'People Think It's Just An Easy Ride': Natalie Wood's Daughter Natasha Gregson Wagner Reveals 'Problems' Don't 'Go Away' With Fame
Fame may be accompanied with designer clothes, Hollywood parties and easy access to all the luxury life has to offer, but Natasha Gregson Wagner, the daughter of late actress Natalie Wood, reveals that life in the spotlight also comes with a price.
While discussing the rewards and challenges the entertainment industry offers with OK!, Gregson Wagner, 50, and her husband, actor Barry Watson, 46, share some major misconceptions when it comes to fame.
“People think [fame] is just an easy ride,” the brunette beauty dishes, adding that people think: “once you're famous, then all your problems will go away.”
“You still have to keep working and have a focus for your craft,” 7th Heaven alum Watson chimes in.
And while it's easy to get caught up in the glitz and glam of Hollywood, Gregson Wagner says her mom and stepfather, actor Robert Wagner — whom Wood married for a second time after welcoming Gregson Wagner with British producer Richard Gregson — never disregarded what led them to the spotlight in the first place.
They "never lost sight of the work. That was always their first priority, it was never the fame," she recalls.
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The only thing that came before the actors’ work was their family, Gregson Wagner tells OK!. The High Fidelity actress says she knew her “parents were famous,” but she never thought much of their celebrity status because they were "so normal" to her.
In an exclusive interview with Gregson Wagner and her hubby ahead of TCM's Growing Up on Screen, which aired Tuesday, March 30, OK! learned that Wood’s celebrity status ended up taking a toll on her daughter following the icon’s untimely death in 1981.
After Wood drowned at 43 while on a boating trip with her then-husband, Wagner, and Brainstorm co-star Christopher Walken in 1981, Gregson Wagner admitted it was hard to grieve in privacy due to the public’s relentless interest in her mother's untimely death.
Years later, Gregson Wagner remains determined to share with the world her mom’s legacy, which she thinks was “overshadowed by the night she died,” the actress explains.
Last year, Gregson Wagner produced Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind and wrote More Than Love: An Intimate Portrait of My Mother, Natalie Wood to shed light on the “magnificent life that [Wood] left.”
“Since she's not here to talk about it, I should speak about it on her behalf,” Gregson Wagner shares with OK!.
