After several years of slow emergence as the newest progeny of an English acting dynasty, Natasha Richardson won a Tony nomination, married Liam Neeson and landed a starring role in Nell.
________________________________________________________________
A sleek and burnished Natasha Richardson leans toward me over a late lunch in a private sector of her favorite Carnegie Hall-adjacent trattoria. "I spent the morning making myself feel beautiful--I had my face cleaned and I had my nails done and I had a pedicure," she says. I decide to joke with her. "For me, Natasha? I'm flattered." This teases from her a thick, languorous laugh exactly like the one with which Vanessa Redgrave, her mother, slays me whenever I watch and re-watch Blowup or Isadora. Gazing up doe-eyed over a glass of Pellegrino, tongue firmly in cheek, Natasha purrs, "Well, I did know the minute I saw you that I was terribly sorry I am married, but . . . I was actually making myself beautiful because tomorrow I'm flying to visit my husband in Scotland. Your skin is supposed to look very pink when you're done. Does it?"
Oh, supremely pink. And Natasha's husband--that's Liam Neeson, in case you've been boycotting newspaper, magazine and TV gossip coverage for the last few months--will probably agree. That's the same Neeson, of course, who won critical raves playing Oskar Schindler, and with whom Richardson is about to be seen in Nell as one of two doctors baffled by backwoods wild-child Jodie Foster. That's the Neeson, too, with whom she just bought a rambling farmhouse, and with whom she plans more co-starring ventures. Richardson met Neeson when they starred together on Broadway in a glitteringly successful revival of Eugene O'Neill's Anna Christie, and she left a marriage to be with him.
LiamandNatasha. Uttered as one six-syllable word these days in hip circles. Inextricably linked, they're the beautiful, bright young couple of the instant. Arousing more curiosity than Kenneth and Emma. Less funky and kooky than Renny and Geena. More stately, somehow, than Tom and Nicole. Liam boasts a strong reputation as an actor (Husbands and Wives and Ethan Frome among many others, before Schindler) and an equally formidable one as a ladies' man. Natasha hails from the hallowed entertainment dynasty that boasts grandfather Michael Redgrave, grandmother Rachel Kempson, mother Vanessa, aunt Lynn, uncle Corin, father Tony Richardson and sister Joely Richardson--back off, Barry mores--and has achieved a certain cult status with solid performances in an oddball assortment of independent films, from Patty Hearst to The Handmaid's Tale, and meant-to-be-classy TV fare like Zelda and Suddenly Last Summer.
Separately, Liam and Natasha earned more respect than column inches. Together, they're a hot commodity, in tony venues and tabloids alike. Suddenly, they're photographed sunbathing in the near-altogether, dogged by the press while on their European honeymoon, whispered about and speculated about.
Right now, sitting across from her, feeling her strong, commanding vibe, I get the distinct impression that the 31-year-old Richardson is acutely aware that LiamandNatasha represents, among other pleasures, a chance for Big American Movie Stardom. Am I way off on this? "To be perfectly honest, I can't make any bones about it," the actress asserts. "A lot of the movies I've done were perfectly well-received. Some of them were disappointing, some of them were art house movies for a very limited audience. Consequently, I found it frustrating that I wasn't given the freedom of choice in the parts that I wanted to play in bigger movies. When I was in drama school, the types of movies that made me aspire to be an actress were, first, Judy Garland movies, then Coal Miner's Daughter, The French Lieutenant's Woman, Julia." (The last one, of course, was the film for which Natasha's mother won her Oscar.) "'Stardom,' as you put it," she continues, "is very important to me in that I want to be able to have the choice of the scripts of which there are so few, even for the top five ladies in the business. I've felt frustrated that I haven't found the part on which my name was written."
Richardson knows all about parts with names emblazoned on them. She was born to Tony Richardson and Vanessa Redgrave during a five-year marriage when their careers were soaring. He had just been wildly acclaimed for directing A Taste of Honey and had won the Best Picture Oscar for Tom Jones; she was getting hosannas for Morgan! and Blowup. Natasha's own film bow was in a movie directed by Ken Russell, who had cast mother Vanessa as a hunchback nymphomaniac nun in The Devils. "My introduction into this business was sort of beyond anybody's wildest dreams," she says. "When I was 22, Ken offered me Gothic without my even having met him. So, I thought, 'This is great.' It didn't occur to me that I was [ever] going to have to go through the often humiliating process of auditioning. I got a little spoiled at the beginning."
