“There was really a lot of pressure on me.”
Mara Wilson is well known for her roles in films such as Matilda, Mrs Doubtfire and Miracle on 34th Street, but as an adult she has shied away from the limelight.
The 33-year-old recently spoke in an interview about the extreme pressures put on her from a young age and how fame can sometimes come with a high price.
Wilson has spoken in the past about how she was one of the lucky ones when it came to being protected as a child actor.
Wilson’s parents always accompanied her on filming locations and she was also privileged to work with veteran actors Danny DeVito and Robin Williams, who she says looked after the child actors and made sure they were treated like kids.
Unfortunately, many child actors have not had so much protection. Others like Eliza Dushku and Corey Feldman have spoken out against the abusive treatment of child stars.
Wilson says that the pressure that is put on child actors is also too much. “It hurt to hear adult critics saying things against me,” she said on TODAY. “It felt very unfair and very hard. There was really a lot of pressure on me, I felt, from the outside world.”
Fellow child actor Natalie Portman took a break from acting after reading several critics of her physical appearance in the 1994 movie Leon. Portman was only 13 at the time.
Wilson went on to speak about how Danny DeVito and his wife Rhea took her under their wing during the filming of Matilda.
Wilson’s mother Suzie was terminally ill during the filming of the movie and unfortunately passed away in April of 1996.
“Danny and his wife, Rhea, they would let me come over to their house,” she said. “We would have sleepovers, we went to go see plays, we went to see movies.
“They made sure I was also being treated like a kid. I played with their kids, just like any other kids.”
Wilson also spoke about her time spent with late actor Robin Williams”
“He could be very shy one on one, particularly with adults, but with kids, he just came alive because they are the ultimate audience.
You can watch the full interview with Mara Wilson here.
