Robert Redford on Natalie Wood

I knew Natalie would long before she knew me let me explain one day venez High School in Los Angeles means some other guys athletes were in charge of admitting students in the assembly now I was kind of a punk in high school completely unimpressed with celebrities and the movie business but this one girl was late and she runs up to me and I won't let her in the auditorium she begs but I won't budge and then she storms off as my friend says don't you know that is I said no I no idea it was Natalie Wood the movie star our lives would cross paths again many years later Natalie Wood worked her way through the ranks in Hollywood bursts as a child star Wow that's plum biz then as a teen celebrity what's that oh that's a new disease man friend New York finally she had huge success with on gender roles the movies like splendour in the grass in the music or West Side Story Natalie later told me that she desperately wanted to be taken seriously as an actor she wanted to pursue character roles instead of relying on the star image to carry her inner picture and that's what brought us together the second time I had become an actor myself and by the early 60s I had a few successes on Broadway but I was pretty much unknown when Natalie decided to make a dramatic stretch in the film's properties from damn and inside Daisy quote she chose me the unknown to be her leading man because I was from the theater where character and craft are important we clicked while shooting Daisy clover Daisy clover I that's your really yeah sure yeah someone thing about me they haven't changed the one thing about me they have your real name isn't Wade Lewis no no it isn't it's Lewis Wade I like to improvise Natalie didn't have much experience with that but instead of behaving like some big movie star saying I can't do that I won't do that Natalie went along with it we were shooting the scene when our studio boss tells us he doesn't want us to get married God knows your private life is no concern of mine but there's his career is good business yes now look here if you hurt her you hurt her work and I won't allow that and one take during one of those totally improvised moments I suddenly picked up Natalie and just dough right into the pool my way of saying to the studio boss we're gonna do what we want it wasn't in the script and I didn't know that Natalie was afraid of water but she was courageous and she hung in there with me I had a wonderful time working on that not only because of her innate talent but she also loved to laugh and joke around on the set every TV show her life Natalie had this manners in which he acted where she was swish her head to one side and give a puzzle look she adopted this as part of her screen trademark I guess so I would do it back to her exaggerated then there we'd be two cocked heads looking each other that's good I think it's wonderful when actors working together can find areas of connection when they can touch the soul of that other person and I think that happened for Natalie I'll always be thankful to Nathalie for the things that she taught me I could talk with her about the nonsense and the distortion of what it is to be a movie star she said no matter how silly it may seem fans do have this feeling about you but you have to respect but never let it overwhelm you so when we would go out in public Nathalie and I would be mobbed an aspect of the business I had little patience for Nathalie would tell me to smile keep moving and don't ever stop I'd ordinarily would she was incredibly generous which not many people in our industry are she was extremely driven and in charge when it came to her career it Natalie had a vulnerability about I guess a part of her that long to be taken care of she didn't have a husband or a family when I first worked with her and I think it was hard for her to be alone over the years we enjoyed a wonderful friendship I was best man at her second wedding a couple of years later Natalie even made a cameo appearance in the movie the candidate as a favor to me we eventually lost touch but our admiration for each other never really ended I only wish our paths could have crossed again oh and at one point I told her the story about how I picked on their game she got a big kick out of it for Turner Classic Movies I'm Robert Redford

Channel: midnighttiptoes

Views: 926,591

Rating: 4.8661151 out of 5

Keywords: Natalie, Wood, Robert, Redford, TCM, Profiles, Classic, Movie, Stars

Id: c_PfXAr9fsE

Length: 5min 40sec (340 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 02 2008