WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.120 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. We have a massive 00:00:04.120 --> 00:00:07.059 stack of documents on the table today. Biographies, 00:00:07.059 --> 00:00:09.779 coroner reports, studio contracts, film archives. 00:00:10.300 --> 00:00:13.300 And honestly, looking at it all, I feel a heavy 00:00:13.300 --> 00:00:15.960 responsibility. We are unpacking a story that 00:00:15.960 --> 00:00:17.679 I think a lot of people feel like they know, 00:00:17.739 --> 00:00:20.800 but usually they only knew the ending. We're 00:00:20.800 --> 00:00:23.140 talking about... Natalie Wood. Natalie Wood. 00:00:23.399 --> 00:00:26.199 It is a name that instantly conjures up a very 00:00:26.199 --> 00:00:29.160 specific, very tragic set of images for most 00:00:29.160 --> 00:00:31.719 people. It really does. And sadly, for the vast 00:00:31.719 --> 00:00:33.759 majority of the public, the First Association 00:00:33.759 --> 00:00:36.399 isn't her acting technique. It isn't her record 00:00:36.399 --> 00:00:39.380 -breaking Oscar nominations or her business acumen. 00:00:39.579 --> 00:00:42.380 No. It's the water. It's the boat. It's the red 00:00:42.380 --> 00:00:44.500 down jacket. It is the mysterious circumstances 00:00:44.500 --> 00:00:47.500 of her death in 1981. Which is, I mean, it's 00:00:47.500 --> 00:00:49.579 understandable given the unresolved nature of 00:00:49.579 --> 00:00:51.340 the case and the sheer cultural impact. act of 00:00:51.340 --> 00:00:53.960 that weekend. However, the mission for today's 00:00:53.960 --> 00:00:56.219 deep dive is to fundamentally shift that focus. 00:00:56.520 --> 00:00:59.240 You need to gently push that tragedy to the side 00:00:59.240 --> 00:01:01.500 for a moment, or at least to the end of the story 00:01:01.500 --> 00:01:03.960 where it chronologically belongs, and focus on 00:01:03.960 --> 00:01:05.659 the woman herself. Because when you actually 00:01:05.659 --> 00:01:08.079 dig into the source material, as we have done 00:01:08.079 --> 00:01:11.420 pretty extensively, you realize that Natalie 00:01:11.420 --> 00:01:14.680 Wood was not just a victim of a dark Hollywood 00:01:14.680 --> 00:01:18.629 mystery. She was a pivotal architect of American 00:01:18.629 --> 00:01:21.129 cinema. She really was the bridge, wasn't she? 00:01:21.230 --> 00:01:23.230 When I was looking at the timeline, it struck 00:01:23.230 --> 00:01:27.049 me. She spans old Hollywood. The rigid, glamorous 00:01:27.049 --> 00:01:29.769 studio system of the 40s and 50s. Right, the 00:01:29.769 --> 00:01:32.730 contract player era. And New Hollywood, the gritty, 00:01:32.730 --> 00:01:35.670 realistic, director -driven cinema of the 60s 00:01:35.670 --> 00:01:38.129 and 70s. Precisely. And that is a bridge that 00:01:38.129 --> 00:01:40.650 very, very few actors cross successfully. I mean, 00:01:40.650 --> 00:01:42.469 think about her contemporaries from the child 00:01:42.469 --> 00:01:44.930 star era. They vanished. They either burned out, 00:01:44.989 --> 00:01:47.590 left the industry, or couldn't shake the cute 00:01:47.590 --> 00:01:50.500 kid persona. Natalie Wood didn't just survive 00:01:50.500 --> 00:01:53.120 the transition. She evolved. She was an icon 00:01:53.120 --> 00:01:55.500 in three different decades. But getting there, 00:01:55.620 --> 00:01:58.400 oh man, it was not a smooth ride. We are talking 00:01:58.400 --> 00:02:01.060 about a Russian -American child star, a stage 00:02:01.060 --> 00:02:03.599 mother who makes Mama Rose look like a meditative 00:02:03.599 --> 00:02:05.819 yoga instructor. That is not an exaggeration. 00:02:05.900 --> 00:02:07.920 And a personal life that was just as dramatic, 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:10.300 if not more so, than anything she put on screen. 00:02:10.520 --> 00:02:12.500 There is a tension that runs through her entire 00:02:12.500 --> 00:02:16.520 life. A duality. On the surface, she had this 00:02:16.520 --> 00:02:19.219 clean, middle -class, perfect American image. 00:02:19.580 --> 00:02:23.060 She was the girl next door. But underneath... 00:02:23.849 --> 00:02:27.090 It was turbulent. It was often dark. And frankly, 00:02:27.210 --> 00:02:29.509 it was a fight for survival from the very beginning. 00:02:29.710 --> 00:02:31.830 So let's go back to that beginning, because before 00:02:31.830 --> 00:02:33.629 she was Natalie Wood, the Hollywood darling, 00:02:33.810 --> 00:02:35.650 she was a little girl in San Francisco with a 00:02:35.650 --> 00:02:37.810 much more complex heritage. That's right. She 00:02:37.810 --> 00:02:40.689 was born Natalia Nikolaevna Zakarenko in 1938. 00:02:41.310 --> 00:02:43.629 Zakarenko. That is not exactly the name you see 00:02:43.629 --> 00:02:47.370 on a neon marquee in 1940s America. No. And that 00:02:47.370 --> 00:02:49.830 heritage is crucial to understanding her psychology. 00:02:50.129 --> 00:02:53.610 She was of Russian and Ukrainian descent. Parents 00:02:53.610 --> 00:02:56.289 were immigrants, but that word feels too gentle. 00:02:56.389 --> 00:02:58.009 It does. They weren't just moving for a change 00:02:58.009 --> 00:03:00.050 of scenery. They were fleeing immense turmoil. 00:03:00.349 --> 00:03:04.000 They were refugees of a violent revolution. Her 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:06.139 family history reads like a history textbook 00:03:06.139 --> 00:03:08.919 of the early 20th century. It's intense. It is. 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:11.400 Her paternal grandfather worked in a chocolate 00:03:11.400 --> 00:03:13.719 factory in Russia. But when the revolution broke 00:03:13.719 --> 00:03:16.580 out, he joined the anti -Bolshevik civilian forces. 00:03:16.919 --> 00:03:18.919 Yeah. He was actually killed in a street fight 00:03:18.919 --> 00:03:21.439 between the Red Army and the white Russian soldiers 00:03:21.439 --> 00:03:25.460 in Vladivostok. Wow. That is a visceral image. 00:03:25.500 --> 00:03:28.020 To have that kind of political violence in your 00:03:28.020 --> 00:03:30.219 immediate lineage. Yeah. And her mother's side. 00:03:30.360 --> 00:03:32.960 A bit wealthier, but a similar kind of trauma. 