Trigger warning: This article contains mentions of death.
It’s been 43 years since actress Natalie Wood passed away but her daughter Natasha Gregson Wagner thinks she’s relevant to this day. Speaking to People magazine, Wagner opened up about her late mother’s legacy. “It’s just unbelievable that there’s a relevancy to her all these years later,” she said. “And that people really feel that they knew her or that they feel this protectiveness toward her,” she added.
Wood wrote an intimate memoir More Than Love which was published in 2020. “I see it when people come on to talk to me about her at the book tours,” Natasha said about her mother’s legacy. “I’m proud of her that she was able to have that impact on people,” she added. Natasha added that however Wood lived her life was meant to leave an impact on people.
The actress tragically passed away by drowning when Natasha was just 11 years old on November 29, 1981. The incident left the young girl traumatized but after nearly three decades since her tragic passing, Natasha has opened up about her loss and she has done everything she could to maintain her mother’s legacy.
After the memoir, she co-produced an HBO documentary in the memory of her mother titled Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind which explored the actress’s life on and off-screen. In the film, she interviewed her stepfather, Robert Wagner about the night of Wood’s tragic incident.
“If someone had told me that I’d be doing this 10 years ago, I would’ve laughed because I so wanted to forge a path that was separate from my mom,” Natasha said at the time. “But I think I surrendered to whatever the universe had in store for me,” she added.
She continues to marvel at the thought of how Wood’s projects like Rebel Without a Cause, Splendor in the Grass, West Side Story, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, and many others are still some of Hollywood’s talked about classic films. “Some of these movies that have changed people’s lives,” Natasha told the outlet.
