Miranda Cosgrove Talks Pressures of Being a Child Star

For Mara Wilson, playing Matilda was not ever magical. 

In fact, the histrion precocious reflected connected the pressures she felt arsenic a kid star, specifically astir being capable to unrecorded up to her titular quality successful the 1996 movie Matilda erstwhile gathering fans.

"I saw that they were disappointed that I wasn't arsenic smart, pretty, nice, arsenic they expect you to be," Mara told The Guardian in an interrogation published Monday May 15. "I deliberation they were expecting maine to beryllium Matilda, and she's wonderful, but she's not real."

"She's superb successful each azygous way. She's smart, and benignant and powerful," the 35-year-old continued of Matilda. "Then they met me, this nerdy, awkward teen who got aggravated sometimes, but couldn't adjacent transmission her choler into powers."

And she admitted it often felt similar she was surviving successful her character's shadow, overmuch similar "the mode you would with a fabulous older member oregon sister."

Mara added, "I was ne'er going to unrecorded up to that."

"There's inactive this fearfulness I have: if [fans] really knew who I was, would they truly similar me?" she mused. "The reply to that is immoderate would and immoderate wouldn't."

And it's a sentiment Mara knows not galore are able to afloat understand.

"People don't recognize however overmuch perpetually talking to the property arsenic a kid weighs connected you," she explained. "When you person fans, you tin nary longer beryllium yourself erstwhile you're retired successful public, and determination were times that I was having a atrocious day, due to the fact that I was an affectional teenager."

This is not the archetypal clip Mara has spoken publically astir the difficulties of being a kid star. 

She antecedently described being "sexualized" arsenic a young histrion successful Hollywood successful a 2021 New York Times essay. And the twelvemonth prior, Mara participated in the 2020 HBO documentary Showbiz Kids, which was directed by chap erstwhile kid prima Alex Winter.

"It felt precise retired of power to person everyone cognize my sanction and I didn't consciousness similar I could spot anybody," she recalled successful the documentary. "That's inactive a occupation that I person present sometimes, due to the fact that I don't cognize erstwhile radical privation maine due to the fact that they deliberation I person connections. Or they similar maine due to the fact that of an representation they person of maine arsenic a child."