00:03:33.520 --> 00:03:36.099 Her maternal grandfather owned soap and candle 00:03:36.099 --> 00:03:38.400 factories. But when the Russian Civil War hit, 00:03:38.500 --> 00:03:40.759 they lost everything. Everything. They had to 00:03:40.759 --> 00:03:43.379 flee to China, settling in Harbin as refugees, 00:03:43.539 --> 00:03:47.080 living in this community of displaced Russians. 00:03:47.639 --> 00:03:50.039 Eventually, both sides of the family made their 00:03:50.039 --> 00:03:52.610 way to North America. carrying that trauma with 00:03:52.610 --> 00:03:54.569 them. So you have this backdrop of displacement, 00:03:54.870 --> 00:03:56.889 of survival, of losing everything and starting 00:03:56.889 --> 00:03:59.330 over. The mindset must have been, we have to 00:03:59.330 --> 00:04:01.990 survive at all costs. Yes. And into this mix 00:04:01.990 --> 00:04:05.009 comes Natalie's mother, Maria Zutalova. And from 00:04:05.009 --> 00:04:07.050 everything I've read, Maria is a character that 00:04:07.050 --> 00:04:10.810 requires her own deep dive. Maria, or Mud, as 00:04:10.810 --> 00:04:13.069 she was sometimes called in the family, is the 00:04:13.069 --> 00:04:15.530 driving force of the early Natalie Wood story. 00:04:15.810 --> 00:04:18.990 And force might be an understatement. Right. 00:04:19.110 --> 00:04:22.529 She had what sources describe as an overpowering 00:04:22.529 --> 00:04:24.949 ambition. She was a frustrated artist herself, 00:04:25.230 --> 00:04:27.410 dreaming of a stardom that the revolution had 00:04:27.410 --> 00:04:29.589 stolen from her. We see this pattern a lot with 00:04:29.589 --> 00:04:31.829 child stars, don't we? The parent projecting 00:04:31.829 --> 00:04:34.290 their unfulfilled dreams onto the child. It's 00:04:34.290 --> 00:04:37.329 almost a cliche, but here it seems dangerous. 00:04:37.689 --> 00:04:40.470 Absolutely. Maria had been a would -be performer. 00:04:40.730 --> 00:04:43.550 She married Natalie's father, Nicholas, but the 00:04:43.550 --> 00:04:46.300 power dynamic was very clear. Maria was the captain 00:04:46.300 --> 00:04:48.480 of the ship. She was in charge. Totally. So when 00:04:48.480 --> 00:04:50.920 a director named Irving Pichelle spotted a young 00:04:50.920 --> 00:04:53.439 Natalie in Santa Rosa, literally just saw her 00:04:53.439 --> 00:04:55.500 in a crowd during a film shoot, he saw potential. 00:04:55.860 --> 00:04:57.939 He told the mother, bring her to L .A. for a 00:04:57.939 --> 00:05:00.000 screen test. And the father, Nicholas, was like, 00:05:00.040 --> 00:05:02.420 no way. He was completely opposed. He wanted 00:05:02.420 --> 00:05:04.279 a normal life for them. He wanted his daughter 00:05:04.279 --> 00:05:07.560 to have a childhood. But Maria. She saw an opportunity. 00:05:08.220 --> 00:05:10.060 Oh, she packed up the whole family and moved 00:05:10.060 --> 00:05:12.079 them to Los Angeles. She wasn't going to let 00:05:12.079 --> 00:05:14.860 this ticket punch itself. She saw Natalie not 00:05:14.860 --> 00:05:17.300 just as a daughter, but as a vehicle for the 00:05:17.300 --> 00:05:19.459 family's salvation. And then once they get to 00:05:19.459 --> 00:05:21.879 Hollywood, the machine starts working. First 00:05:21.879 --> 00:05:24.939 order of business, the identity. This is where 00:05:24.939 --> 00:05:27.459 the erasure happens. Right. Zakarenko was too 00:05:27.459 --> 00:05:31.699 foreign for RKO executives. It was 1943. The 00:05:31.699 --> 00:05:34.839 country was at war. Xenophobia was real. They 00:05:34.839 --> 00:05:37.149 wanted something all -American. Something crisp. 00:05:37.370 --> 00:05:40.569 So they just picked a name. Pretty much. Executives 00:05:40.569 --> 00:05:43.129 David Lewis and William Gutz decided to rename 00:05:43.129 --> 00:05:46.290 her. They chose Wood as a tribute to the director 00:05:46.290 --> 00:05:48.850 Sam Wood. Just like that. You're four years old 00:05:48.850 --> 00:05:50.709 and suddenly your name is a tribute to some guy 00:05:50.709 --> 00:05:53.569 you don't know. Yeah. Stripping away that Russian 00:05:53.569 --> 00:05:55.610 heritage to make her palatable for the masses, 00:05:55.790 --> 00:05:59.050 it's commodification 101. It was the era of assimilation. 00:05:59.149 --> 00:06:01.629 You had to be the girl next door. And Natalie 00:06:01.629 --> 00:06:03.850 was very good at being what people wanted her 00:06:03.850 --> 00:06:06.540 to be. She learned early on that her job was 00:06:06.540 --> 00:06:09.259 to be pleasing, to be moldable. But the cost 00:06:09.259 --> 00:06:11.519 of that compliance. I want to talk about the 00:06:11.519 --> 00:06:14.519 butterfly incident because this story, when I 00:06:14.519 --> 00:06:16.199 read it in the source material, it actually made 00:06:16.199 --> 00:06:18.879 my stomach turn. It's awful. It tells you everything 00:06:18.879 --> 00:06:21.420 you need to know about her childhood and her 00:06:21.420 --> 00:06:23.920 relationship with her mother. It is a harrowing 00:06:23.920 --> 00:06:26.500 anecdote, and it serves as a central metaphor 00:06:26.500 --> 00:06:29.180 for her life. This was on the set of the film, 00:06:29.319 --> 00:06:32.689 Tomorrow is Forever. Natalie is about seven years 00:06:32.689 --> 00:06:35.449 old. She's starring opposite Orson Welles and 00:06:35.449 --> 00:06:38.509 Claudette Colbert. Huge stars. And there's a 00:06:38.509 --> 00:06:41.089 scene where she needs to cry. Correct. She plays 00:06:41.089 --> 00:06:45.649 a German orphan. The scene requires deep, hysterical 00:06:45.649 --> 00:06:49.310 tears. But Natalie was, you know, a happy child 00:06:49.310 --> 00:06:51.310 on a movie set. She couldn't quite get the tears 00:06:51.310 --> 00:06:53.850 flowing on cue. A pretty normal thing for a kid. 00:06:53.990 --> 00:06:57.959 Right. So her mother, Maria, decided to... Help. 00:06:58.060 --> 00:07:00.139 Help is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. It 00:07:00.139 --> 00:07:02.899 is. Maria knew that Natalie had captured a butterfly 00:07:02.899 --> 00:07:05.420 on set. She loved this butterfly. She was protecting 00:07:05.420 --> 00:07:08.279 it in a little jar. Oh, no. Maria asked for the 00:07:08.279 --> 00:07:10.980 butterfly. Natalie trusted her mother and handed 00:07:10.980 --> 00:07:14.579 it over. Maria then tore the butterfly to pieces 00:07:14.579 --> 00:07:16.879 right in front of the child's face. She ripped 00:07:16.879 --> 00:07:19.319 a live butterfly apart to make her daughter cry 00:07:19.319 --> 00:07:22.939 for