The bizarre Gothic was not, perhaps, the sort of debut that makes career doors swing open. "Hearing stories about Marlon Brando's auditioning for The Godfather or Richard Harris turning up as a waiter in restaurants and bombarding the makers of Camelot with telegrams because they wanted Richard Burton for the movie, not him, doesn't make it any better," says Richardson. "I have to go after parts, like everybody else, because 'somebody's' not convinced."
Was Richardson helped in landing the role of the uptight, got-it-all-together psychiatrist in Nell because her suddenly in-demand husband had been cast as one of the movie's leads? She shakes her head in a resolute no. "I read it before Liam was doing it, and Jodie Foster and I have the same agent. I felt passionately about the script and thought, 'Oh, I just want to play this woman and be in this story.' Liam and I decided it was something we'd both like to do, individually and together. We knew that if one of us didn't get it, it didn't mean that the other was not going to do it. It's not like we were in a package. The character was this person who is so determined to be perfect that she can't really open up and risk not being perfect. I thought, 'I know this so well,' because I've been through this myself, knocking those walls down. The big difference between me and her is that she is not in touch with her emotions and I am too in touch with my emotions."
"Liam was offered it and decided to do it," Richardson recalls, sighing. "Many other fine actresses were up for my role, so I went through the casting process, which was quite lengthy and painful, particularly because this was something that I wanted to do so much. I knew my partner was going to be in it, whether I got to do it or not. That can create an imbalance in a relationship. You're supposedly equals and then one of you is very much not an equal."
Richardson falls silent, as if ruminating on the notion of equality and fairness in a business, not to mention a world, that is based on neither. For an instant, her perfect posture and coolly elegant gaze seem to reveal a hairline crack. Which she promptly smooths over. "It really taught me a lesson," she concludes. "In the past, I guess, I'd been sort of insecure and arrogant at the same time. When I was growing up, it would be like, 'Why would they want me to read, goddamn it? Why don't they just look at my work? Don't they realize that I'm a good actress, which means I can play different kinds of parts?' I really put myself on the line for Nell. I'd rather be asked than do the asking. But who wouldn't? Happily, this one worked out."
Others haven't. Richardson freely admits she hungered for such roles as Debra Winger's in The Sheltering Sky, Michelle Pfeiffer's in The Age of Innocence and Meg Ryan's in Sleepless in Seattle. "The truth is, I've rarely gotten things for which I've read. It's also the truth that I took a little detour because maybe I was a little too picky about a couple of projects that I turned down and should have done. I feel sidetracked. One of those projects in particular turned out to be amazingly successful. And no, Steve, I won't mention it," she says firmly. If rumors can be believed, it was Howards End she passed up. "I will mention that I wanted to do Sheltering Sky desperately," she adds, "and I met Bertolucci a few times about that. I wrote him a long, heartfelt letter about why I felt that I understood this person in a special way. I know where I made my mistake, though, if I made one. I thought, 'If he wants to see me so many times, he wants to see something different.' I didn't need to do 'different.'"
The event that made a tangible difference in the roles to which Richardson could aspire was the critical triumph of her performance on Broadway in Anna Christie, in which she played the waterfront prostitute who finds her heart in her love for a young seaman--a role that launched Greta Garbo in her move from silents to talkies, thereby ensuring her movie immortality. Richardson won a Tony Award nomination for her work. "I'm not a great theater fan," she says, to my surprise. "I don't go very often, mostly because I'm too often disappointed and there is nothing more claustrophobic than being in the theater when it isn't great. What was wonderful was being on that stage and feeling the audience respond to something you knew was special. It did give you a kick going into the theater knowing there were theater scalpers selling tickets. It was like being at a rock concert."
Simultaneously with success came all the paparazzi flash that attended Richardson's romance with Liam Neeson. The two have been hounded by the paparazzi, particularly since they got married. "When Liam and I were on our honeymoon, that was intrusive," she says, her gaze turning to hardened steel. "It's intrusive at those moments when I don't want to be on show," she observes. "Sometimes, I don't look good, I don't want to be an actress right now, I don't want to be known. When I work is when I feel special. When I'm not working, I don't feel special at all. I remember being next to Liam and realizing, 'Well, maybe I can't do this with the same freedom anymore,' because you feel that everybody is watching. But I'm not going to have to deal with it on the Tom Cruise level."
