Natalie Wood’s acting

Christopher Walken.

her acting was woody?

Natalie wasn't overrated. The camera loved her and picked up on every subtle nuance and she showed vulnerability like few other actresses of her era.

She is painful.

I sit through her movies so I can fixate over Beatty and Beymer and Bannen. But I turn my head away whoever she's on screen mewling.

She mewls; she whimpers; she cries feebly and querulously

It's an interesting scene and they are both very appealing.

[Quote] she showed vulnerability like few other actresses of her era.

I suppose "inept" is a type of vulnerability.

[quote]This entire clip is so over the top.

Seriously, how believable is trying to resist c. 1963 Steve McQueen?

About as believable as trying to resist c. 1956 Tab Hunter.

I could well imagine Natalie trying to resist Tab putting it in her ass.

Why did Natalie have such a strange adult career? She took some time off after Penelope then came back in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice which was a big hit. She then takes another break to have a child. What happened at this point? She comes back in a TV movie of the week with Wagner called The Affair? Then suddenly she was mostly restricted to TV movies. Why did her career go so cold all of a sudden?

You mean right down the shitter?

OP, you have worked this horse to death. This little woman of little talent was flayed alive in life and now you 'flay her alive' in death.

The corpse cannot cope ! ! !

whore

[Quote] Why did Natalie have such a strange adult career?

For similar reasons to Wynona Ryder. No, not shoplifting. She charmed audience as a minor. As an adult, much less so.

She was marvelous in that clip. Thanks for posting it for her fans.

This article seems to explain a lot. "Natalie Wood's Unhappy Career".

"A lot of writers will tell you that the last star created by the studio system was Elizabeth Taylor, but a lot of writers are wrong. Years after Elizabeth Taylor, there was Natalie Wood.

MGM gave Elizabeth Taylor Lassie Come Home , National Velvet and Father of the Bride , and had the good sense to loan her to George Stevens for A Place in the Sun . Four films of that quality before you’re 20 years old will go a long way toward creating a legend.

But by the time Natalie Wood landed at Warner Bros., after a middling career as a sober little changeling of a child actress, Jack Warner was more interested in shafting his brother Harry out of the studio than he was in nurturing a young actress. He gave her a good part in a very good film ( Rebel Without a Cause ), followed by a bad part in a great film ( The Searchers ), and then she had to make do with hopeless cases like Marjorie Morningstar , The Burning Hills and Bombers B-52 . That segued into a brief musical-blockbuster phase ( West Side Story , Gypsy ), followed by irredeemable disasters like Penelope and Sex and the Single Girl .

Natalie Wood survived a lot of bad movies and retained her appeal-no small achievement. But ever since her drowning death off Catalina Island in 1981, she’s been slowly easing into that limbo populated by stars who don’t transcend their period.

Which is probably why the estimable Gavin Lambert has written an authorized biography of a woman who managed to become a major star without ever earning the bona fides of a major actress.

She would have been a star in any era, especially the silents-her best features were her luminous eyes and luscious figure. Those glowing eyes were always knowing and bright, but her line readings were often flat and gauche. One very wise friend of mine passed up the chance to meet her at a party because he knew that he would go weak in the knees if he tried to form a coherent sentence in her presence-the same sort of reaction people of an earlier generation had to Lana Turner, a personality pull that supersedes considerations of talent. On a certain level of stardom, with someone who can make people happy just by showing up-Julia Roberts, anyone?-who cares if they can act?

On the evidence of Mr. Lambert’s book, Natalie Wood had a life that might gently be termed “uneasy.” Born Natasha Gurdin, the fruit of an extramarital affair, she was pushed into show business by her mother, a real-life Mama Rose. Natasha was very Russian, very emotional: She lost her virginity to the bisexual, addictive personality who went by the name of Nicholas Ray and served as another notch on Warren Beatty’s bedpost, which seems to have induced a mysterious suicide attempt.