a movie scene. And it worked. Natalie sobbed 00:07:22.939 --> 00:07:25.279 hysterically. The director got the shot. That's 00:07:25.279 --> 00:07:28.680 monstrous. It is. Think about the psychological 00:07:28.680 --> 00:07:31.800 conditioning there. It taught her that her genuine 00:07:31.800 --> 00:07:34.740 emotions were tools to be extracted. It taught 00:07:34.740 --> 00:07:37.079 her that the person she trusted most in the world 00:07:37.079 --> 00:07:39.860 would hurt her to get a result. It's manipulation, 00:07:40.300 --> 00:07:43.500 plain and simple. But the industry rewarded it. 00:07:43.740 --> 00:07:46.139 That's the sick part. Orson Welles, the great 00:07:46.139 --> 00:07:48.079 Orson Welles. What does he say about her? He 00:07:48.079 --> 00:07:50.519 called her a born professional. He said she was 00:07:50.519 --> 00:07:53.279 so good, she was terrifying. Terrifying. That's 00:07:53.279 --> 00:07:56.000 a telling word choice. It is. He noted that she 00:07:56.000 --> 00:07:58.269 didn't act from the script. She acted from the 00:07:58.269 --> 00:08:00.709 heart. And knowing what we know about how that 00:08:00.709 --> 00:08:03.410 heart was manipulated by her mother, that praise 00:08:03.410 --> 00:08:06.610 takes on a darker hue. Of course. She was known 00:08:06.610 --> 00:08:10.670 as one -take Natalie. Efficient, perfect, a director's 00:08:10.670 --> 00:08:13.029 dream. But inside, she was being conditioned 00:08:13.029 --> 00:08:15.050 to suppress her own needs for the sake of the 00:08:15.050 --> 00:08:18.490 production. And she hits the big time with Miracle 00:08:18.490 --> 00:08:23.069 on 34th Street in 1947. Which is ironic, right? 00:08:23.660 --> 00:08:26.459 She plays this cynical little girl, Susan Walker, 00:08:26.699 --> 00:08:28.920 who doesn't believe in Santa Claus and has to 00:08:28.920 --> 00:08:31.420 learn to be a child. It mirrored her reality 00:08:31.420 --> 00:08:33.899 perfectly. She was a child who had been forced 00:08:33.899 --> 00:08:36.419 to mature at an accelerated rate. She was working 00:08:36.419 --> 00:08:38.700 full -time jobs while other kids were playing 00:08:38.700 --> 00:08:42.220 hopscotch. In the movie, she's skeptical of magic 00:08:42.220 --> 00:08:45.220 because she's too practical. In real life, she 00:08:45.220 --> 00:08:47.399 was practical because she was the family breadwinner. 00:08:47.659 --> 00:08:49.679 Speaking of being a breadwinner, she didn't really 00:08:49.679 --> 00:08:51.500 go to school, did she? I mean, how do you fit 00:08:51.500 --> 00:08:53.460 in algebra when you're on set 10 hours a day? 00:08:53.620 --> 00:08:56.519 Not in the traditional sense, no. She was educated 00:08:56.519 --> 00:08:59.620 on set. California law required three hours of 00:08:59.620 --> 00:09:02.100 schooling a day for child actors. Okay. But this 00:09:02.100 --> 00:09:04.279 wasn't a classroom with peers. It was usually 00:09:04.279 --> 00:09:07.399 a corner of a soundstage with a tutor. Despite 00:09:07.399 --> 00:09:10.179 the lack of a formal classroom, though, she was 00:09:10.179 --> 00:09:12.299 brilliant. She was. She was a straight -A student. 00:09:12.519 --> 00:09:16.179 She excelled in arithmetic. Director Joseph Mankiewicz 00:09:16.179 --> 00:09:18.460 called her the smartest Moppet he'd ever met. 00:09:18.600 --> 00:09:21.360 Wow, but it must have felt isolating. Incredibly. 00:09:21.440 --> 00:09:24.500 And here's the heartbreaking part. Natalie herself 00:09:24.500 --> 00:09:27.220 said she always felt guilty when the crew was 00:09:27.220 --> 00:09:29.480 waiting for her to finish her school hours. She 00:09:29.480 --> 00:09:31.659 knew that time was money. She felt responsible 00:09:31.659 --> 00:09:34.460 for holding up production as a child. As a child. 00:09:35.329 --> 00:09:37.450 As soon as she was done, she'd run back to the 00:09:37.450 --> 00:09:40.070 set. The set was her home. It was where she felt 00:09:40.070 --> 00:09:42.370 she belonged, but it was also a place of immense 00:09:42.370 --> 00:09:44.629 pressure. So she conquers childhood. She's a 00:09:44.629 --> 00:09:47.429 massive star. But then comes the hurdle that 00:09:47.429 --> 00:09:51.450 kills 90 % of child star careers, puberty. Right. 00:09:51.809 --> 00:09:55.070 The awkward phase. The industry usually discards 00:09:55.070 --> 00:09:57.850 you the moment you get braces. It is the child 00:09:57.850 --> 00:10:00.840 star curse. Audiences love you when you're cute 00:10:00.840 --> 00:10:03.220 and precocious. They often reject you when you 00:10:03.220 --> 00:10:05.200 start growing up and developing autonomy or, 00:10:05.240 --> 00:10:07.919 you know, sexuality. But Natalie Wood was one 00:10:07.919 --> 00:10:11.080 of the very, very few to stick the landing. And 00:10:11.080 --> 00:10:14.240 the pivot point seems to be 1955, Rebel Without 00:10:14.240 --> 00:10:16.559 a Cause. This is the moment everything changes. 00:10:16.960 --> 00:10:19.840 She is 16 years old. She is transitioning to 00:10:19.840 --> 00:10:22.899 an ingenue. And she is cast opposite James Dean. 00:10:23.149 --> 00:10:25.769 The symbol of teenage angst himself. And this 00:10:25.769 --> 00:10:27.490 wasn't just another assignment, right? This was 00:10:27.490 --> 00:10:30.970 different for her. No. For the first time, Natalie 00:10:30.970 --> 00:10:32.690 wasn't just doing what her mother told her to 00:10:32.690 --> 00:10:35.049 do. This was the first script she read that she 00:10:35.049 --> 00:10:37.750 actively wanted to do. So she fought for it. 00:10:37.870 --> 00:10:40.590 She did. Her parents were actually opposed to 00:10:40.590 --> 00:10:42.470 it. They didn't like the subject matter, juvenile 00:10:42.470 --> 00:10:45.610 delinquency, police stations rebellion. It clashed 00:10:45.610 --> 00:10:48.710 with the perfect daughter brand. But she saw 00:10:48.710 --> 00:10:51.330 something in it. She saw herself. She later said, 00:10:51.490 --> 00:10:54.889 until then, I did what I was told. Rebel was 00:10:54.889 --> 00:10:58.269 her rebellion, both on screen and off. She identified 00:10:58.269 --> 00:11:00.730 with the character of Judy, a girl who feels 00:11:00.730 --> 00:11:03.629 misunderstood by her father, who is acting out 00:11:03.629 --> 00:11:06.330 for attention. And it paid off, big time. The 00:11:06.330 --> 00:11:08.529 industry took notice. She earned an Academy Award 00:11:08.529 --> 00:11:11.230 nomination for Best Supporting Actress. At 16, 00:11:11.669 --> 00:11:14.049 that creates a level of legitimacy that most 00:11:14.049 --> 00:11:17.340 child actors never, ever get. It validated her 00:11:17.340 --> 00:11:20.059 as a serious actress. But even with that success, 00:11:20.299 --> 00:11:22.940 the studio system was a beast. We have to remember, 00:11:23.139 --> 00:11:26.379 in the 1950s, actors were contract players. She 00:11:26.379 --> 00:11:28.399 was under contract to Warner Bros., and they 00:11:28.399 --> 00:11:30.320 essentially owned her image. They kept trying 00:11:30.320 --> 00:11:32.159 to shove her into these girlfriend roles, right? 