By now, everybody knows Natasha has died, because of a critical head injury caused by a stupid skiing accident. Why am I writing about it? Because I feel sooo sad. And I've been like this for the past 2 days ever since the accident happened.
I hear she was a great stage actress. She also had lots of low-key film roles. She was the daughter of (my brilliant) Vanessa Redgrave and film director Tony Richardson. She was married to Liam Neeson and had two boys. She was the sister of Joely Richardson (Nip/Tuck).
I am the type of person that spends hours on imdb looking in people's bios and careers and awards. As a Vanessa Redgrave fan, I discovered Natasha many many years ago and I was constantly reading about her. I would be lying to say that I was also a fan of hers; I don't know her career that well to be able to say that.
What I can say: it was enough to see her in a single role or in an interview to realize that she seemed to be such a beautiful kind person. Just look at this photo; there was something so warm, lovely, kind about her person, something that would make you want to meet her or be a friend. So I feel very very sorry about her death based mostly on the person I imagined her to be. And also because I somehow feel this tragedy is going to destroy her mother (I really hope I'm wrong).
Rest in peace!
1 comment:
I never got to see Natasha Richardson's stage work, but I did see many of her films and am a fan. The kind of fan who, while she was alive, was miffed that she never got the type of mainstream or promenient roles in Hwood that she deserved. To see her wonderfulness as a film actress (not ignoring her more appreciated stage career) you'd have to check out The White Countess (with Ralph Fiennes, her mother Vanessa and her aunt Lynn), Asylum, and The Handmaid's Tale. There are others like Nell (with Jodie Foster and Liam Neeson), but those 3 stand out most to me. Of those, her performance in The White Countess takes my breath away every time I see it. I can't really describe how magical and involving her performance was in that movie. It's a quality that her and actresses like Diane Lane possess--they somehow enable you to feel the emotions of their characters like they're throughly your own--and you don't feel like it's calculated acting, but that she IS the character who she's portraying and their is an innate realness to the performance.
The apple did not fall far from the acting tree--she truly was gifted like her mother. From all that I've read of her, she was a beautiful person in actions, words, talents, and appearance. Such a tragedy. I'm still sad about her passing. But, I am grateful that she put some wonderful performances to celluiod such as the one in The White Countess.
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