The Tragic Life of the Talented Natalie Wood

While filming The Green Promise in 1949, she was forced to perform a scene where a bridge collapsed, throwing her into rushing water. The stunt terrified her, and she nearly drowned before being pulled out. The incident left her physically unharmed but emotionally shaken, planting a deep fear of water.

Despite her panic, the director praised her realism, and her mother discouraged her from showing fear. The experience stayed with her for life. She avoided deep water whenever possible, a phobia that followed her into adulthood and would later make the circumstances of her death eerily tragic and unsettling.