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Having Natalie Wood for a mother and Robert Wagner for an adoptive father made Natasha Gregson Wagner interested in acting.But the co-star of Three Girls and a Guy says her parents haven't had much impact on her movie career.
"I don't think people really care if you have famous parents or not," said 27-year-old Wagner, whose birth father was Wood's second husband, producer Richard Gregson. "If people care, they haven't told me.
"It's such a competitive business, acting, that I can't imagine someone would cast someone because they love her mother."
Wagner, who was only 11 when her mother died in a much-publicized drowning accident, has a delicacy that brings to mind her mother, one of cinema's most famous beauties. (She also has her mother's real first name: Natalie Wood, who had a Russian father, was born Natasha Nikolaevna Gurdin.)
"She has been a help to my life -- as my mother, the way she raised me and the stuff she taught me," Wagner said.
She enjoys telling how she helped her dad in his career, however.
In the recent thriller, Wild Things, Natasha was up for a lead role that eventually went to Denise Richards. But in auditions the director realized she was Robert Wagner's daughter, and asked her if she thought the senior Wagner would play a small role in the movie.
He had an amusing extended cameo, playing a foul-mouthed character very different from his Hart to Hart TV image.
"It was cool," Natasha said of Wagner's outburst in the movie. "The whole premiere audience applauded when he yelled it.
"I loved (him in it). He's very funny. That's the thing about my dad, and the reason I'm glad he was in Austin Powers. Comedians love him. Mike Meyers wrote that part for him in Austin Powers. He's so funny."
Natasha Wagner has been in almost two dozen movies, most of them small independents and TV movies. In fact, her trip to Houston for Two Girls and A Guy was part of her first real publicity tour. Perhaps that's why she was so bouncy and giggly at times, having a great time though not at all sure what would be expected of her.
It probably won't be her last tour. She's already made several more features, including Another Day in Paradise, in which she co-stars with James Woods and Melanie Griffith.
In Two Girls and a Guy, Wagner and Heather Graham (Lost in Space, Scream 2) play women who discover they have both been having an affair with the same wonderful guy, an actor named Blake, played by Robert Downey Jr.
On impulse, they break into Blake's apartment and hide, waiting until he comes home. After listening to him phone both of them with loving messages, they pop out and present him with their knowledge. To their surprise, Blake, although unnerved at first, proceeds to boldly and sometimes charmingly defend his behavior and his feelings for both.
Wagner was thrilled to be working with a talent like Downey, even though it was a tough time for the actor. Filming came between his first and second jail terms for drug possession.
"He had just left rehab," Wagner said. "He did this movie and then Gingerbread Man and U.S. Marshals, and then I guess he messed up again. So he was probably the most sober he has ever been.
"We didn't think he was going (back) to jail. We thought, he's just gotten out of rehab, he's fragile, but there's hope.
"He was very raw. He had people around him like the drug person and his manager. We didn't talk about it that much, but I think he was more cautious of the world than before."
Nevertheless, Downey, who has always been a good actor, gives a terrific performance in the movie.
"He is one of the most inspiring actors I have ever worked with," Wagner said. "You never know what he's going to do next. He's so giving as an actor. He'd say to me, `That's really good,' or `You're so funny,' so I would feel cool. Cause I'm the underdog here, these people (Downey and Graham) are well known."
The movie, which all takes place in one short afternoon, mostly in Blake's apartment, tells people to remember that when they are in a relationship, they have the other person's heart in their hands. "And hearts break," Wagner said.
The actress, who has recently been seeing actor Adam Storke of TV's Prey, is apparently going by second-hand information.
"I haven't ever been broken-hearted by a man," she said. "I was broken-hearted once, when my mom died. But I've seen my friends go through it. I know it happened to my mom (who was twice divorced). It probably will happen to me at some point.
"I've been lucky."
