Natasha's upbringing

Apparently she started cooking for the family when she was eleven years old and discovered that she loved to cook and entertain. From the age of thirteen she did the marketing and cooked three meals a day for her father's frequent house guests (often as many as 20 at a time) at his house in the South of France. She spent her school holidays with him in France, L.A. and NYC. Her father influenced her taste in decor, but there's no indication that she had a mentor as regards cooking entertaining. In fact, that's why she took up cooking in the first place--somebody had to do it! Entertaining came naturally to her. Her father directed plays and entertainments for his famous guests in which Natasha and Joely were always given the starring roles and the famous guests played supporting and bit parts.

This information is from Vanessa Redgrave's autobiography, Tony Richardson's autobiography, and the memoirs of such writers as Joan Didion, her writer husband, John Gregory Dunne, Nancy Mitford, and a number of other notable writers, actors and artists.

What an amazing childhood she had! And what remarkable initiative on her part for such a young girl, even if "someone had to do the cooking." Although, if I knew I had to cook for the likes of Laurence Olivier or John Gielgud and the like, that would give me a lot of motivation :).

I just read Joely's article about missing her sister in which she states that she and Natasha were opposites. Do you know what different qualities they each had? I'm assuming Natasha was the extrovert and Joely may be more introverted. Or maybe Natasha was more like her father and Joely like her mother?

King Lear had a lot of "senior moments"

According to those who knew them when they were children, Joely was the dreamy quiet one and Natasha the more outspoken, extrovert and funny. Natasha always wanted to be an actor, whereas Joely felt she might do something else with her life--until she finally decided to have a go. Natasha's friend, Uma Thurman, said that Natasha was a natural leader and she (Uma) was happy to follow her. Perhaps Natasha and Joely had a similar relationship, even though there was only a year-and-a-half between them.

I've never heard that Vanessa was an introvert--just the opposite. She's been quite fearless and vociferous in expressing her opinions. Interestingly, both daughters decided to keep their political views pretty much to themselves--although one of the reasons Natasha became an American citizen was that she couldn't stand living here without being able to vote.

Thanks. You seem to be very knowledgable about her. My only other wonderment (unrelated to her upbringing) is the time period of "Anna Christie" and her involvement with Liam. Was her marriage on the rocks already, or did her and Liam's mutual attraction come out of left field and blind-side them? It seemed that she and Liam hooked up right away.

King Lear had a lot of "senior moments"

Based on the interviews I've heard and read, Natasha said that she and her first husband, producer Robert Fox, had separated before she met Liam Neeson, but he obviously thought that her going to NY and doing the play would help the situation. He was even the one who suggested that she not give up on getting Liam to do the play with her. Still, she said she felt terrible when she had to tell him (and especially his three children), that she wanted a divorce.

I guess it depends on what you mean by "right away." She said she developed a crush on him but wasn't expecting it to lead to anything serious--just a "workplace crush." Others have said that after the show opened (they were in rehearsals for about two months before that), they went out to a favorite bar and grill every night and talked and talked and talked. Then, at some point before the production had to end because he had a film commitment in Poland (Shindler's List) and she had one coming up as well in Ireland (Widows' Peak), an actor friend of hers said that he noticed the relationship had changed. Something about their emerging from her dressing room with him wearing her lipstick and her lipstick gone. The actor quoted didn't seem to be a malicious sort, nor did he make a big deal out of it, so it could very well be true. Still, from other interviews Liam gave, it wasn't until they were apart (after being together every day for months), that it hit him. I guess he meant love. In an interview (I think it was one of his Charlie Rose interviews), he said he was fine until he "got to Auschwitz"--which is a pretty funny line.

Check out the TV interviews she did with Charlie Rose and the gazillion articles posted at http://www.natasha-richardson.org/boards.

Thanks for filling in the blanks. I guess that's the risk a couple takes by separating - one of the estranged spouses will find someone else. I'll have to delve into the Natasha boards for more info.

Also, I'd like to read Vanessa's autobiography; however, some reviewers on Amazon were turned off by her relentless political disucssions. I'd only be interested in learning about her family, career and love interests. Tony Richardson's autobiography sounds interested as well. Did you have a favorite as far as which one was the more enjoyable, informational read?

King Lear had a lot of "senior moments"

I found Tony Richardson's more interesting because I'm interested in filmmaking and actors. He has a lot of great anecdotes about actors like Tallulah Bankhead and Katharine Hepburn, and other famous people. He had a huge number of friends in the arts and these were people that Natasha got to know from a very young age. I think she developed her conversational abilities in those early years with her father and his friends. It's been said that she could talk to anyone about virtually anything! Tony isn't a great writer, though, and his description of his early life is pretty heavy going.

Vanessa's bio is better written, and the reason she spends a lot of time discussing her political views and activities is because--in part--she wrote the book in an effort to explain them. In the past she's been accused of being a communist and an anti-Semite, and she wanted to clear up what she regards as misconceptions.

She's amazingly candid about herself, and I had to laugh when she talks about Tony leaving her for Jeanne Moreau and how if she were a man, she would've left her for Jeanne Moreau as well. She's also candid about not spending a lot of time with her children, and there's a heartbreaking "scene" between her and Natasha when N. was seven or eight, which, I suspect, haunts V. to this day-- particularly given how things turned out.

I was wondering about whether Vanessa had any regrets about not spending more time with her girls. There's a great documentary out called "The Search for Debra Winger" by Rosanna Arquette (maybe you've seen it?) where Vanessa is interviewed for a bit, and it shows her defending her decision to fight her causes at the expense of family time. I have to admit, it did sound a bit cold, but different strokes for different folks, I guess.

Hindsight is always 20/20. No matter what, everyone has regrets of some sort. Although, I'm sure at the present day, Vanessa's "causes" seem hollow in comparison to Natasha. Its the old "would you regret not having spent more time at the office" syndrome.....

I've read several Vivien Leigh biographies, and Natasha's multi-facted-ness reminds me very much of Vivien, who was great friends with Rachel and Michael. No wonder Liam fell in love with Tash - she had it all.

King Lear had a lot of "senior moments"