The actor Mara Wilson, who gained popularity from her early parts in Matilda and Mrs. Doubtfire, has talked candidly about experiencing sexualization as a young child.
Mara Wilson vanished from view shortly after the release of Matilda in 1996. Wilson’s roles in Mrs. Doubtfire and the 1994 Miracle on 34th Street remake have made him one of the most enduring child actors of the 1990s.
Naturally, though, Wilson’s portrayal of Matilda’s title character stands out as her most notable part to date.
Who is Mara Wilson?
Mara Elizabeth Wilson, the eldest child of KTLA broadcast engineer Mike Wilson and Burbank PTA school volunteer Suzie, was born in Burbank, California, on July 24, 1987. Her father is partly Irish, while her mother was Jewish.
On April 26, 1996, Wilson’s mother died. Her memory was honoured in the Matilda movie. Wilson subsequently noted that this had an impact on her acting desire. Wilson was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder at the age of twelve.
Additionally, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder has been detected in her. In Idyllwild, California, she went to the Idyllwild Arts Academy.
Wilson moved to New York City to pursue her education at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts after graduating in 2005. She would go on to earn her degree there in 2009.
Her first role was as Natalie Hillard in the 1993 movie Mrs. Doubtfire. She later acted as Susan Walker in Miracle on 34th Street (1994), Matilda’s main heroine in 1996, and Annabel Greening in A Simple Wish (1997).
After playing Lily Stone in the 2000 film Thomas and the Magic Railroad, Wilson stepped away from acting for a full year to concentrate on her writing. Since making a comeback to acting in 2012, she has primarily appeared in online series.
What happened to Mara Wilson?
Mara Wilson claimed in an interview that people who had watched her in the Nineties movies had “sexualized” her.
She told The Guardian that while she was a child, older men would make attempts to get in touch with her. She claimed that she had people sending her inappropriate letters and posting things about her online.
When she was twelve, she made the mistake of Googling herself and saw things that she was unable to ignore.
She said, “But I was still sexualized” by the outside world, including adult men who would approach her, despite her parents’ protective measures to ensure she solely worked in children’s films.
Wilson recalled how often reporters would question her, when she was seven years old, about French kissing and which actors she thought were the “sexiest.”
“People don’t realize how much constantly talking to the press as a child weighs on you,” Wilson said. Wilson also talked about having to live under the shadow of Matilda, the role she portrayed in the 1996 movie adaptation of Roald Dahl’s book about a young child with psychic abilities and intelligence.
Rebel Wilson thought back on her time in Hollywood, remembering how a director had requested her to wear a sports bra when she was twelve to hide her growing shape.
She was profoundly affected by this experience, and she began to accept the notion that she would no longer be valuable if she lost her youthful appearance.
She thought losing her cuteness and beauty was the reason for her career’s downfall and she felt abandoned by Hollywood.
She struggled with the emotional toll of rejection, believing that her perceived lack of beauty meant she was no longer valuable in the profession, even though she was burned out and aware of Hollywood’s declining interest.
Why did Mara leave acting?
Mara Wilson, who played Matilda in the film adaptation of Roald Dahl’s novel, has decided to give up acting, even with the film’s enormous success. Rather, she has chosen to follow her long-held passion for writing as a vocation.
Mara, who is currently 35 years old, has stated that she has always secretly wanted to write. It was something she had always wanted to do in the back of her mind.
On the movie sets, she wrote a lot of stories. She composed multiple pieces on Matilda.
She has written for magazines including Vanity Fair, The New York Times, and Elle over the years. “Where Am I Now?” her memoir was published in 2016.
Read Also – What happened to Steve Sarkisian? A look into his life