Except sometimes. "We were on a beach and changing to have some lunch when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a telephoto lens. I thought, 'Oh, man, they're going to take one of those awful shots,' so we walked up to him, and he said, 'Please, can I take a shot?' Liam said, 'No,' but I said, 'Let's give him a shot. Otherwise, we don't know what he's got and whatever he's got, he'll use.' We got followed around Venice, too, and we weren't even aware of it most of the time. Until we saw some of the pictures."
Did she ever fight becoming involved with an actor, especially knowing so well their internal dynamics, their vanity, insecurity, madness?
"Oh, Steve, I could write you a book on why not to get involved with an actor," she says, the glint in her eyes suggesting that she could write several books. I'll settle for a couple of good reasons. She ticks items off on her slender fingers. "Because anybody who is good at what they do gets totally obsessed by it to the exclusion of other people.
Because of the physical distance often involved. Because careers sometimes move at different rates. Because, oh, God, there are so many reasons I never, never wanted to be involved with an actor. Ever." Then, sliding back in her chair with a deliriously satisfied grin, she adds, "That was before I met my actor," and lets fly with a whiskey and honey-throated, shoulder-shaking laugh.
Richardson recalls a moment with Neeson early on when she thought she might be looking at the rest of her life. She says, very softly, "Our relationship developed in stages. We met when we were doing the play and had never met before that. I guess I only really knew that this was for the rest of my life on my wedding day."
Wasn't she at all wary of his reputation as a man who is catnip to women? "Until I got to know him, I was very daunted by that reputation. But I was too in love to be as sensible as all that. And then I got to know him. I got to know that you mustn't believe what you hear. I learned also that he loves women in a genuine way and sometimes that's misinterpreted. I love that he loves women. And, loving him, I can understand why women adore him."
I wondered whether Richardson has ever before felt so much in love before Neeson.
"Well, you know, I was married before Liam," she reminds me. "I loved my husband and still love him very much. But obviously, it goes without saying that I just got married to Liam and I believe we are going to be together for the rest of our lives. I didn't really feel these different kinds of love and intensity before. This, this is umm . . . this is as deep as it goes."
I tell Richardson I've heard a few people comment that Neeson, by many accounts one of the nicest and most decent people in the business, has "changed" since Schindler's List. True? She fires back: "Not at all. Not at all. Yes, it's affected him. Of course, it's affected him. It's a big change and he's still adjusting, realizing that, in some ways, he has more responsibility and less freedom in this business. Those are big changes, but not at all changes in terms of ego. There are people who surround you--whether it's people who try socially or in a work situation to toady up. You just have to have very strong antennae out for who those people are."
Tales from the set of Rob Roy, the intimate historical epic that Neeson is shooting in Scotland opposite Jessica Lange, Eric Stoltz and John Hurt, have suggested that Richardson and Neeson can be a formidable force, a flying wedge with a very sharp blade, when it comes to protecting each other's interests. Does Richardson pipe up when she feels that her husband isn't, say, being handled the way she thinks he should be? "If I felt something was intruding on him and he was being used in some way," she says, "or that his good nature was being taken advantage of, I might say something to him. We do take a strong interest in each other, not just in terms of career choices. But we're two actors and, contrary to what people think, that makes you each other's harshest critics."
Perhaps because Neeson is considered by some to be more easy-going and less articulate than Richardson, there are those who view her as domineering--the bad cop to Neeson's strapping, good-natured good cop. As someone who, perhaps, reminds her husband that he is entitled to movie star treatment. "God, it's that bad?" she says, wide-eyed, when I mention this to her. "What Liam and I have very much in common, having been theater actors, is that we don't have to be pampered. The truth is that there are some things that bug him that wouldn't bug me at all and I'm like, 'Why are you upset over that?' And there are some things that would bug me that wouldn't bug him. All actors have things that intrude on their work, which is so dependent on mood and concentration. If there are things that get in the way, distracting you, that can be incredibly frustrating. Certainly, he's very laid-back and I'm much more energized. He can let things wash over him and I'm more vulnerable. I can get affected by little things."
