in the 90’s Mara Wilson it was a star. Movies like Miracle in the City, Matilda, The Rookie Fairy or what was his debut, lady doubtfire, led to her fame among the general public: the problem is that they did it when she was a child. Wilson was only six years old when she became a celebrity, chaining projects together very quickly but reaching a point where she ended up feeling overwhelmed by the profession, and in the early 2000s she retired from cinema. She has, however, remained a public figure ever since.
Wilson has cultivated an activist side, and has been concerned about the treatment that boys and girls can suffer from the media when they achieve fame prematurely. In 2017, at the height of stardom for Millie Bobby Brown (then he was 13 years old), Wilson came to his defense: “There is a creepy tilt public to sexualize young girls in the media. I am no longer a girl. Brown is. Comment on a girl’s physique, either in a ‘positive’ or ‘negative’in a sexualizing or compassionate way, is still commenting on a girl’s body.
Wilson has just published some memoirs, Good Girls Don’tand during an interview in Guardian has reflected on her experience as a child actress. “I don’t think she can be a child star without some kind of lasting damage. People don’t realize how heavy it is to constantly talk to the press as a child,” she explains. At the age of seven her fame “snowballed,” and Wilson had to put up with questions from reporters about whether she knew what a “French” Or if you could choose the co-star you like “sexier”
Regardless of how the media behaved with her, the worst thing for Wilson was the reaction of certain viewers. “There were people who sent me inappropriate letters and posted stuff about me on the internet.” Wilson specifically recalls how she discovered that her face had been superimposed on the bodies of adult women on pornography websites. “I made the mistake of googling myself when I was 12 years old and I saw things that I couldn’t stop seeing”.
hollywood burnout
Wilson, however, does not believe that Hollywood is to blame. per se, as for industry. “People take it for granted that Hollywood is inherently corrupt and that there is something on the filming sets that destroys you. In my case, that not necessarily true. I always felt safe on set,” she admits. “Sometimes questionable things happened: adults counting dirty jokes or sexually harassed in front of me. People would ask me if it was okay for me to work overtime instead of asking my parents, but I never felt insecure”.
The actress attributes it above all to working with people like Chris Columbus either Danny DeVito: directors who treated her very tactfully. “I think it’s because I worked with a lot of directors really wonderfulwho were used to working with children,” Wilson explains, however referring shortly afterward to when she began to go through puberty, and was even asked to wear a sports bra to hide her growing breasts.
Wilson had a very bad time because he believed that he already “she was not cute” and that the industry was getting tired of it. “She affected me for a long time because she had the Hollywood idea that if you are no longer cute, if you are not pretty, you are not worth anything. I related it directly to the end of my career. Although I was a little burned, and Hollywood was burned with me, it still does not sit well to be rejected. For a long time I had dysmorphia about my appearance and I was obsessed too much “
Before leaving the profession, Wilson shared an audition with Kristen Stewart early 2000s, for comedy permissionless mission. Stewart being cast increased her insecurity, and episodes like these ended up convincing her that Hollywood was no longer a good place to be.
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