Matilda star Mara Wilson opens up about sexualisation as a child star

The actor, 35, rose to fame in 1993 at the age of six after playing Natalie “Nattie” Hillard in the box office hit Mrs. Doubtfire, having only previously appeared in a few small-scale TV commercials.

She went on to play Susan Walker in Miracle on 34th Street the following year, before scoring her true breakout role as Matilda Wormwood in the film Matilda in 1993.

Now, Wilson has opened up about the complex and distressing pressures of child stardom in her new memoir, Good Girls Don’t, which describes the tolls of fame as a kid in Hollywood.

Though the exploitation of child stars is increasingly well documented, for Wilson, the problem was not always on film sets themselves. Rather, she said she blames the world at large for sexualising her.

“I had people sending me inappropriate letters and posting things about me online,” Wilson told The Guardian.

“I made the mistake of Googling myself when I was 12 and saw things that I couldn’t unsee.”

Photographs of Mara were on porn sites with her head superimposed onto the bodies of other girls, she said.

“I don’t think you can be a child star without there being some kind of lasting damage,” Wilson continued.

“The thing that people assume is that Hollywood is inherently corrupt, and there’s something about being on film sets that destroys you.

“For me, that was not necessarily true. I always felt safe on film sets … I think that’s because I worked with a lot of really wonderful directors, who were used to working with children.”

Also concerning were reports of exploitation and child labour, such as crew members who asked Wilson to work overtime rather than seeking the her parents’ consent.

Wilson’s career slowed when she hit puberty, which she said delivered a fresh blow. One director, she wrote, asked her to wear a sports bra during filming to flatten her developing breasts.

“If you’re not beautiful, you’re worthless,” Wilson said, explaining that she was affected deeply by the fact that she was no longer considered “cute” in Hollywood.

She described her anger as self-destructive and self-hating as she told herself “you’re a loser, you’re a failure, you’re ugly”, outwardly becoming easily frustrated and enraged.

Growing up in California, Wilson put herself through a performing arts boarding school using her own earnings, where she discovered a love of theatre and writing, before going on to New York University.

She now primarily works as a writer, having previously released another memoir, Where Am I Now? True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame, and moonlights as a voice actor.

Wilson said she wasn’t sure she would ever return to film or television, questioning whether directors would know how to cast a “short, curvy, Jewish brunette”.

“‘I don’t want anybody telling me, ‘You need to lose 30 pounds and get a nose job,’” Wilson said, adding she prefers to define success by “my own goals, my own relationships, my own life”.