Wilson, 39, was only six when she launched to international stardom with her feature-film debut in 1993\u2019s family comedy Mrs. Doubtfire, starring the late comedian Robin Williams<\/a>. <\/p>\n Yet, it was her portrayal of the young and gifted bookworm Matilda in Danny DeVito\u2019s 1996 adaptation of Roald Dahl\u2019s beloved children\u2019s classic that cemented Wilson\u2019s status as a massive child movie star<\/a>. <\/p>\n Reflecting on the complex period in her life in a new interview with People<\/a>, the A Simple Wish actor admitted, \u201cI think that when I was younger, sometimes it felt a little difficult.<\/p>\n \u201cIt almost felt as if Matilda were an older sister whose shadow I lived in,\u201d she explained. \u201cPeople loved Matilda, they didn\u2019t necessarily love Mara.\u201d <\/p>\n Wilson recalled a Carrie Fisher quote about feeling like she and her Star Wars character, Princess Leia, had merged over the years. \u201cSometimes I feel a little bit like that too,\u201d the Miracle on 34th Street star said. <\/p>\n While there came a point in her teenage years when she didn\u2019t 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. <\/p>\n \u201cI consider it really an honor,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Following the release of Thomas and the Magic Railroad in 2000, Wilson took a 12-year break from acting<\/a>, citing burnout and the industry\u2019s harmful beauty standards. <\/p>\n In a 2023 interview with The Guardian<\/a>, she remembered feeling like Hollywood \u201cwas kind of done with me\u201d<\/a> once she hit puberty because she was no longer considered \u201ccute.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt affected me for a very long time because I had this Hollywood idea that if you\u2019re not cute anymore, if you\u2019re not beautiful, then you are worthless. Because I directly tied that to the demise of my career,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cEven though I was sort of burned out on it, and Hollywood was burned out on me, it still doesn\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Wilson now spends her time writing books, including memoirs Where Am I Now? (2016) and Good Girls Don\u2019t (2023), and voice acting for audiobooks, podcasts and animated TV series like BoJack Horseman and Big Hero 6: The Series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":803342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,88],"class_list":["post-803341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=803341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/803342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Mara](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Matilda-split.jpeg\")
Mara Wilson was 8 when she led the 1996 adaptation of Roald Dahl\u2019s children\u2019s classic \u2018Matilda\u2019 (Getty\/TriStar Pictures)![\"Wilson](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Mara-Wilson.jpeg\")
Wilson stepped away from mainstream acting in 2000 to focus on writing and leading a normal life (Getty Images)<\/p>\nWilson was 6 when she starred as Robin Williams\u2019s on-screen daughter in \u2018Mrs. Doubtfire\u2019 (Fox)<\/p>\n