00:11:32.259 --> 00:11:34.639 Just the pretty face next to the male lead. Right. 00:11:35.039 --> 00:11:37.399 After Rebel, instead of giving her more gritty 00:11:37.399 --> 00:11:40.820 roles, they cast her opposite tab hunter in these, 00:11:40.899 --> 00:11:43.360 like... fluffy movies like the burning hills 00:11:43.360 --> 00:11:46.679 they were trying to manufacture a teen idol box 00:11:46.679 --> 00:11:49.580 office couple and she wasn't having it she found 00:11:49.580 --> 00:11:52.399 it incredibly unsatisfying she wanted substance 00:11:52.399 --> 00:11:55.519 she wanted to stretch and when she refused roles 00:11:55.519 --> 00:11:58.039 this is the part that blows my mind about the 00:11:58.039 --> 00:12:00.779 studio system they suspended her that was how 00:12:00.779 --> 00:12:03.179 the system worked you were an employee if you 00:12:03.179 --> 00:12:04.799 didn't do the picture they assigned you didn't 00:12:04.799 --> 00:12:07.080 get paid and You couldn't work anywhere else. 00:12:07.240 --> 00:12:09.240 Exactly. You couldn't work anywhere else. She 00:12:09.240 --> 00:12:11.539 was suspended for over a year at one point. That 00:12:11.539 --> 00:12:14.220 takes guts to stand up to the machine when you're 00:12:14.220 --> 00:12:16.279 barely out of high school and essentially go 00:12:16.279 --> 00:12:18.519 on strike. It does. It shows that she wasn't 00:12:18.519 --> 00:12:21.120 just a puppet. She had an artistic vision for 00:12:21.120 --> 00:12:24.059 herself. And amidst this struggle, she takes 00:12:24.059 --> 00:12:26.559 on the role of Marjorie Morningstar in 1958. 00:12:27.100 --> 00:12:30.259 Which feels very autobiographical in a way. Extremely. 00:12:30.490 --> 00:12:32.730 She plays a Jewish girl in New York struggling 00:12:32.730 --> 00:12:35.389 with the expectations of her family and her religious 00:12:35.389 --> 00:12:38.110 community versus her own desire for an identity 00:12:38.110 --> 00:12:40.950 as an actress. It's the same story. Replace Jewish 00:12:40.950 --> 00:12:43.730 girl in New York with Russian girl in Hollywood. 00:12:43.789 --> 00:12:46.870 And it is essentially Natalie's life. She was 00:12:46.870 --> 00:12:49.309 constantly code switching between her home life 00:12:49.309 --> 00:12:52.350 and her public persona. So she's fighting for 00:12:52.350 --> 00:12:54.909 respect. She's fighting for good roles. And then 00:12:54.909 --> 00:12:58.409 the 60s hit. And this is really the golden era 00:12:58.409 --> 00:13:00.879 for her. She enters what some call the tragedy 00:13:00.879 --> 00:13:03.600 trio. The trilogy of tragics, as some fans call 00:13:03.600 --> 00:13:06.179 them. Splendor in the Grass, West Side Story, 00:13:06.379 --> 00:13:09.460 and Gypsy. But Splendor in the Grass in 1961 00:13:09.460 --> 00:13:11.820 is really the artistic turning point. This is 00:13:11.820 --> 00:13:13.620 where she proves she's a heavyweight. This is 00:13:13.620 --> 00:13:16.700 where she works with Elia Kazan and Kazan. He's 00:13:16.700 --> 00:13:19.620 a complicated figure, a genius director, but 00:13:19.620 --> 00:13:21.940 controversial. Right. He was a master of psychological 00:13:21.940 --> 00:13:25.820 realism. And we have to remember, Natalie idolized 00:13:25.820 --> 00:13:28.340 Vivian Leigh in A Streetcar Named Desire. She 00:13:28.340 --> 00:13:31.080 wanted that kind of raw emotional power. Kazan 00:13:31.080 --> 00:13:32.600 was the director who could get it out of her. 00:13:32.659 --> 00:13:35.940 But his methods, they were intimate and they 00:13:35.940 --> 00:13:38.259 were manipulative. They were. Kazan was very 00:13:38.259 --> 00:13:41.220 perceptive. He saw past the polished good girl 00:13:41.220 --> 00:13:43.759 facade. He said he saw a desperate twinkle in 00:13:43.759 --> 00:13:46.139 her eyes. He knew she was in psychoanalysis, 00:13:46.139 --> 00:13:48.639 which was somewhat taboo at the time, and he 00:13:48.639 --> 00:13:50.899 decided to use it. He used her therapy against 00:13:50.899 --> 00:13:53.559 her or for her. Depending on how you look at 00:13:53.559 --> 00:13:56.259 it, both. Yeah. He utilized her vulnerability. 00:13:57.700 --> 00:14:00.379 There's a famous scene in Splendor, the hysteria 00:14:00.379 --> 00:14:03.399 scene in the bathtub. Dini, her character, is 00:14:03.399 --> 00:14:06.080 having a complete breakdown. It is visceral. 00:14:06.200 --> 00:14:08.500 It is uncomfortable to watch. And she didn't 00:14:08.500 --> 00:14:11.340 have formal method training like Marlon Brando 00:14:11.340 --> 00:14:14.059 or James Dean. She wasn't from the actor's studio. 00:14:14.399 --> 00:14:17.399 No, she was instinctual. But Kazan pushed her 00:14:17.399 --> 00:14:20.769 buttons. He used effective memory. triggering 00:14:20.769 --> 00:14:23.429 her real -life pains to produce the on -screen 00:14:23.429 --> 00:14:25.850 emotion. So he was pulling from her actual trauma. 00:14:26.049 --> 00:14:27.769 He basically broke her down to build the character 00:14:27.769 --> 00:14:30.429 up, and it worked. The performance is devastating. 00:14:30.730 --> 00:14:33.169 It solidified her as an actress capable of deep 00:14:33.169 --> 00:14:35.129 neurotic complexity. She wasn't just the girlfriend 00:14:35.129 --> 00:14:37.250 anymore. She was a woman on the edge. And then 00:14:37.250 --> 00:14:39.370 almost immediately, she pivots to West Side Story. 00:14:39.570 --> 00:14:42.370 Maria. Yeah. One of the most famous roles in 00:14:42.370 --> 00:14:44.289 movie history. And also one of the most controversial 00:14:44.289 --> 00:14:46.789 by modern standards. We have to address the casting. 