HBO's Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind centers on the life, not the death, of a screen icon

Natalie Wood’s death, shrouded as it is in mystery, has come to dominate much of the conversation around the actor’s legacy, which also encompasses three Oscar nominations and iconic turns in West Side Story, Splendor In The Grass, and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice. A new HBO documentary, Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind, from director Laurent Bouzereau hopes to change that.

Wood’s daughter, Natasha Gregson Wagner, serves as both a producer and an onscreen presence in the documentary, which a press release says will feature “previously unseen home movies, photographs, diaries and letters, as well as interviews with those that knew her best.” Interviewees include Robert Redford, Mia Farrow, Elliott Gould, and Boys In The Band playwright Mart Crowley, who worked as Wood’s assistant as a young man and, just last month, died of a heart attack.

Also on hand is Wood’s ex-husband, the actor Robert Wagner, who in 2018 was named a “person of interest” in the investigation into Wood’s death. He’s long denied any involvement.

Watch the trailer below.

Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind premieres on HBO on May 5.