04.292
from being in therapy,
2171
01:27:04.375 --> 01:27:06.542
and I knew that I wanted
to have a child.
2172
01:27:06.626 --> 01:27:09.042
That was really important,
2173
01:27:09.125 --> 01:27:10.334
and after my daughter
was born,
2174
01:27:10.417 --> 01:27:13.959
I was flooded
with so much happiness
2175
01:27:14.042 --> 01:27:15.292
and gratitude,
2176
01:27:15.375 --> 01:27:17.375
so I named my daughter Clover,
2177
01:27:17.459 --> 01:27:19.709
not necessarily
after the character
2178
01:27:19.792 --> 01:27:22.751
that my mom played,
Daisy Clover,
2179
01:27:22.834 --> 01:27:25.751
but mostly because clovers
are lucky
2180
01:27:25.834 --> 01:27:28.584
and I felt so lucky
to have her.
2181
01:27:28.667 --> 01:27:30.584
And having my daughter
has been
2182
01:27:30.667 --> 01:27:35.417
the most healing thing
for me.
2183
01:27:35.500 --> 01:27:36.918
- There's a development tonight
2184
01:27:37.000 --> 01:27:39.626
in one of Hollywood's
most enduring mysteries,
2185
01:27:39.709 --> 01:27:41.542
the death of Natalie Wood.
2186
01:27:41.626 --> 01:27:44.667
- What do we think
about, recently,
2187
01:27:44.751 --> 01:27:46.209
them reopening this case?
2188
01:27:46.292 --> 01:27:48.542
- Wood's death was ruled
an accidental drowning,
2189
01:27:48.626 --> 01:27:50.000
but in 2011,
2190
01:27:50.083 --> 01:27:51.500
Los Angeles
sheriff's detectives
2191
01:27:51.584 --> 01:27:52.500
reopened the case
2192
01:27:52.584 --> 01:27:54.834
after Dennis Davern
coauthored a book
2193
01:27:54.918 --> 01:27:56.834
in which he gave
a very different account
2194
01:27:56.918 --> 01:27:58.083
of what happened that night.
2195
01:27:58.167 --> 01:28:01.042
- I believe that Robert Wagner
was with her
2196
01:28:01.125 --> 01:28:03.042
up until the moment
she went into the water.
2197
01:28:03.125 --> 01:28:04.209
- I mean, I know how I feel.
2198
01:28:04.292 --> 01:28:05.959
I feel like people just want
2199
01:28:06.042 --> 01:28:08.626
to have some kind
of media storm.
2200
01:28:08.709 --> 01:28:10.792
- This new information
is substantial enough
2201
01:28:10.876 --> 01:28:12.626
for us to want to take
another look at the case.
2202
01:28:12.709 --> 01:28:15.542
- Is Robert Wagner a suspect?
- No.
2203
01:28:15.626 --> 01:28:18.918
- Oh, the--it's just
so transparent to me.
2204
01:28:19.000 --> 01:28:20.876
They can print anything
that they want to print today,
2205
01:28:20.959 --> 01:28:23.876
and, you know,
there was the coast guard.
2206
01:28:23.959 --> 01:28:25.584
There was the highway patrol,
2207
01:28:25.667 --> 01:28:27.209
the police department.
2208
01:28:27.292 --> 01:28:29.042
Everybody was on this.
2209
01:28:29.125 --> 01:28:31.250
- When it first happened, yes.
- When it first happened.
2210
01:28:31.334 --> 01:28:33.876
- Shortly after midnight
2211
01:28:33.959 --> 01:28:36.751
of the Sunday morning,
2212
01:28:36.834 --> 01:28:39.834
she apparently attempted
2213
01:28:39.918 --> 01:28:44.125
to get onto the dinghy,
2214
01:28:44.209 --> 01:28:47.500
slipped,
and fell in the water,
2215
01:28:47.584 --> 01:28:52.000
unable to return
to the dinghy or the boat.
2216
01:28:52.083 --> 01:28:55.209
- Noguchi said there was
no evidence of foul play.
2217
01:28:55.292 --> 01:28:56.667
He did indicate, however,
2218
01:28:56.751 --> 01:28:59.626
that tests revealed Ms. Wood
was technically drunk
2219
01:28:59.709 --> 01:29:01.918
but continually referred
to Wood's condition
2220
01:29:02.000 --> 01:29:03.751
as "slightly inebriated."
2221
01:29:03.834 --> 01:29:05.083
He nevertheless admitted
2222
01:29:05.167 --> 01:29:07.042
that alcohol
might have been one reason
2223
01:29:07.125 --> 01:29:09.417
why the actress
was rendered unconscious.