00:14:46.990 --> 00:14:48.830 Right. We have to address the elephant in the 00:14:48.830 --> 00:14:51.539 room. She was a Russian -American woman playing 00:14:51.539 --> 00:14:54.019 a Puerto Rican character. And she was darkened 00:14:54.019 --> 00:14:57.440 with makeup. It was the norm of the time. Hollywood 00:14:57.440 --> 00:15:00.700 often treated ethnicity as a costume. But it 00:15:00.700 --> 00:15:03.799 stands out starkly today. It really does? And 00:15:03.799 --> 00:15:05.899 on top of that, there is the issue of the voice. 00:15:06.360 --> 00:15:09.179 Wait, really? I think a lot of people assume 00:15:09.179 --> 00:15:11.580 that's her voice singing, I Feel Pretty. No. 00:15:12.120 --> 00:15:15.149 That is the legendary Marnie Nixon. dubbing her 00:15:15.149 --> 00:15:17.509 singing voice. The same woman who dubbed Audrey 00:15:17.509 --> 00:15:20.950 Hepburn in My Fair Lady. The very same. Natalie 00:15:20.950 --> 00:15:23.370 recorded all the tracks. She worked tirelessly 00:15:23.370 --> 00:15:25.809 on the songs, believing her voice would be used. 00:15:25.970 --> 00:15:29.129 But the studio, wanting perfection, replaced 00:15:29.129 --> 00:15:31.110 them in post -production without telling her 00:15:31.110 --> 00:15:33.669 at first. That has to be a massive blow to the 00:15:33.669 --> 00:15:35.950 ego. You do the work and they erase your voice. 00:15:36.230 --> 00:15:39.529 It was. She felt betrayed. But despite the casting 00:15:39.529 --> 00:15:41.629 issues and the dubbing, the film is a masterpiece 00:15:41.629 --> 00:15:44.740 and her performance anchors it. It does. And 00:15:44.740 --> 00:15:46.320 if you look at the themes, it connects right 00:15:46.320 --> 00:15:49.059 back to Rebel Without a Cause. Both films deal 00:15:49.059 --> 00:15:52.220 with the restlessness of youth, the alienation, 00:15:52.340 --> 00:15:54.940 the violence bubbling under the surface of American 00:15:54.940 --> 00:15:57.600 society. In Rebel, she's the girlfriend of the 00:15:57.600 --> 00:16:00.840 outcast. In West Side Story, she is the outcast, 00:16:01.000 --> 00:16:04.200 crossing racial lines for love. She became the 00:16:04.200 --> 00:16:06.580 face of that specific brand of 50s and early 00:16:06.580 --> 00:16:09.580 60s yearning. And the Academy noticed. By age 00:16:09.580 --> 00:16:12.159 25, she had racked up three Oscar nominations, 00:16:12.659 --> 00:16:16.419 Rebel, Splendor, and Love with the Proper Stranger. 00:16:16.860 --> 00:16:19.360 That was a historic achievement. She held the 00:16:19.360 --> 00:16:21.500 record for the youngest person to achieve three 00:16:21.500 --> 00:16:23.980 nominations until Jennifer Lawrence broke it 00:16:23.980 --> 00:16:27.399 in 2013. 50 years. That's incredible. That is 00:16:27.399 --> 00:16:29.600 a span of 50 years that shows you the magnitude 00:16:29.600 --> 00:16:32.379 of her stardom at that young age. She was statistically 00:16:32.379 --> 00:16:34.240 one of the most successful actors in history. 00:16:34.419 --> 00:16:36.740 But despite the box office, and she was huge 00:16:36.740 --> 00:16:39.019 box office, right up there with Liz Taylor and 00:16:39.019 --> 00:16:41.159 Audrey Hepburn, the critics weren't always kind. 00:16:41.360 --> 00:16:43.559 No. They weren't. There was a skepticism about 00:16:43.559 --> 00:16:45.899 her, maybe because she was so beautiful or because 00:16:45.899 --> 00:16:48.740 she had been a child star. They often dismissed 00:16:48.740 --> 00:16:51.740 her as a machine -tooled studio product. They 00:16:51.740 --> 00:16:53.639 thought she was too polished. Which brings us 00:16:53.639 --> 00:16:56.840 to the Harvard Lampoon story. I love this because 00:16:56.840 --> 00:16:59.039 it shows a side of her personality that the tragic 00:16:59.039 --> 00:17:02.539 narrative ignores. It is a great moment. In 1966, 00:17:02.960 --> 00:17:05.240 the Harvard Lampoon named her worst actress of 00:17:05.240 --> 00:17:08.519 last year, this year, and next. Ouch! That is 00:17:08.519 --> 00:17:11.839 academic snark at its finest. Brutal. But instead 00:17:11.839 --> 00:17:14.240 of ignoring it or getting angry, Natalie Wood 00:17:14.240 --> 00:17:17.000 showed up. No way. She flew to Harvard to accept 00:17:17.000 --> 00:17:19.779 the award in person. That is a power move. It 00:17:19.779 --> 00:17:21.740 showed her resilience and her sense of humor. 00:17:21.859 --> 00:17:24.720 She proved she was in on the joke. She disarmed 00:17:24.720 --> 00:17:26.599 them completely. I love that. She wasn't this 00:17:26.599 --> 00:17:29.119 fragile porcelain doll. She was a woman who could 00:17:29.119 --> 00:17:31.349 take a punch and laugh about it. But even with 00:17:31.349 --> 00:17:33.750 that resilience, the cracks were starting to 00:17:33.750 --> 00:17:36.609 show. By the mid -60s, the pressure of carrying 00:17:36.609 --> 00:17:40.349 films for 20 years was mounting. It was. She 00:17:40.349 --> 00:17:42.470 was filming a movie called Penelope, a heist 00:17:42.470 --> 00:17:45.150 comedy. And she started breaking out in hives. 00:17:45.230 --> 00:17:49.130 Hives, like stress hives. Severe hives, anguish. 00:17:49.589 --> 00:17:51.690 She later said she was rolling around on the 00:17:51.690 --> 00:17:53.950 floor in agony, and the director thought she 00:17:53.950 --> 00:17:56.579 was just resisting the film. Her body was literally 00:17:56.579 --> 00:17:59.099 rejecting the work. It's like the butterfly incident 00:17:59.099 --> 00:18:02.000 again. The body reacting to the trauma of the 00:18:02.000 --> 00:18:03.819 performance. It was a physical manifestation 00:18:03.819 --> 00:18:06.319 of burnout. She'd been working nonstop since 00:18:06.319 --> 00:18:08.720 she was four years old. So she did something 00:18:08.720 --> 00:18:11.240 radical. She pulled the ripcord. She paid the 00:18:11.240 --> 00:18:16.079 studio $175 ,000. a fortune in those days, to 00:18:16.079 --> 00:18:18.759 buy out her own contract. She fired her agents. 00:18:18.900 --> 00:18:21.259 She fired her managers. She fired her lawyers. 