The Rebellious Evolution of Natalie Wood
Saturday, July 20, 2013 at 10:45AM It's Natalie Wood Week as we celebrate what would have been her 75th birthday (today!). Here's Abstew from 'The Film's The Thing'...
I love the tag line: "...And they both came from good families!" Oh, no! Where did we go wrong?!?The legend of James Dean looms large over the seminal 1955 teen-angst film, Rebel Without a Cause. With his red windbreaker that would soon become his trademark, furrowed brow and pensive gaze, his hobby of drag racing goons that would dare to call him chicken, and dealing with square parents that just don't understand, Dean cuts an impressive figure. The film is so closely linked to the star's iconic status that you'll forgive me that sometimes I forget the other talented stars that also occupy the film. (But, then again, I'm a huge James Dean fan. I've even been to his hometown of Fairmount, Indiana where there's not one, but three different museums dedicated to him. You can compete in the annual James Dean look-alike competition! It's also where he's buried. You can still go to his family farm and see his tombstone.) But, of the three films that Dean starred in, Rebel is the only one he didn't receive an Oscar nomination for.
The film was, however, nominated for a trio of awards including a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Sal Mineo as his pal, Plato, and a Best Screenplay nomination for the Director, Nicholas Ray. Has any film captured the superb agony of being a teenager so precisely?
I don't know what to do anymore. Except maybe die."
It's final nomination was for Best Supporting Actress, giving Natalie Wood her first bit of Oscar recognition. Hers is not, maybe, the first name that spring to mind when you think of Rebel, but her career owes as much to it as Dean's does...
Dean and Wood mugging on set
At the tender age of 16, Natalie Wood was at a crossroads in her life as an actress. Having starred in films since the young age of 4, she appeared in over a dozen films as a child (including the film that made her a child star, the holiday classic Miracle on 34th St that Tim just discussed). But if she wanted to have any sort of longevity, it was time for her to make the transition to more adult roles. In Anne Marie's post on Gypsy, she stated that it was that film that turned her into a sex symbol. But Natalie might not have even been considered for that part or her Oscar nominated turns in Splendor in the Grass or Love With the Proper Stranger had she not had the opportunity to star alongside Dean as the misunderstood popular girl with father issues, Judy, in Rebel.
But she almost missed out on the Rebel role entirely. Director Nicholas Ray wasn't convinced she could play the part, citing her demeanor as too goody-goody having never seen her play anything other than adorable moppets. Shortly after her audition, Natalie was in a car accident with actor (and future Rebel co-star) Dennis Hopper at the wheel (so many famous actors in the film!). When she was taken to the hospital, the police asked whom she wanted them to contact. She told them to call Nicholas Ray up at the Chateau Marmont, where he lived, and tell him to come down. When he arrived, he asked what was the matter. Natalie replied, "Did you hear? They called me a goddamn juvenile delinquent. Now do I get the part?!"
Wood rehearsed extensively for weeks with Dean and Mineo while Ray encouraged them to improvise and explore the characters and scenes. Natalie, who hadn't formally trained as actress having learned her craft on set as a child, must have found Dean and his Method exciting and helpful in her maturity as an actress. Her development as a serious actress is certainly on display in the film. In particular, during her first scene of the film in which Judy has been taken into the police station after loitering late at night. As the Scarlet Woman (dressed head to toe in crimson) she is taken into the correctional officer's room where she proceeds to not so much confess, but vent.
Judy: He must hate me.
Officer: What?
Judy: He hates me.
Officer: What makes you think he hates you, Judy?
Judy: I don't think. I know he does. He looks at me like I was the ugliest thing in the world. He doesn't like my friends. He doesn't like one thing about me. He called me - he called me a dirty tramp! My own father!
Officer: Do you think your father really means that?