2224
01:29:09.500 --> 01:29:13.250
- When the toxicology report
came out after Natalie drowned,
2225
01:29:13.334 --> 01:29:14.209
it was clear that there was
2226
01:29:14.292 --> 01:29:15.584
a lot of alcohol
in her system.
2227
01:29:15.667 --> 01:29:16.751
There was also a Dalmane,
2228
01:29:16.834 --> 01:29:18.250
the sleeping pill
that she took.
2229
01:29:18.334 --> 01:29:21.042
- The assumption was,
when she went down below,
2230
01:29:21.125 --> 01:29:22.918
she could have gone out
2231
01:29:23.000 --> 01:29:24.876
to retie the dinghy.
2232
01:29:24.959 --> 01:29:27.042
- Well, I remember it used
to drive her crazy,
2233
01:29:27.125 --> 01:29:29.542
and she would always say,
"RJ, can you move the dinghy?
2234
01:29:29.626 --> 01:29:32.334
- Yeah, 'cause it--
- 'Cause the way the water hit
2235
01:29:32.417 --> 01:29:34.209
up against the boat,
it would bang,
2236
01:29:34.292 --> 01:29:36.042
and she was
so sensitive to noise.
2237
01:29:36.125 --> 01:29:37.834
- Yeah, and when
she went out there, was--
2238
01:29:37.918 --> 01:29:39.834
it was a slight mist
that night...
2239
01:29:39.918 --> 01:29:43.000
- Mm-hmm.
- And the assumption is that
2240
01:29:43.083 --> 01:29:45.000
she went out and slipped
2241
01:29:45.083 --> 01:29:47.000
and hit her head
2242
01:29:47.083 --> 01:29:49.250
and rolled into the water.
- Mm-hmm.
2243
01:29:49.334 --> 01:29:51.042
- But there's
always conjecture
2244
01:29:51.125 --> 01:29:53.334
about someone
who's very famous,
2245
01:29:53.417 --> 01:29:57.000
and your mother
was a very famous person.
2246
01:29:57.083 --> 01:29:58.459
And there's always conjecture,
I think,
2247
01:29:58.542 --> 01:29:59.792
you know, that always comes up
2248
01:29:59.876 --> 01:30:01.167
but not to this degree.
2249
01:30:01.250 --> 01:30:02.792
I mean,
this has really been something
2250
01:30:02.876 --> 01:30:04.459
that the media
has taken over.
2251
01:30:04.542 --> 01:30:06.083
- We were approached
by a news agency
2252
01:30:06.167 --> 01:30:08.083
who wanted to take another look
at the case.
2253
01:30:08.167 --> 01:30:09.459
We thought it was
a good idea
2254
01:30:09.542 --> 01:30:11.042
to try and go ahead
and do that.
2255
01:30:11.125 --> 01:30:12.918
- What's a person of interest?
2256
01:30:13.000 --> 01:30:14.584
- Just that.
He's a person of interest
2257
01:30:14.667 --> 01:30:17.709
like...he was there with her,
2258
01:30:17.792 --> 01:30:20.292
last person with her
before she ends up dead.
2259
01:30:20.375 --> 01:30:22.417
- How does it make you feel
2260
01:30:22.500 --> 01:30:24.834
when they call you
a person of interest?
2261
01:30:24.918 --> 01:30:27.375
- I don't pay very much
attention to it, Natasha,
2262
01:30:27.459 --> 01:30:29.375
because they're not
gonna redefine me.
2263
01:30:29.459 --> 01:30:30.834
- That's right.
2264
01:30:30.918 --> 01:30:32.042
- You know, they're not
gonna redefine me.
2265
01:30:32.125 --> 01:30:33.334
I know who I am.
2266
01:30:33.417 --> 01:30:37.167
- But it's important to me,
Daddy, that people
2267
01:30:37.250 --> 01:30:40.876
think of you
the way I know that you are,
2268
01:30:40.959 --> 01:30:44.459
and it bothers me
that anyone would ever think
2269
01:30:44.542 --> 01:30:47.792
that you would be involved
in what happened to her,
2270
01:30:47.876 --> 01:30:52.125
because you would've given
your life for my mom.
2271
01:30:52.209 --> 01:30:54.125
- And that's true.
I would've.
2272
01:30:54.209 --> 01:30:57.459
We all would've.
I mean, if there was an--
2273
01:30:57.542 --> 01:30:58.459
if we'd have heard anything
2274
01:30:58.542 --> 01:31:00.459
or known anything
that was going on
2275
01:31:00.542 --> 01:31:02.792
or any kind of disaster
was gonna take place,
2276
01:31:02.876 --> 01:31:04.918
we'd have been there.