00:18:21.440 --> 00:18:24.079 She cleaned house. She fired the handlers. That 00:18:24.079 --> 00:18:26.319 must have been terrifying. It was an act of extreme 00:18:26.319 --> 00:18:29.259 independence. She took a three -year hiatus to 00:18:29.259 --> 00:18:33.119 focus on therapy and herself. For a czar of her 00:18:33.119 --> 00:18:35.619 magnitude to just stop, that was unheard of. 00:18:36.099 --> 00:18:38.220 But she realized that if she didn't stop, the 00:18:38.220 --> 00:18:40.500 industry would eat her alive. But when she came 00:18:40.500 --> 00:18:44.460 back... Oh, she came back. 1969. Bob and Carol 00:18:44.460 --> 00:18:46.660 and Ted and Alice. This is the film that bridges 00:18:46.660 --> 00:18:49.119 the gap to new Hollywood. It's a comedy about 00:18:49.119 --> 00:18:52.079 sexual liberation, wife swapping, the whole counterculture 00:18:52.079 --> 00:18:55.059 thing. It's very 1969. Exactly. And seeing Natalie 00:18:55.059 --> 00:18:59.160 Wood, the queen of glossy 50s melodramas, in 00:18:59.160 --> 00:19:02.680 this cynical, modern, adult satire, it was a 00:19:02.680 --> 00:19:04.799 revelation. That must have shocked people. It 00:19:04.799 --> 00:19:08.299 did. It proved she could be funny. And it proved 00:19:08.299 --> 00:19:10.119 she understood the way the world was changing. 00:19:10.680 --> 00:19:13.319 She wasn't stuck in the past. She wasn't a relic. 00:19:13.319 --> 00:19:16.519 She was evolving. And she continued to push boundaries 00:19:16.519 --> 00:19:19.180 later in her career. In the TV movie The Last 00:19:19.180 --> 00:19:21.779 Married Couple in America in 1980, she actually 00:19:21.779 --> 00:19:25.220 used the F word in a scene. Natalie Wood dropping 00:19:25.220 --> 00:19:27.819 an F -bomb, that feels significant. It shattered 00:19:27.819 --> 00:19:30.660 that clean image forever. She was playing real, 00:19:30.700 --> 00:19:34.319 messy, adult women. She also won a Golden Globe 00:19:34.319 --> 00:19:36.839 for the TV remake of From Here to Eternity in 00:19:36.839 --> 00:19:40.240 1979. She was finding a new groove in television, 00:19:40.480 --> 00:19:42.579 taking roles that allowed her to be a mature 00:19:42.579 --> 00:19:45.160 woman, not just an ingenue. And she was filming 00:19:45.160 --> 00:19:47.319 a sci -fi movie called Brainstorm right at the 00:19:47.319 --> 00:19:50.339 end too, which tragically became famous for all 00:19:50.339 --> 00:19:52.500 the wrong reasons. Yes, Brainstorm was meant 00:19:52.500 --> 00:19:55.240 to be her big return to theatrical films. But 00:19:55.240 --> 00:19:56.839 before we get to the end, we had to look at the 00:19:56.839 --> 00:19:58.799 private life that was fueling all this drama. 00:19:59.180 --> 00:20:01.240 Because if her on -screen life was turbulent, 00:20:01.519 --> 00:20:04.269 her off -screen life was a hurricane. Let's talk 00:20:04.269 --> 00:20:06.829 about the men, specifically R .J. Robert Wagner. 00:20:07.089 --> 00:20:08.930 It was the romance of the century, according 00:20:08.930 --> 00:20:11.430 to the fan magazines. She married Robert Wagner 00:20:11.430 --> 00:20:13.710 when she was 19. They were the golden couple, 00:20:13.869 --> 00:20:16.470 both beautiful, both young, both famous. But 00:20:16.470 --> 00:20:20.369 it fell apart in 1961, and the rumors about why, 00:20:20.650 --> 00:20:25.069 they are persistent. They are. Multiple biographies 00:20:25.069 --> 00:20:27.250 and accounts suggest a devastating reason for 00:20:27.250 --> 00:20:30.009 the split. The story goes that Natalie caught 00:20:30.009 --> 00:20:32.789 Wagner in an extramarital affair. But not just 00:20:32.789 --> 00:20:35.079 any affair. The account suggests she caught him 00:20:35.079 --> 00:20:36.940 with another man. That would explain the suddenness 00:20:36.940 --> 00:20:38.700 of the split and the silence around it for so 00:20:38.700 --> 00:20:41.759 long. In 1961, that would have been a career 00:20:41.759 --> 00:20:44.259 -ending scandal for him. And it devastated her. 00:20:44.359 --> 00:20:46.900 She attempted to move on. She married her producer, 00:20:47.079 --> 00:20:49.319 Richard Gregson, had her first daughter, Natasha, 00:20:49.720 --> 00:20:52.660 but that marriage also ended in divorce. And 00:20:52.660 --> 00:20:54.599 then, in a twist that nobody saw coming, she 00:20:54.599 --> 00:20:57.539 goes back to Wagner. The remix. They remarried 00:20:57.539 --> 00:21:00.500 in 1972 on a boat, ironically, and had another 00:21:00.500 --> 00:21:02.869 daughter, Courtney. It seemed like a fairytale 00:21:02.869 --> 00:21:05.869 reconciliation. Love is better the second time 00:21:05.869 --> 00:21:08.009 around. But it sounds like the same tensions 00:21:08.009 --> 00:21:10.890 remained. The sources suggest they did. Underneath 00:21:10.890 --> 00:21:12.930 the reunion, there were still issues. But it 00:21:12.930 --> 00:21:15.009 wasn't just Wagner. I mean, she dated Warren 00:21:15.009 --> 00:21:18.690 Beatty, Michael Caine, even Jerry Brown, the 00:21:18.690 --> 00:21:20.950 future governor of California. She was connected 00:21:20.950 --> 00:21:23.470 to the most powerful men in Hollywood and politics. 00:21:23.950 --> 00:21:26.670 She moved in circles of immense influence. And 00:21:26.670 --> 00:21:28.950 there was also an FBI agent. That's a strange 00:21:28.950 --> 00:21:32.500 detail. Donald Goodwin Wilson. He claimed, and 00:21:32.500 --> 00:21:34.700 this is years later, that he had a four -year 00:21:34.700 --> 00:21:37.240 affair with Wood during her second marriage to 00:21:37.240 --> 00:21:40.039 Wagner. So the image of the happy reunion might 00:21:40.039 --> 00:21:42.259 have been just that, an image projected for the 00:21:42.259 --> 00:21:44.819 press. But there is a much darker secret from 00:21:44.819 --> 00:21:46.980 her past that she carried with her, a secret 00:21:46.980 --> 00:21:49.900 that puts the politics of Hollywood into a really 00:21:49.900 --> 00:21:53.319 grim perspective. Yes. The rape allegation. This 00:21:53.319 --> 00:21:55.160 is something that was whispered about for decades, 00:21:55.299 --> 00:21:57.599 but only recently brought into the light by her 00:21:57.599 --> 00:22:00.500 sister, Lana Wood, and biographer Suzanne Finstead. 00:22:00.910 --> 00:22:03.170 It reframes her entire experience of the industry. 00:22:03.329 --> 00:22:05.269 The story is that when she was a teen around 00:22:05.269 --> 00:22:08.809 16, the rebel era, she was raped by a powerful 00:22:08.809 --> 00:22:12.589 actor. The details are horrific. Lana Wood claims 00:22:12.589 --> 00:22:14.890 it happened at the Chateau Marmont during what 00:22:14.890 --> 00:22:17.430 was supposed to be an audition. She says it went 00:22:17.430 --> 00:22:20.470 on for hours. Natalie came home disheveled and 00:22:20.470 --> 00:22:23.349 traumatized. And for years, the name was withheld. 