Natalie was a champion of Bob Redford cast in this film and tis said she was
devestated he by passed her for Mary Tyler Moore in Ordinary People; she knew then at an early age her super star days were doomed.
She really wanted to be in something good. I don't think she would have been such a bad choice for the movie, because she could always play somebody whose emotions were tightly corked. And Natalie was like that in real life, too. A friend of hers said in an interview when there was conflict, she would just turn off, cold. saying something like "the freezing ice that would come down..."
sharerob redford thought that natalie couldnt play the bitterly cold mother. ANd I doubt that she could have also. She was endowed with so much sweetness and warmth. Plus I think she would have been too beautiful for the role. Mary tyler Moore did a good job in the role. I think that Rob picked the right leading lady.
shareWell, she wouldn't have been as cold and waspy as Mary was in Ordinary People. The character has little heart and that wouldn't have been right for Natalie. He should have bent over backwards to find something for her though. Something more along the lines of the character she plays in The Cracker Factory.
shareYes, he should have bent over backwards for Natalie and cast her in Ordinary People. Not only did he owe his career to her, but he manipulated her to allow his bromance, the novice director Sydney Pollack, to helm this major production. But there's no gratitude in Hollywood, and I hate that phony "tribute" to Natalie that Redford did for TCM; the lying bastard. If she'd been allowed to play the mother in OP, she might conceivably be alive today, since she wouldn't have made the awful Brainstorm, or met Christopher Walken.
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