2277
01:31:05.000 --> 01:31:07.209
- Have you ever been back
to Catalina?
2278
01:31:07.292 --> 01:31:10.292
- No, I never have gone back
to the island.
2279
01:31:11.584 --> 01:31:13.042
I see it once in a while.
2280
01:31:13.125 --> 01:31:14.709
You know how sometimes
you can see it,
2281
01:31:14.792 --> 01:31:16.209
it's so clear?
- Mm-hmm.
2282
01:31:16.292 --> 01:31:19.751
- Or if I'm taking off
from LAX, you know,
2283
01:31:19.834 --> 01:31:22.667
they turn to the south,
and you go by the island,
2284
01:31:22.751 --> 01:31:24.459
and I look down
at the Isthmus,
2285
01:31:24.542 --> 01:31:27.167
and I think of all
of the great times
2286
01:31:27.250 --> 01:31:28.209
that we had there
2287
01:31:28.292 --> 01:31:30.667
and all of the wonderful
life-giving experiences,
2288
01:31:30.751 --> 01:31:34.000
and...you know,
it's just so ironic
2289
01:31:34.083 --> 01:31:37.292
that this all happened,
2290
01:31:37.375 --> 01:31:39.500
you know, that it came
to an end like that, so...
2291
01:31:39.584 --> 01:31:41.375
No, but I never
have been back.
2292
01:31:41.459 --> 01:31:43.334
- Do you have any interest
in going back?
2293
01:31:43.417 --> 01:31:44.709
- Not particularly, no.
2294
01:31:44.792 --> 01:31:46.250
- Do you think
that the real story
2295
01:31:46.334 --> 01:31:49.751
of Natalie Wood's death
has actually come out?
2296
01:31:49.834 --> 01:31:51.751
- The real story of her death
2297
01:31:51.834 --> 01:31:53.459
is that she...
2298
01:31:55.000 --> 01:31:57.000
Drowned,
2299
01:31:57.083 --> 01:32:00.751
and...nobody knows
how she drowned
2300
01:32:00.834 --> 01:32:02.751
or what happened
2301
01:32:02.834 --> 01:32:05.751
except...her.
2302
01:32:05.834 --> 01:32:07.876
[quick piano music]
2303
01:32:07.959 --> 01:32:10.417
- Even if you have black
and white in the situation,
2304
01:32:10.500 --> 01:32:12.792
the tabloid media
will create gray,
2305
01:32:12.876 --> 01:32:14.542
so every year
around the anniversary
2306
01:32:14.626 --> 01:32:16.375
of Natalie's death,
you'd always start
2307
01:32:16.459 --> 01:32:18.500
to see things pop up,
2308
01:32:18.584 --> 01:32:20.751
'cause that's when they
can sell the most.
2309
01:32:20.834 --> 01:32:22.876
And I've had conversations
with editors.
2310
01:32:22.959 --> 01:32:26.334
"Why do you keep running
these awful stories today?"
2311
01:32:26.417 --> 01:32:28.709
"Because they still want
to read about it,
2312
01:32:28.792 --> 01:32:30.751
so they're still
making us money."
2313
01:32:30.834 --> 01:32:32.292
A lot of people
have made money
2314
01:32:32.375 --> 01:32:33.959
off of Natalie Wood's death.
2315
01:32:34.042 --> 01:32:37.792
- On that level,
they're just barracudas.
2316
01:32:37.876 --> 01:32:39.083
They're just feeding
on something
2317
01:32:39.167 --> 01:32:41.626
that means nothing to them,
2318
01:32:41.709 --> 01:32:45.626
and because this meant
so much to us,
2319
01:32:45.709 --> 01:32:49.125
to ever exploit
this situation
2320
01:32:49.209 --> 01:32:50.834
would be criminal to do that,
2321
01:32:50.918 --> 01:32:53.751
and I know there are people
who want to talk about it,
2322
01:32:53.834 --> 01:32:56.417
but they're doing it
for themselves,
2323
01:32:56.500 --> 01:32:57.626
and how dare they?
2324
01:32:57.709 --> 01:33:00.000
How dare they?
2325
01:33:00.083 --> 01:33:01.626
- I think the investigation
2326
01:33:01.709 --> 01:33:03.125
was mishandled
from the beginning.
2327
01:33:03.209 --> 01:33:06.334
Things were oversimplified
and ignored.
2328
01:33:06.417 --> 01:33:09.417
Conspiracy is
a bit far-fetched,
2329
01:33:09.500 --> 01:33:14.334
but were things covered up
and overlooked purposefully?