00:22:23.390 --> 00:22:26.740 It was just... a powerful actor. But in 2021, 00:22:27.259 --> 00:22:30.259 Lana Wood finally named him. She named Kirk Douglas. 00:22:30.900 --> 00:22:33.220 Spartacus, one of the kings of Hollywood. And 00:22:33.220 --> 00:22:35.579 here is the truly heartbreaking part, the part 00:22:35.579 --> 00:22:37.160 that connects back to the butterfly incident. 00:22:38.099 --> 00:22:40.779 Natalie didn't go to the police. No. Her mother, 00:22:40.880 --> 00:22:44.000 Maria, reportedly told her to keep quiet. Suck 00:22:44.000 --> 00:22:46.539 it up. Essentially. The fear was that if she 00:22:46.539 --> 00:22:49.339 accused a star as big as Kirk Douglas, her career 00:22:49.339 --> 00:22:51.490 would be over. The studio would blackball her. 00:22:51.529 --> 00:22:53.509 They would protect the male asset. So she was 00:22:53.509 --> 00:22:56.049 forced to swallow that trauma, walk on set, see 00:22:56.049 --> 00:22:57.930 him at parties, and pretend everything was fine. 00:22:58.069 --> 00:23:00.009 For the rest of her life. She was a child soldier 00:23:00.009 --> 00:23:01.950 in the studio system. That's what it sounds like. 00:23:02.049 --> 00:23:04.549 It puts her hysteria scenes in a totally different 00:23:04.549 --> 00:23:07.369 light. It does explain the depth of pain she 00:23:07.369 --> 00:23:10.250 was able to access in films like Splendor in 00:23:10.250 --> 00:23:13.769 the Grass. She wasn't just acting. She was channeling 00:23:13.769 --> 00:23:15.630 a lifetime of suppression. She was screaming 00:23:15.630 --> 00:23:18.309 for real. So you have this woman who has survived 00:23:18.309 --> 00:23:21.730 the studio system, survived abuse, survived career 00:23:21.730 --> 00:23:25.450 lows, and reinvented herself. She is 43 years 00:23:25.450 --> 00:23:28.789 old. She's filming Brainstorm. And she decides 00:23:28.789 --> 00:23:31.509 to go on a weekend boat trip to Catalina Island. 00:23:31.809 --> 00:23:36.109 November 29, 1981. This is the date that overshadows 00:23:36.109 --> 00:23:38.609 everything else. Let's set the scene on the boat. 00:23:38.710 --> 00:23:41.769 The splendor. It sounds claustrophobic. It's 00:23:41.769 --> 00:23:44.730 a small group in a confined space. Natalie Wood, 00:23:44.910 --> 00:23:47.750 her husband, Robert Wagner, Christopher Walken, 00:23:47.750 --> 00:23:50.690 her co -star in Brainstorm. Who rumors said Wagner 00:23:50.690 --> 00:23:53.009 was jealous of. Right. And the captain, Dennis 00:23:53.009 --> 00:23:55.289 Davern. That's it. Four people. It's a volatile 00:23:55.289 --> 00:23:57.789 mix and alcohol is flowing. A lot of alcohol. 00:23:58.009 --> 00:24:00.130 And we know there was a fight. Robert Wagner 00:24:00.130 --> 00:24:02.029 later admitted in his own memoir that he and 00:24:02.029 --> 00:24:04.289 Natalie argued that night. He was angry about 00:24:04.289 --> 00:24:07.250 her career focus, angry about Walken. He smashed 00:24:07.250 --> 00:24:10.549 a wine bottle on the table. And then. Silence. 00:24:10.549 --> 00:24:13.289 She disappears. Wagner says she wasn't there 00:24:13.289 --> 00:24:16.349 when he went to bed. He assumed she took the 00:24:16.349 --> 00:24:18.710 dinghy to shore to get away from the argument. 00:24:19.509 --> 00:24:22.490 Her body was found the next morning, a mile away, 00:24:22.670 --> 00:24:25.150 floating near the inflatable dinghy. Now, the 00:24:25.150 --> 00:24:28.109 original ruling was accidental drowning. Correct. 00:24:28.450 --> 00:24:32.130 The coroner at the time, Thomas Noguchi, theorized 00:24:32.130 --> 00:24:34.390 that she had been drinking, maybe tried to board 00:24:34.390 --> 00:24:36.569 the dinghy to leave or secure it because it was 00:24:36.569 --> 00:24:39.470 banging against the hull, slipped, Hit her head 00:24:39.470 --> 00:24:42.250 and drowned. Hypothermia played a role. But that 00:24:42.250 --> 00:24:43.990 never sat right with the people who knew her, 00:24:44.089 --> 00:24:46.890 especially her sister Lana. Lana was adamant. 00:24:47.109 --> 00:24:49.430 Natalie was terrified of dark water. She couldn't 00:24:49.430 --> 00:24:52.029 swim well. She couldn't swim. Not well. And she 00:24:52.029 --> 00:24:54.170 had a deep -seated fear of it. The idea that 00:24:54.170 --> 00:24:56.029 she would essentially put on a nightgown and 00:24:56.029 --> 00:24:58.069 socks and try to take a dinghy out alone in the 00:24:58.069 --> 00:25:00.349 middle of the night. Lana said it was impossible. 00:25:00.650 --> 00:25:02.930 It went against every instinct she had. And there 00:25:02.930 --> 00:25:05.690 were witnesses nearby, right? People on a nearby 00:25:05.690 --> 00:25:08.269 boat. reported hearing a woman screaming for 00:25:08.269 --> 00:25:10.190 help in the middle of the night. Somebody please 00:25:10.190 --> 00:25:12.710 help me, I'm drowning. But no one could locate 00:25:12.710 --> 00:25:14.869 her in the dark. That's horrifying. It adds a 00:25:14.869 --> 00:25:18.170 layer of horror to the event. She was alive in 00:25:18.170 --> 00:25:21.250 the water, calling out. The case was closed for 00:25:21.250 --> 00:25:25.029 decades. But then in 2011, it cracks open again. 00:25:25.349 --> 00:25:28.650 The captain, Dennis Davern, came forward. He 00:25:28.650 --> 00:25:30.509 admitted he lied to the police originally. What 00:25:30.509 --> 00:25:32.970 did he say really happened? He painted a picture 00:25:32.970 --> 00:25:36.019 of a rage -fueled night. He claimed Wagner was 00:25:36.019 --> 00:25:38.779 jealous of Walken, smashed the bottle, and got 00:25:38.779 --> 00:25:41.000 into a screaming match with Natalie on the rear 00:25:41.000 --> 00:25:43.539 deck of the boat. And crucially, Davern claims 00:25:43.539 --> 00:25:45.700 Wagner prevented him from searching properly. 00:25:46.079 --> 00:25:48.500 That's right. Davern alleges that when Natalie 00:25:48.500 --> 00:25:50.980 went missing, he wanted to turn on the searchlights 00:25:50.980 --> 00:25:53.500 and call for help immediately. As you would. 00:25:53.640 --> 00:25:56.660 He claims Wagner told him not to. Wagner allegedly 00:25:56.660 --> 00:25:59.700 said, leave her there. Teach her a lesson. Chilling. 