Micheál Richardson was only 13 when his mother, actress Natasha Richardson, tragically died at the age of 45 following a skiing accident. Micheál is 25 years old now and has spent the better part of the last few years working on a film that honors his mother.
Micheál and his father, Liam Neeson, will star together in Made in Italy. The movie is about an estranged father and son who come together again to sell the estate they were left with following the death of their wife and mother. Micheál couldn't help but say yes to the film, especially since he and his family were in the middle of trying to sell the home that his mother grew up in when he received the script.
It turns out that his dad was the one who brought the script to him. "He had this look in his eye. He was like, 'I want you to read this.' He didn't say anything else."
As soon as he started reading the script, Micheál was overcome: "The parallels were so apparent that it felt like my mom, in a spiritual sense, had a hand in it."
He was also asked which of his mother's performances is his favorite, and he gave a surprising answer.
"Just based off of who she is and how I remember her, it has to be The Parent Trap. That's more or less what she was like. She was this sweet, amazing mother figure — my best friend. She had these amazing, big welcomes when we'd come home or she would come home. 'Darling!' I'm so lucky because I have her captured on film."
Natasha's longtime best friend, Andy Cohen, also independently referenced the film as his favorite of hers: "You watch her in The Parent Trap, and she's kind of playing the perfect mother … That's reminiscent of how she was as a mom. She was not a checked-out superstar. She was involved and engaged and wonderful and loving. I mean, I think of her every day. So I can't imagine being her son and losing her. It's heartbreaking to me still."
Micheál also opened up about what losing his mother has meant for his life: "I think the pain was a little too overwhelming. I think the mind is very powerful, and subconsciously, or unconsciously, it can protect you. That's what it did when she passed. I just pushed it aside and didn't want to deal with it."
"I don't, even still, think that I've fully comprehended it, and that seems to be a similar journey to a lot of people I've spoken to. Fifty-year-olds who lost their parents when they were 12, 13 … One day they're out gardening, and something comes over them and they just break down."
Micheál's dad, Liam Neeson, has been generally supportive of his son's foray into acting: "The acting profession is about many things, and one of those is rejection. If you get an audition and don't get a recall and then don't get the part and subsequently the job, it's got nothing to do with your upbringing or what schools you attended; you're rejected because of YOU; how you look, sound, the space you occupy as a human being."
"And yet, with Micheál, acting is certainly in his blood. On his mother's side, that acting link goes back to the late 1700s!"
Andy also believes that Natasha would be very supportive of her son's chosen profession: "I don't think Liam gives him a free pass regarding his work. I think Liam wants him to be the best that he can be and will be pretty vigilant about that."
Andy says that if she were alive, Natasha would "love that [Richardson] was acting. And I think she would be tough on him. She was very, as everyone in the family is, serious about acting. It's something they discuss, and it's a real craft. She wouldn't be one of those moms at the school play who's like, 'Oh, my God, wasn't he amazing?'"
Many of the scenes in Made in Italy mirror Micheál's life so well that it's a wonder he was willing and able to go through with them. When asked why he chose to press forward with the film, he replied, "I think as I get older, keeping my mom more in mind and doing things to honor her allows me to remember her and to go through the grief, and properly heal."
He also explains that making the movie really helped him connect with his mother in ways that were often beautiful and quite unexpected, and he connected with others in the cast who have lost family members as well. "That's where I felt Mom, in a way. Through everybody."