Wood had rotten luck, some of it self-induced. While she was filming the hideous Penelope , Mr. Beatty offered her the role of Bonnie in Bonnie and Clyde , but she turned it down because she didn’t want to be separated from her psychiatrist by a long location shoot. She turned down William Wyler’s The Collector in order to do Gavin Lambert’s own adaptation of his novel, Inside Daisy Clover . Both films were downbeat hothouse flowers, but Wyler wasn’t about to be manhandled by the studio, while Inside Daisy Clover was bound to be. For too much of her limited time, Wood was stuck churning out gilded turds like The Great Race .

She knew it, and so put a lot of emotional energy into her relationships. She was a spectacular friend, warm and supportive to her circle, which included Guy McElwaine, Mart Crowley, Howard Jeffrey, Asa Maynor and the late Norma Crane. What Natalie wanted in a friend was humor, intelligence and emotional directness; to qualify, one had to pass what Norma Crane called “the kindness test.”

It’s all very odd: In life, she was sharp and funny (“What killed your father?” she was asked. “My mother, I think,” she replied), but you couldn’t say she was a natural screen comedienne. It’s almost as if acting was some sort of violation of her essential nature, even as it fed her need for drama, for notice.

Physically, Wood was the quintessential star-emotionally, too. She was nervous and prone to short-term liaisons with inappropriate men: Dennis Hopper, Henry Jaglom, Steve McQueen, Frank Sinatra and, most ridiculous of them all, Ladislow Blatnik, known as “The Shoe King of Venezuela.” Then there was Jerry Brown, at the time California’s secretary of state, whose equipment Wood described as being “like a wand.”

She had a perceptible lack of foundation. Tom Mankiewicz (the wisest of Wood’s friends) says that “studio life from an early age had cut Natalie off from so much, and she was eager to make up for it, but I often had the impression that she never knew exactly how to live her life.”

Unhappy about her career, Wood took time off to focus on her family. She didn’t make a picture for four years. Then the itch hit her and she wanted to go back to work, but suddenly the parts weren’t there. “After being put on a pedestal when she was young,” said Sydney Pollack, “she became a victim of changing times, when the new stars were ‘people like ourselves’ rather than iconic.” After Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice , she came back to … Peeper , The Last Married Couple in America and Meteor -movies to make you pine for Marjorie Morningstar .

The last time Mr. Lambert saw her, she asked him if she looked her age. She was thinking of Barbara Stanwyck, who had seemed bitter and lonely when Wood had dinner at her house. “To stay on an even keel,” Mr. Mankiewicz said, “Natalie needed all her cards, and she was very afraid of losing her beauty card.”

Reduced to nothing parts in theatrical movies and ostensibly meaty parts in déclassé TV movies, Wood began planning a comeback on stage as Anastasia.

When Christopher Walken sparked to her on the set of Brainstorm -yet another lousy movie-it seemed like a chance for creative rebirth. He was from New York, handsome, serious about acting, “edgy.” He was also younger. The woman who told friends that she had never cheated on Robert Wagner was smitten; Mr. Lambert believes there was an affair. Certainly, she was drinking during working hours and behaving in a less-than-professional manner.

The psychodrama continued on board Wagner and Wood’s yacht. Everybody was drinking; Mr. Wagner isn’t entirely clear about exactly when Wood left the cabin, or what a woman who had always been terrified of the water was doing trying to get into a dinghy. The last notation in Wood’s daybook reads: “This loneliness won’t leave me alone.” Song lyric or ruthless self-appraisal?

Wood’s vivid personality and turbulent life compel a certain amount of attention, but the career is punctuated by dreary failure. She helps render West Side Story unwatchable on those too-frequent occasions when Jerome Robbins’ dancers aren’t snapping their fingers. And if you’re looking for proof that Jack Warner was way over the hill, there’s the otherwise inexplicable fact that he didn’t shut down Gypsy after the first week of shooting, recast every part and fire Mervyn LeRoy.

The most ludicrous casting of a time.

A four-foot high waif attempting to impersonate a buxom stripper with bosoms!

