Mary Badham Remembers Natalie Wood and This Property Is Condemned
Here's the transcript of a brief interview with Mary Badham, recorded for the Natalie Wood Forever Festival in 2012, in which she talks about working with her in the 1966 film This Property Is Condemned (review here).
Mystery guest, will you sign in please? "Hi, this is Mary Badham, and I worked with Natalie Wood on This Property Is Condemned."
What was it like working on that movie? "It was a lot of hard work, but it was good. I think the product turned out perfectly."
Did she talk to you at all about being a child actor? Did you trade stories about that? (It's interesting that everybody asks this question when current/former child stars work together, but I don't think I've ever seen a yes answer. Remember this interview with Abigail and Jodie about Nim's Island? The girls of The Beguiled will be getting it next.) "No, we didn't really have a whole lot of time together, unfortunately. We were under such tight scheduling that we had to really, you know, get in there and get our stuff done, and then go home and go to sleep, get up the next day and do it all over again."
How beautiful was Natalie Wood? "She is... was one of the most beautiful creatures I've ever laid my eyes on. I think I was as awestruck as any of the men there. I mean, I've seen grown men stammer and stutter in her presence."
Mary and Natalie in This Property Is Condemned.
More screencaps of Mary in the film here.
I read in one of the books that she wore jungle gardenia. "She did. That was -- I mean, you could tell when Nat was on the set, because you could smell her before you could see her, and she wore that jungle gardenia. That's one of my main memories. To this day, I can smell jungle gardenia and that feeling, that presence, her presence, is just almost palpable."
You just want to take her out from the screen and hug her. "And she needed a hug, too, I'm telling you, that -- and it's true of anybody who attains that stardom, but when you've got that kind of beauty, like with Marilyn Monroe and everything, they become a little isolated, you know, and then they're reaching out and sometimes they reach in the wrong direction, it's kinda sad. It's just such a shame that it ended the way that she knew that it would. She was absolutely mortally terrified of drowning, and when we had to do the water scene -- I mean, they, under the tressel where she had to go in the water, uh, she-she was terrified."
When you think of Natalie Wood as a screen presence, what do you think of? "Her aura. I mean, she was just this... incredible beauty, you know, her naturalness, I think, was a lot of it, too. Thank you for honoring my big sister, quote-unquote, because she well deserved it."
Mystery guest, will you sign in please? "Hi, this is Mary Badham, and I worked with Natalie Wood on This Property Is Condemned."
What was it like working on that movie? "It was a lot of hard work, but it was good. I think the product turned out perfectly."
Did she talk to you at all about being a child actor? Did you trade stories about that? (It's interesting that everybody asks this question when current/former child stars work together, but I don't think I've ever seen a yes answer. Remember this interview with Abigail and Jodie about Nim's Island? The girls of The Beguiled will be getting it next.) "No, we didn't really have a whole lot of time together, unfortunately. We were under such tight scheduling that we had to really, you know, get in there and get our stuff done, and then go home and go to sleep, get up the next day and do it all over again."
How beautiful was Natalie Wood? "She is... was one of the most beautiful creatures I've ever laid my eyes on. I think I was as awestruck as any of the men there. I mean, I've seen grown men stammer and stutter in her presence."
Mary and Natalie in This Property Is Condemned.
More screencaps of Mary in the film here.
I read in one of the books that she wore jungle gardenia. "She did. That was -- I mean, you could tell when Nat was on the set, because you could smell her before you could see her, and she wore that jungle gardenia. That's one of my main memories. To this day, I can smell jungle gardenia and that feeling, that presence, her presence, is just almost palpable."
You just want to take her out from the screen and hug her. "And she needed a hug, too, I'm telling you, that -- and it's true of anybody who attains that stardom, but when you've got that kind of beauty, like with Marilyn Monroe and everything, they become a little isolated, you know, and then they're reaching out and sometimes they reach in the wrong direction, it's kinda sad. It's just such a shame that it ended the way that she knew that it would. She was absolutely mortally terrified of drowning, and when we had to do the water scene -- I mean, they, under the tressel where she had to go in the water, uh, she-she was terrified."
When you think of Natalie Wood as a screen presence, what do you think of? "Her aura. I mean, she was just this... incredible beauty, you know, her naturalness, I think, was a lot of it, too. Thank you for honoring my big sister, quote-unquote, because she well deserved it."