A Memory of Natasha Richardson

What a tragedy....

I didn't really know Natasha Richardson. But twenty years ago I was in a movie with her, Roland Joffe's Fat Man and Little Boy, about Los Alamos and the A-bomb.

I'll always remember her at the opening script read-through, in a room off the bar in our on-location hotel in Durango, Mexico (where Gabriel Garcia Marques would hole up to work sometimes). The space was so small we were practically knee to knee--Paul Newman, John Cusack, Laura Dern, Nastasha Richardson and the like, and the rest of us, some from the New York downtown performance scene (my route ), some actual physicists or academics. This mix of movie star and amateur was a hallmark of Joffe's Ken Loach inspired casting style. I played Edward Teller (I bore a passing resemblance, I hate to say). Natasha Richardson played Robert Oppenheimer's long suffering young mistress.

Naturally, as a ham-prone amateur/newcomer, I was a little overwhelmed to be where I was.

What I will always remember from that read-through is how everyone pretty much walked through their lines...except for Natasha Richardson.

Without fanfare, without a sign of special effort, she gave a performance, there in her chair, that was so heart-touchingly, luminously authentic, so real, you felt you'd intruded into someone's deepest intimacy. I sank down my seat in awe.

I didn't really see her again. She shot her scenes with Oppenheimer (Dwight Schulz from the A-Team) off somewhere.

But this memory of her presence in that room has always stayed with me. She was something special...

Comments

[SILVANUS]

She was a fine actress with great presence. I will mis her.

[Gail Dedrick]

barry, thank you for that memory. i bet that would stay with me, too. what a tragedy for us all when the world loses someone so beloved by those who knew her. may her kindness and graciousness inspire us all and be her legacy.

[aseyeseeit]

Natasha Richardson had a unique presence-class and humor and I looked forward to any appearance of hers on a talk show. Her deep voice and British accent were very compelling-and she usually had an anecdote that revealed how well she lived. I am hopeful this ability to live life well and to the fulllest was passed on to her children and that they honor her memory by pursuing joy in their lives as they move forward without her. And fill the void left behind with joyful memories she dedicated her life to creating for them.

[AurigaRa]

watching a clip someone posted where Liam and Natasha talked about Eugene O'Neill
and then did a small part from the play Anna Christie - wow! just wow. The emotion was so real it took me a moment to realize they were acting.

[RedWhiteandBlueState]

Seeing her in Anna Christie at the Roundabout is an experience I will never forget. The heat between her and Liam was beyond.

[AurigaRa]

wish I could see it