Trivia of Natalie Wood

Trivia of Natalie Wood

*Made her silver-screen debut in the 1943 film Happy Lands before turning five years old.Even though she was in the film for only 15 seconds, the director saw something special in her.

*Admired and wanted to emulate Bette Davis, Vivien Leigh and Elizabeth Taylor. Leigh was her favorite actress.

*She was known for getting all her lines right on the first take and she was nicknamed 'One Take Natalie' as a result.

*When she was 18, Natalie Wood had a celebrity crush the hip-swinging star Elvis Presley. Dazzled by his music and good looks, she desperately wanted to meet him and on her request, Wood’s old co-star and friend, Dennis Hopper introduced the two stars. When these two set eyes on one another, sparks began to fly. On one of their first dates, he flexed his star power by renting out an entire theater. Magnanimous gestures such as these certainly charmed Wood and soon the couple were ready to take their relationship to the next level.Wood eagerly followed her famous boyfriend back to Memphis to meet his mother, Gladys but Elvis was a mama’s boy through and through. Wood cringed in the face of Elvis’ gooey affection for his mother. She didn’t care for Gladys at all, and unsurprisingly, the resentment went both ways.

*She suffered from a deep fear of drowning after having barely survived an accident when she was a little girl, during the filming of The Green Promise (1949). Her fear was so great that Elia Kazan had to lie - promising a double - and trick her into doing the scenes at the water reservoir in Splendor in the Grass (1961).

*Had to get her stomach pumped at the hospital following sleeping pill overdoses in June 1961, November 1964 and January 1966. After the third suicide attempt, Wood abandoned her promising career to focus on her mental health and emotional well-being. She was 28 and would appear in just four more films before her death at 43.

*Once interviewed Arnold Schwarzenegger, before his career took off, for the magazine "Hollywood Reporter" in 1979. The article was entitled "The Body Meets the Face". Coincidentally and ironically, the final on-camera interview Natalie gave, on the set of Brainstorm (1983) on October 14, 1981, was conducted by Arnold's future wife Maria Shriver.