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Former child actor Mara Wilson has opened up about the challenges of early fame.
Wilson, 39, was only six when she launched to international stardom with her feature-film debut in 1993’s family comedy Mrs. Doubtfire, starring the late comedian Robin Williams.
Yet, it was her portrayal of the young and gifted bookworm Matilda in Danny DeVito’s 1996 adaptation of Roald Dahl’s beloved children’s classic that cemented Wilson’s status as a massive child movie star.
Reflecting on the complex period in her life in a new interview with People, the A Simple Wish actor admitted, “I think that when I was younger, sometimes it felt a little difficult.
“It almost felt as if Matilda were an older sister whose shadow I lived in,” she explained. “People loved Matilda, they didn’t necessarily love Mara.”
Mara Wilson was 8 when she led the 1996 adaptation of Roald Dahl’s children’s classic ‘Matilda’ (Getty/TriStar Pictures)
Wilson stepped away from mainstream acting in 2000 to focus on writing and leading a normal life (Getty Images)
Wilson recalled a Carrie Fisher quote about feeling like she and her Star Wars character, Princess Leia, had merged over the years. “Sometimes I feel a little bit like that too,” the Miracle on 34th Street star said.
While there came a point in her teenage years when she didn’t want to be associated with Matilda anymore and was trying to find her own identity, she noted that she has since come to embrace the role.
“I consider it really an honor,” Wilson said. “The lessons of Matilda and the character of Matilda have sort of stayed with me. And I consider myself very, very lucky to have played that part.”
Following the release of Thomas and the Magic Railroad in 2000, Wilson took a 12-year break from acting, citing burnout and the industry’s harmful beauty standards.
Wilson was 6 when she starred as Robin Williams’s on-screen daughter in ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’ (Fox)
In a 2023 interview with The Guardian, she remembered feeling like Hollywood “was kind of done with me” once she hit puberty because she was no longer considered “cute.”
“It affected me for a very long time because I had this Hollywood idea that if you’re not cute anymore, if you’re not beautiful, then you are worthless. Because I directly tied that to the demise of my career,” she said.
“Even though I was sort of burned out on it, and Hollywood was burned out on me, it still doesn’t feel good to be rejected. For a long time, I had this kind of dysmorphia about the way that I looked and I obsessed about it too much.”
Wilson now spends her time writing books, including memoirs Where Am I Now? (2016) and Good Girls Don’t (2023), and voice acting for audiobooks, podcasts and animated TV series like BoJack Horseman and Big Hero 6: The Series.