2330
01:33:14.417 --> 01:33:16.334
I'm certain they were.
2331
01:33:16.417 --> 01:33:19.083
- What I read in the press
and I see on these TV shows
2332
01:33:19.167 --> 01:33:21.000
when Lana appears
2333
01:33:21.083 --> 01:33:23.167
really upsets me
2334
01:33:23.250 --> 01:33:25.167
'cause it hurts RJ,
it hurts the girls,
2335
01:33:25.250 --> 01:33:28.334
it hurts the memory of Natalie,
2336
01:33:28.417 --> 01:33:31.334
and it makes me
sad and angry.
2337
01:33:31.417 --> 01:33:33.042
- Are you suggesting
2338
01:33:33.125 --> 01:33:36.584
that he knocked her out
in some way
2339
01:33:36.667 --> 01:33:38.000
and threw her
in the water, or--
2340
01:33:38.083 --> 01:33:40.959
- It is something like that,
absolutely.
2341
01:33:41.042 --> 01:33:43.125
- Natalie was very kind
to Lana,
2342
01:33:43.209 --> 01:33:45.792
very respectful
of her situation,
2343
01:33:45.876 --> 01:33:48.125
because Natalie was the one
who was the big success
2344
01:33:48.209 --> 01:33:49.709
with the parents,
2345
01:33:49.792 --> 01:33:52.375
and Natalie took
great care of her.
2346
01:33:52.459 --> 01:33:54.584
- Lana became an actress,
2347
01:33:54.667 --> 01:33:57.042
I think, because her sister
was a star,
2348
01:33:57.125 --> 01:33:59.042
and her name was not Wood,
2349
01:33:59.125 --> 01:34:01.918
but her mother changed it
to Lana Wood.
2350
01:34:02.000 --> 01:34:03.709
- I don't know;
the whole thing with Lana,
2351
01:34:03.792 --> 01:34:05.375
it's just...
2352
01:34:05.459 --> 01:34:08.959
I don't even think
she believes what she's saying.
2353
01:34:09.042 --> 01:34:11.542
I think she's just angry,
and I can understand that.
2354
01:34:11.626 --> 01:34:13.667
I can understand being angry.
2355
01:34:13.751 --> 01:34:15.959
I can certainly understand
having misplaced feelings.
2356
01:34:16.042 --> 01:34:18.167
I can understand
all of that,
2357
01:34:18.250 --> 01:34:20.792
but when I just think
about, like, my dad
2358
01:34:20.876 --> 01:34:22.417
having to deal
with any of this stuff,
2359
01:34:22.500 --> 01:34:24.709
it's just so hard
to even imagine
2360
01:34:24.792 --> 01:34:28.876
when, you know, he experienced,
like, a true nightmare.
2361
01:34:28.959 --> 01:34:31.000
I mean, a true nightmare.
2362
01:34:31.083 --> 01:34:33.250
- One thing that I've heard
Lana say
2363
01:34:33.334 --> 01:34:35.918
is that my stepdad, RJ,
2364
01:34:36.000 --> 01:34:38.417
kept her away from us,
2365
01:34:38.500 --> 01:34:40.751
but I don't have a memory
of being close to Lana
2366
01:34:40.834 --> 01:34:42.584
even before my mom died.
2367
01:34:42.667 --> 01:34:45.125
When she would come
to our house on Cañon Drive,
2368
01:34:45.209 --> 01:34:47.959
it always felt like she was
more focused on my mom
2369
01:34:48.042 --> 01:34:49.292
than Courtney or me,
2370
01:34:49.375 --> 01:34:52.375
so I never had that kind
of relationship with her
2371
01:34:52.459 --> 01:34:55.083
that my daughter has
with my sisters.
2372
01:34:55.167 --> 01:34:59.042
And she's literally accused
my dad of killing my mom
2373
01:34:59.125 --> 01:35:02.626
when that's the farthest thing
from the truth.
2374
01:35:03.792 --> 01:35:06.542
- Sadly, some of the residue
of the tragedy
2375
01:35:06.626 --> 01:35:08.167
will always be there,
2376
01:35:08.250 --> 01:35:10.709
because people like drama,
don't they, and tragedy,
2377
01:35:10.792 --> 01:35:13.417
and they'll have theories
about it.
2378
01:35:13.500 --> 01:35:15.209
And even my friends
sometimes say--
2379
01:35:15.292 --> 01:35:17.876
you know, they almost, like,
take you aside and say,
2380
01:35:17.959 --> 01:35:20.000
"Okay, you can tell me
what really happened,"
2381
01:35:20.083 --> 01:35:23.792
as if you have
some great scoop on it.
