Natasha Gregson Wagner Gives In to ‘Organic and Pure’ Desire to Act

Natasha Gregson Wagner is no stranger to the world of acting--she is the daughter of Natalie Wood (born Natasha Gurdin) and stepfather Robert Wagner--but that hasn’t made the energetic 22-year-old’s decision to get into the profession easy.

“I went through a lot of saying, ‘I don’t want to act, I want to do something academic.’ I didn’t want people saying that I’m just the daughter of famous parents,” says Wagner, who was born in 1970 to Wood and her then-husband, producer Richard Gregson. “But when I realized my desire to act was organic and pure, that is when I decided to do it.”

Wagner makes her debut alongside Jeff Goldblum in the new movie “Fathers and Sons.” It wasn’t much of a stretch for her to play Lisa, a high school girl with a penchant for living life on the edge.

“There was a time in high school when I thought I was so cool and I loved to break boys’ hearts and that kind of stuff. Lisa acts totally on impulse and I was like that for a time.”

Like most actors, Wagner has learned how to take the knocks that invariably come with the business.

“I’m a little more seasoned now. There have been parts that I just assumed I would get, maybe because it was so new to me and I was so innocent about it,” she says with a newfound wisdom. “I remember my dad saying to me, ‘Will you be upset if you don’t get the part?’ And I would answer, ‘Daddy, I’m going to get the part.’ And I didn’t and was totally wrecked.”

Though Wagner was only 11 when her mother died, she believes the well-known actress would have approved of her choice of professions.

“She would always tell me, ‘Natasha, you’re so dramatic,’ ” she says, remembering her childhood. “So I think that she would be proud. I know as much as I know my name that it is something that I want to do.”