00:25:59.900 --> 00:26:02.700 Teach her a lesson. As if she were a child being 00:26:02.700 --> 00:26:05.240 disciplined. That is the allegation. And based 00:26:05.240 --> 00:26:07.539 on this new testimony and a reexamination of 00:26:07.539 --> 00:26:09.960 the evidence, the coroner actually changed the 00:26:09.960 --> 00:26:12.539 death certificate in 2012. It no longer says 00:26:12.539 --> 00:26:16.000 accidental drowning. It now reads drowning and 00:26:16.000 --> 00:26:19.680 other undetermined factors. That shift is monumental 00:26:19.680 --> 00:26:22.380 legally. It means they can no longer say with 00:26:22.380 --> 00:26:24.559 certainty it was an accident. And the bruising. 00:26:24.579 --> 00:26:26.819 That was a major point of contention in the new 00:26:26.819 --> 00:26:29.839 report. Yes. The 2013 addendum to the autopsy 00:26:29.839 --> 00:26:32.500 noted significant bruising on her arms, legs, 00:26:32.619 --> 00:26:35.299 and a scratch on her neck. The forensic analysis 00:26:35.299 --> 00:26:37.079 suggested these injuries might have occurred 00:26:37.079 --> 00:26:39.259 before she entered the water. Which points to 00:26:39.259 --> 00:26:41.819 assault. It is consistent with being assaulted 00:26:41.819 --> 00:26:46.200 or held down. Because of this, in 2018, the investigators 00:26:46.200 --> 00:26:49.380 named Robert Wagner a person of interest. But 00:26:49.380 --> 00:26:52.440 no charges were ever filed. No. Without a confession 00:26:52.440 --> 00:26:54.759 or definitive forensic proof linking someone 00:26:54.759 --> 00:26:58.000 to the act, it remains in legal limbo. A mystery. 00:26:58.559 --> 00:27:00.740 But the cloud of suspicion has never lifted. 00:27:00.940 --> 00:27:03.559 It is the ultimate Hollywood noir ending, but 00:27:03.559 --> 00:27:05.000 as we promised at the start, we don't want to 00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:06.839 leave her there in the water. We need to reclaim 00:27:06.839 --> 00:27:09.420 the narrative. No. We need to pull back and look 00:27:09.420 --> 00:27:11.640 at the legacy. Because if you stop at the death, 00:27:11.759 --> 00:27:14.119 you miss the triumph of her life. When you look 00:27:14.119 --> 00:27:17.319 at her filmography miracle on 34th Street, Rebel 00:27:17.319 --> 00:27:20.599 Without a Cause, The Searchers, Splendor in the 00:27:20.599 --> 00:27:23.490 Grass, West Side Story, Bob and Carol and Ted 00:27:23.490 --> 00:27:26.069 and Alice, she is literally tracing the history 00:27:26.069 --> 00:27:29.430 of American film. One critic called her our sexual 00:27:29.430 --> 00:27:32.309 conscience on the silver screen. She embodied 00:27:32.309 --> 00:27:34.970 the confusion, the repression, and the eventual 00:27:34.970 --> 00:27:37.470 liberation of American women over those three 00:27:37.470 --> 00:27:39.710 decades. She played the girls who were afraid, 00:27:39.950 --> 00:27:42.750 the girls who went crazy, and eventually the 00:27:42.750 --> 00:27:44.869 women who took charge. Her daughter, Natasha 00:27:44.869 --> 00:27:47.289 Gregson Wagner, has said that the focus on the 00:27:47.289 --> 00:27:49.369 death has completely overshadowed the life's 00:27:49.369 --> 00:27:52.099 work. And she's right. We fixate on the victimhood. 00:27:52.220 --> 00:27:55.079 She is right. We lost a terrifyingly good professional. 00:27:55.480 --> 00:27:57.259 We lost the woman who gave us the heartbreaking 00:27:57.259 --> 00:27:59.880 vulnerability of Dini and Splendor and the fire 00:27:59.880 --> 00:28:02.559 of Maria and West Side Story. We lost a woman 00:28:02.559 --> 00:28:04.500 who fought for her name, fought for her roles, 00:28:04.660 --> 00:28:07.259 and fought for her sanity. So as we wrap up, 00:28:07.319 --> 00:28:09.299 what is the big takeaway here? How should we 00:28:09.299 --> 00:28:11.799 remember Natalie Wood? We should remember her 00:28:11.799 --> 00:28:15.519 as a survivor. She survived a revolution in her 00:28:15.519 --> 00:28:18.779 home country before she was even born. She survived 00:28:18.779 --> 00:28:21.880 a predatory stage mother who tore up her butterflies. 00:28:22.240 --> 00:28:24.980 She survived the brutality of the studio system 00:28:24.980 --> 00:28:27.579 that owned her. She survived the transition from 00:28:27.579 --> 00:28:31.160 child star to adult icon. She survived assault. 00:28:31.400 --> 00:28:34.420 She kept working, kept evolving, kept fighting 00:28:34.420 --> 00:28:37.279 for her identity. It's a testament to her strength. 00:28:37.500 --> 00:28:41.119 She wasn't frail. She was steel. And here is 00:28:41.119 --> 00:28:43.819 a final thought to chew on. Consider the industry 00:28:43.819 --> 00:28:46.519 that created her. This system took a four -year 00:28:46.519 --> 00:28:49.019 -old. changed her name, manipulated her emotions, 00:28:49.259 --> 00:28:51.440 covered up a sexual assault by a superstar when 00:28:51.440 --> 00:28:54.660 she was 16, and then... Well, the circumstances 00:28:54.660 --> 00:28:57.140 of her death involve powerful people, changing 00:28:57.140 --> 00:28:59.279 stories, and a lot of silence. It feels like 00:28:59.279 --> 00:29:01.599 the system protected itself from start to finish. 00:29:01.740 --> 00:29:03.779 Exactly. If she had lived, if she had continued 00:29:03.779 --> 00:29:06.160 to evolve into that fearless woman she was becoming 00:29:06.160 --> 00:29:08.819 in the 80s... Right. Consider this. She knew 00:29:08.819 --> 00:29:11.039 where the bodies were buried. She knew the secrets 00:29:11.039 --> 00:29:12.880 of the studio system because she had lived them. 00:29:12.980 --> 00:29:15.539 Right. Would she have become the ultimate whistleblower 00:29:15.539 --> 00:29:17.460 on old Hollywood? Would she have burned the whole 00:29:17.460 --> 00:29:20.680 house down? That is a fascinating what if Natalie 00:29:20.680 --> 00:29:23.440 Wood, the whistleblower, the woman who finally 00:29:23.440 --> 00:29:27.079 told the truth. We will never know, but we can 00:29:27.079 --> 00:29:29.339 certainly appreciate the fire she left on screen. 00:29:29.559 --> 00:29:32.460 Absolutely. Thank you for listening to this deep 00:29:32.460 --> 00:29:35.240 dive into the life of Natalie Wood. Look her 00:29:35.240 --> 00:29:38.359 up. Watch the movies. See the work. Don't just 00:29:38.359 --> 00:29:40.259 read the autopsy report. It's worth it. We'll 00:29:40.259 --> 00:29:40.960 catch you on the next one.