Thanks to the ridiculously furtive Robert Redford-it’s as if he were embarrassed to be seen acting-Wood is the best thing in Inside Daisy Clover . And yes, she’s very moving in Splendor in the Grass , but Elia Kazan could have drawn good work out of Lash La Rue. (Mr. Lambert reveals that Kazan’s first choice for Deanie was the doomed Diane Varsi-not sexy enough; his second choice was Jane Fonda-too sexy.)

For me, the best performance Wood gave was Love with the Proper Stranger , directed by the underrated Robert Mulligan. It’s a part-nice Italian girl gets knocked up-that requires being, not acting. Freed up from the big emotional arias that tended to reveal her structural flaws as an actress, Wood’s natural likeability and charm came through.

Gavin Lambert’s most valuable quality as a biographer-aside from an unforced but erudite style-is empathy. He was Wood’s friend as well as a co-worker, but he doesn’t engage in special pleading. He has a lovely dry wit (I especially like the way he continually calls Jack Warner “Producer”-which is how the studio was referred to in contractual boilerplate).

Mr. Lambert’s book leaves a residue of sadness-not just for the way Natalie Wood died, but for the frustrated, apparently unfulfilled way she lived. In art as in life, choices matter and timing is everything.

She wasn’t an actress, she was a movie star. An actress is a technician but a movie star is an entertainer.

r13 I thought she was basically America's Sweetheart in the '60s?

Doris Day was America's Sweetheart in the '60s.

Her grating Mexican accent in West Side Story ruins the film for me. Why couldn't Rita Moreno teach her what a real Puerto Rican accent sounded like?

You think Rita would want to improve Natalie's performance?

Well, Mr. C likes her anyway.

She's wasn't great, but she wasn't as bad as Beatty.

It's funny - Tom Bosley talks about how much he loved her and yet his story about her makes her sound rather selfish and insensitive.

And Rita Moreno was a "fucking olde PR Cunt" for trashing Natalie Wood last year by yelling that the new Maria: in the new WSS"and she can sing too" What a fucking stupid cunt Rita is. So she got fucked by& fucked over by Brando (biggest gay man ever). WHO cares, Rita is a cunt!! it's like Madonna saying she got raped in the 1980's. We know u fucking whore, U told us a million times over 50 yrs TRAMP.

meth or meds?

Rita....Meds & depends!! There was no reason to take that shot at Natalie like that, but the olde PR cunt did it anyway. Natalie been dead since 1982.

She's completely under-appreciated. She was unimprovable in Rebel, WSS, Gypsy, Spendor, Love with the Proper Stranger, and Bob and Carol...

She was horrid, cold and frigid.

Strange to use rape as a means to attack someone when the thread is about Natalie Wood...

But you know I am correct OP-She has used that story a million times, just like the Material whore Virgin kween. To R31, your description of Olde PR cunt Rita is spot on!!

She was a horrifically bad actress after childhood and not a "great beauty" at all - she looked like a prettier Judy Garland. She seemed very sweet though. Rita is both a mediocre actress and a cunt.

There is nothing mediocre about Sr Peter Marie!?

R19 A vast majority of big name movie stars from that time were better actors than Natalie. I'm not even talking about movie stars who were also excellent actors, like Bette or Brando. I'm talking about Liz Taylor or even Ava Gardner types, when they put in the effort, they were quite good. Lana Turner had the same skill level as Natalie, but was effective in far more roles because the team behind her tailored projects to her limitations.

Has anyone seen Brainstorm (1983)? Natalie Wood's last picture before Christopher Walken killed her. Natalie's acting was ATROCIOUS...especially next to real pros like Louise Fletcher and Walken. She wasn't hot anymore and didn't have that to fall back on.

I always felt Natalie never had any kind of believable relationships with other young women in her films. She seemed above it all. Her school chums in Splendor in the Grass, the neighborhood girls in WSS, June in Gypsy, Dyan in Bob and Carol, etc......Natalie never seemed to acknowledge them in their scenes together.