2382
01:35:23.876 --> 01:35:27.125
- Natalie Wood
falls into the category
2383
01:35:27.209 --> 01:35:29.250
of Marilyn Monroe,
2384
01:35:29.334 --> 01:35:30.792
Elvis Presley.
2385
01:35:30.876 --> 01:35:32.834
They were such icons,
2386
01:35:32.918 --> 01:35:35.000
the things about their passing
2387
01:35:35.083 --> 01:35:37.250
will always be brought up.
2388
01:35:37.334 --> 01:35:39.876
But Natalie is not a headline.
2389
01:35:39.959 --> 01:35:42.417
Natalie was a life
well lived.
2390
01:35:42.500 --> 01:35:44.250
It was foreshortened,
2391
01:35:44.334 --> 01:35:46.876
but she did a lot
in that lifetime
2392
01:35:46.959 --> 01:35:49.876
for her children,
for her friends,
2393
01:35:49.959 --> 01:35:51.667
for the industry.
2394
01:35:51.751 --> 01:35:53.500
She made a difference.
2395
01:35:53.584 --> 01:35:56.125
- It's really sad
that she died when she did,
2396
01:35:56.209 --> 01:35:59.000
because it'd be really great
to see what she was gonna do
2397
01:35:59.083 --> 01:36:02.626
as a woman in her 40s
and 50s
2398
01:36:02.709 --> 01:36:05.709
and the kinds of roles
she would take on over time
2399
01:36:05.792 --> 01:36:07.375
because she was
always grappling
2400
01:36:07.459 --> 01:36:09.834
with what it means
to be a woman
2401
01:36:09.918 --> 01:36:12.375
in different stages of life.
- Ah!
2402
01:36:12.459 --> 01:36:14.334
- But that's the great thing
about being an actor.
2403
01:36:14.417 --> 01:36:18.125
You're always alive.
Those movies still exist.
2404
01:36:18.209 --> 01:36:19.709
- Natalie was unique.
2405
01:36:19.792 --> 01:36:23.125
She doesn't have
a false moment in her films.
2406
01:36:23.209 --> 01:36:24.834
She didn't "act."
2407
01:36:24.918 --> 01:36:27.334
She found something in her gut,
2408
01:36:27.417 --> 01:36:29.542
in her heart,
and in her intellect,
2409
01:36:29.626 --> 01:36:31.542
and she applied all of that.
2410
01:36:31.626 --> 01:36:33.709
- I love you, Mother.
2411
01:36:33.792 --> 01:36:36.459
- And young women
seeing that now,
2412
01:36:36.542 --> 01:36:39.000
supposing you decide to catch
one of these movies,
2413
01:36:39.083 --> 01:36:40.417
you'd be struck
2414
01:36:40.500 --> 01:36:44.000
by a multidimensional
young woman
2415
01:36:44.083 --> 01:36:47.542
unafraid to show
her vulnerabilities,
2416
01:36:47.626 --> 01:36:50.375
her passion, her strength,
2417
01:36:50.459 --> 01:36:52.292
and her intelligence.
2418
01:36:52.375 --> 01:36:53.918
All of that is there.
2419
01:36:54.000 --> 01:36:55.375
- Won't you join me
back in the limelight,
2420
01:36:55.459 --> 01:36:56.959
little lady of pain?
2421
01:36:58.125 --> 01:36:59.167
All she was
ever looking for
2422
01:36:59.250 --> 01:37:02.918
was the comfort
of good friends, good people,
2423
01:37:03.000 --> 01:37:05.417
and being able to be
a normal human being.
2424
01:37:05.500 --> 01:37:07.125
That was her search.
2425
01:37:07.209 --> 01:37:09.334
It was so hard
against the reputation
2426
01:37:09.417 --> 01:37:10.500
of being a movie star.
2427
01:37:10.584 --> 01:37:13.584
And I witnessed her desire,
her reaching out
2428
01:37:13.667 --> 01:37:16.334
to try to be
just a regular human being
2429
01:37:16.417 --> 01:37:18.125
against the odds
of being treated
2430
01:37:18.209 --> 01:37:19.292
like a movie star,
2431
01:37:19.375 --> 01:37:21.250
and she did it beautifully.
2432
01:37:23.167 --> 01:37:26.083
[gentle orchestral waltz]
2433
01:37:26.167 --> 01:37:33.125
♪ ♪
2434
01:38:25.542 --> 01:38:28.459
[soft music]
2435
01:38:28.542 --> 01:38:35.542
♪ ♪
2436
01:39:56.751 --> 01:39:59.167
[bright tone]