Such little things as? "I'm too critical of myself," she asserts. "I'm working on that because if you're too critical, it means you control things too much and that's not interesting. Sometimes you just have to do it. I've been working in the last couple of years on just doing it, not trying to come down so hard on myself when it doesn't happen the way I want it to happen. Without sounding too weird, I feel that whatever pain I've been through in my life enables me to connect with somebody else's journey and to be able to share that with an audience. To unzipper myself emotionally. That's what it's about for me."
Does Richardson, despite her career ambitions, want to raise a family with Neeson? "I know too many people who do it successfully to believe it's not possible for actors to raise wonderful families," she says. "Of course, it's tough for women because it means taking at least a year out, but I would very much like a family. I just hope they're not actors, that's all."
How does Richardson, who grew up surrounded by actors, view actors? "We aren't to be trusted. The fundamental thing about actors, apart from the selfishness, is that we are deeply insecure people. Very insecure, very vulnerable. Acting is a glorious, wonderful, terribly spoiling job and it's sometimes glamorous. I love glamour. I think there should be more of that, because that's what it's all about. I think we actors should try to stop pretending to be Mr. and Mrs. Joe Normal."
And how does she view her interior self, her deepest, non-actor nature? "I'm a helpless, helpless romantic in a lot of areas," she answers, immediately. "I like my home to look nice. I love beautiful things. I like to take care of my friends and my family and cook them a good meal. I like to make sure people are taken good care of. I love to read and to see movies and to totally zone out by traveling somewhere wonderful. I'm also somebody who's very good at trying to take care of people and at organizing. I like to make sure that everything's right."
Coming from such a famous family, I wonder whether Richardson was ever awed by someone else's fame. "I write fan letters all the time," she says, laughing. "I was about seven when I wrote my first one, which was a fan letter to the Queen. I used to have a long list of heroes in my little diary, ranging from David Cassidy to Harrison Ford to Illie Nastase. I sometimes write to actors if I really admire their work, because I've been on the receiving end of some of those and it means an enormous amount. I recently wrote to Tommy Lee Jones about his work in my father's last film, Blue Sky, because I found it so moving."
Although Richardson has made her mark playing tortured and intense, she strikes me as someone who should try daffy. After all, onstage she has played the old Grace Kelly role in a stage version of High Society. Besides, she shares with her mother an almost comical gravity, so where is Richardson's Morgan!, the screwball comedy that put Vanessa Redgrave on the map? "I do have a daffy streak," she says. "I remember being offered The Favor, the Watch and the Very Big Fish with Bob Hoskins and Jeff Goldblum, but only pending a meeting in Paris with the director practically on the basis of, you know, 'Be funny,' which is the most horrible pressure to be under. I was trying to think of jokes on the plane, like, 'Did you hear the one about . . . ?' It was different when John Irvin offered me Widows' Peak, because that was a cool, arch femme fatale, so my points of reference were Claudette Colbert, Grace Kelly and a little bit of Glenn Close's voice. But I would love to do something like Carole Lombard or Katharine Hepburn."
Richardson obviously knows that few people would peg her for a closet madcap. To stir such things up herself, she took a comedy project that she is developing to writer-director Nora Ephron, who, she says, was "almost tempted, but she has so many other projects. You never know, though, it still might happen." Something more certain to happen is that next summer she and Neeson will reunite with their Anna Christie director on a movie they are developing based on Emile Zola's tragedy Therese Raquin. Few laughs are promised, but, as Richardson puts it, "what an incredibly passionate love story. Who could believe it was written over one hundred years ago?"
Yet, although producers and directors appear to be quite interested in the love story of Natasha and Liam, Richardson has a clear fix that they should not become the Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton of the '90s. "We have to be really careful about the projects we decide to do together," she reasons. "We can't do every movie together, nor do we want to do every movie together. We're both aware of how special it is to work together and that we do seem to have this chemistry that we might not necessarily have just because we're a couple. And a lot of people want to exploit that. We would like to, on and off, be able to do that for a good many years of our lives. So, the stakes are quite high in choosing what we do and don't do. We don't want to blow it."
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Stephen Rebello interviewed James Woods for the November Movieline.