Judy: Yes! No! I don't know. I mean, maybe he doesn't mean it, but he acts like he does. We were all together. We were gonna celebrate Easter and we were gonna catch a double bill. Big Deal! So I put on my new dress and I came out, and he grabbed my face and started rubbing off all the lipstick. I thought he'd rub off my lips. And I ran out of that house.
Officer: Is that why you were wondering around at 1 o'clock in the morning? You weren't looking for company were you?
Judy: I don't even know why I do it...
Officer: Maybe you think you can get back at your dad that way. I mean, if you're not as close to him as you'd like to be. Maybe this is one way of making him pay attention. Did you ever think of that?
Judy: I'll never get close to anybody.
What a dirty tramp...
After re-watching the film recently I was surprised that I hadn't remembered the scene or Natalie's performance that well; it's certainly as memorable as Dean's "You're tearing me apart!" scene. Her raw emotions – all exposed nerve endings – put you on notice with a burst of powerful energy. After the scene was over, I wondered how many takes she had done to be so intensely available and how it might have affected her mentally. It must have been draining since I was exhausted just watching it!
Judy clearly has issues regarding her relationship with her father. The Oedipal complexity is only hinted at in this first scene but later in the film there are scenes that are disturbing in their direct depiction of father/daughter attraction. In one scene, Judy kisses her father full on the lips. He tells her that she's out-grown that sort of stuff. I'm generally inclined to agree as the kiss seems to contain much more than simple daughterly affection. It makes her father (and us as the audience) uncomfortable as her father is clearly not used to seeing his young girl as a sexual being and he's repulsed by the part of him that is almost aroused by it.
Which is why she goes out at night seeking the affection of men that will reciprocate the budding feelings she has inside. And why she connects so immediately with Dean's Jim Stark, another lost soul. The two talk later in the film of forming a family (with Plato as son, having lost his real-life father). And it seems that Judy has finally found something she can beleive in and hold on to. They're all just seeking the love that they feel they never got at home.
Much like Judy's search for affection, Natalie was seeking an audience that would accept her, to look past the little girl they knew and accept the woman she was becoming. She achieved the goal with such aplomb that it's amazing more child stars aren't able to do the same. (Lindsay, Amanda – take note!) Rebel Without a Cause may belong to James Dean, but Natalie Wood certainly makes a hell of a name for herself in it. Through Judy she announced the second chapter in her legendary career.
Reader Comments (8)
While the film did move her forward and enabled her to start to separate from the pack she still had about three years of "the girl" parts ahead before Marjorie Morningstar started her on the superstar path, even then she still had to play a few nothing parts until Splendor in the Grass actually put her on top.
That holds true for most if not all the child actors that make it to adult stardom, almost an exclusively female club at least in terms of achieving superstardom, incremental steps forward with a key part every few years along the path.
Jodie Foster for instance had the one/two punch of Taxi Driver and Freaky Friday then about a decade of gradual ascension in films of variable quality until The Accused pushed her into the top ranks and Silence of the Lambs cemented her position. Even Elizabeth Taylor with MGM behind her had six years of supporting parts of little distinction between National Velvet and A Place in the Sun and another five after that where she was a star but not considered a major one until Giant sealed her position.
Without hitting those rungs along the way which was tough to do even in the studio era when performers made more films and is more difficult now most of the child actors lose their momentum with most exiting the business, or as was the case with some: Bobby Driscoll, Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, Cory Haim, Anissa Jones, etc. flame out. Of course a large part of the equation is that true star quality co-mingled with talent is rare, rarer still to be evident in a child performer and survive to adulthood.
An example is playing out right before our eyes, Lindsay Lohan was an engaging, resourceful little actress whose personality leapt off the screen. The burnt out husk that's left now may be notorious but on screen there is nothing but a blank void.
joel6 - i imagine it doesn't happen with guys just because the public values such incredibly different things in their male adult stars versus their female adult stars and YOUTH is the top priority with female stars so i'd argue that the transition from child to teen to young adult star is still capitalizing on this with women but irrelevant to male stars.
but i think it's unfair to say that Linday's current blank void is because she didn't have that true star quality mixed with talent. I think she had all that but she threw it away and drugs can kill anything, can't they?
as for male child stars who didn't become adult stars i sometimes wonder why it didn't happen for Brandon deWilde. while he died at only 30 years of age he hopped to TV after Hud & Shane... so it's like he didn't even try for movie stardom.