Her acting was better than her swimming.

Natalie was a great soul! Loved her.

Pill head, alcoholic ageing actress Those last few years must have seen a lot of tears and flying crockery.

I really like The Great Race.

She aged well

Bosley is asked to give a rundown of Debbie Reynolds' talents and after answering "Energy," he proceeds to give a potted history of Debbie's life. I don't know whether that was shade or he misunderstood the question.

He was being charitable based on this episode.

☝🏼 🧀 ball central lol

She was good for one thing.

Sinking.

Natalie in "The Cracker Factory" (co-starring Shelley Long).

So underrated.

Could Natalie have been Krystle in Dynasty? Alexis probably would have been a blonde.

No, R50. She was too haggard by then. Besides it looks pathetic when a 4 foot high woman tries to look like a domineering diva.

How tall was Natalie ?

Four feet.

Linda Evans was no domineering diva. And if Katharine Ross could be cast by Spelling, I don't see why a real star like Wood couldn't.

....

It was her voice. Otherwise her acting was fine.

She was quite good in Splendor in the Grass, particularly the bathtub scene..

4 ft? Are you serious? That’s midget territory

Supposedly she badly wanted the role of Sybil, she of the 16 separate personalities. Sally Field got the role and was finally taken seriously as an actress because of it. I wonder what Wood have done with the role. I think it she would possibly been very good.

She was 5'2"

IMO, I find her more attractive facially than Liz Taylor. I would not define her as more beautiful than Liz but she has a face that's so arresting and cute, you can't help staring at her especially like R7.

DL doesn't do cute.

[quote] She was quite good in Splendor in the Grass, particularly the bathtub scene.

Wood's turn was very passionate and heart felt, so many people found it quite effective, but it couldn't fully masquerade her basic inefficiencies as an actress. Growing up on film sets, she was professional, but still, the results - acting wise - were often rather amateurish, despite, or probably because, she tended to be so enthusiastic.

That reminds of how many of the young male cast are acting on the latest season of Stranger Things. Energy to the point of Hysteria.

[quote] She wasn't hot anymore and didn't have that to fall back on.

You must be blind, because she was still a lovely woman when she died. I guess you think all women cease to be "hot" when they hit forty.

I would have put her at fifties here, not 43. She probably would have been fine, though. Jill St. John had decent work done.

I read Natalie was also gunning for Meryl's role in Sophie's Choice. I'm not sure how that would have gone.

^ It would have been ludicrous. And you know it.

I think she was UNDERrated! She certainly ended up UNDERwater.

She was not overrated. Every critic at the time thought she was not a good actress.

Curiously, I think her best performance was in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. The first act is essentially all Maggie, a long, long soliloquy. Natalie did it at least as well as Liz. But both Liz and Natalie are wrong for the role, a woman very unsure of her sexual appeal. It's Barbara Bel Geddes, not Liz Taylor or Natalie Wood. But Natalie spoke the lines perfectly well; she had definitely come a long way from Marjorie Morningstar.

West Side Story has some embarrassments, but Natalie isn't one of them.

Natalie's Instagram remains hilariously over the top. This reminded me of the classic DL meme.

"Natalie was always socially minded. She had a big heart and within it was a love for those in need. Natalie supported causes that promoted equality for women, minorities and the gay community. She was the national spokesperson for Unicef in 1978. Natalie loved children and animals. She stood up for herself in the workplace and for others who couldn’t stand up for themselves. She took on the biggest forces in Hollywood and won. When Natalie believed in a cause, she was all in. In this picture she is attending a meeting for Dr Martin Luther King’s Poor People’s March in 1968. Natalie’s compassion for others and strength of character are just a couple of the many reasons why she is so loved and respected- and always will be ❤️"

"This beautiful portrait was taken by Natalie’s friend Roddy McDowall. Both child actors, they belonged to a small group of entertainers who found success in all stages of life. Their connection to each other - and to us - is timeless 🦋"