ANYWAY i love Natalie in Rebel so i'm happy abstew highlighted this performance. "Hit Your Lights" and then her career was off again!
Nathaniel, Regarding boy child stars and their difficulty moving on to a successful adult career I think a large part of their problem is that they are as a rule winsome, winsomeness doesn't usually mature into ruggedness or movie star looks. Of the majority of male child actors who have had some type of visible name recognition career post puberty, Jackie Coogan, Roddy McDowell, Jackie Cooper, Ron Howard, Mickey Rooney (after he turned 25 or so) it was in character roles. The only real exception I can think of is Kurt Russell, but he was also more conventionally attractive than the rest. Joseph Gordon Levitt seems poised to make the leap as well and has been very canny about his career mixing small films and small parts in with bigger showier ones which was the Jodie Foster model for success. I only took into consideration actors who had a degree of fame as children not ones like Leonardo DiCaprio who acted as a kid but didn't break through until his late teens.
As far as Lohan I agree the drugs have diminished her but I think true star quality can't be quashed so completely so quickly. One of the greatest stars, child or adult was Judy Garland, sadly a veritable Pez pill dispenser and yet one of the most magnetic people on screen throughout her life because she loved what she did and who it made her. Maybe she was a special case but Elizabeth Taylor had her battles with addiction and she was still commanding on screen. I think part of Lindsay's trouble may be the drugs but a lack of work ethic and the fact that she doesn't seem to care have also ruined her. It's tragic but she's the only one who can fix it and I'm not at all sure she wants to.
Christian Bale FTW.
Ryan Gosling, runner-up.
paul -- oh yes, i guess Christian Bale does sorta qualify. Ryan Gosling though? He didn't break through till his 20s. We can't count Young Hercules or Boy Bandism as film stardom ;)
"Judy clearly has issues regarding her relationship with her father. The Oedipal complexity is only hinted at in this first scene but later in the film there are scenes that are disturbing in their direct depiction of father/daughter attraction. In one scene, Judy kisses her father full on the lips. He tells her that she's out-grown that sort of stuff. I'm generally inclined to agree as the kiss seems to contain much more than simple daughterly affection. It makes her father (and us as the audience) uncomfortable as her father is clearly not used to seeing his young girl as a sexual being and he's repulsed by the part of him that is almost aroused by it."
Yes to all of this.
I will say, I feel like Plato gave Jim and Judy conflicting information about who his parents were, IIRC. I remember his Nanny might have said something at the police station but the details were scant. He had a single, absentee but wealthy mother, possibly due to being a widow or something more complex. You could seriously make three different movies on the tensions each teenager has with their parents. Judy's parents didn't even seem to care there daughter was out and in trouble, which seemed to underline how Jim's parents although perhaps too involved (proto-helicopter parents, practically) at least care enough to look for him.
I loved Natalie in this role, that I elaborated on in the previous post and what Nathaniel notes in her opening scene (WHAT.A.SCENE). She soared through some honestly under-written aspects to her character. I assume with censors made the whole Oedipal complex only be subtext but there is the leap her character makes in going from her dead boyfriend Buzz to Jim pretty damn quickly (though I would say the moment she puts dirt on Jim's hands before the race was when she had switched allegiances and preference- how she did not jump Jim right there..... well, there were censors) that she makes work. She went from 'tramp' to 'surrogate mother' to Plato in the abandon mansion scenes with no problem. A well-deserved nomination.
True about Gosling's big stardom, Nathaniel, although I was thinking about him and Bale (who have to play brothers soon) only as two visible male child actors who kept working into adulthood.