Former child actor Mara Wilson revealed she experienced being sexualized at a young age and recalled witnessing sexually harassment on set.
During an interview with the Guardian, she discussed her experience as a child star and said she witnessed sexual harassment on set as a child, and a journalist asked her which actor she found the “sexiest” when she was 7. Wilson also recalled when she googled herself when she was 12 and saw her face pasted on the bodies of porn actresses on various pornographic websites. “Fans” also sent the former child actress explicit letters and posted other content online.
“I had people sending me inappropriate letters and posting things about me online. I made the mistake of Googling myself when I was 12 and saw things that I couldn’t unsee.”
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Wilson noted during the interview that her fans reportedly expected that she would act similarly to the famous character Matild and felt she couldn’t live up to the image.
“I saw that they were disappointed that I wasn’t as smart, pretty, nice, as they expect you to be. I think they were expecting me to be Matilda, and she’s wonderful, but she’s not real. She’s brilliant in every single way. She’s smart, and kind and powerful. Then they met me, this nerdy, awkward teenager who got angry sometimes, but couldn’t even channel her anger into powers. I was never going to live up to that.”
She has previously discussed her experience in other publications and even released a short story audiobook about her time as a child star.
If you put that much pressure on somebody, how do you expect them not to fail? If you let them know you’re watching their every move, they rebel, and try to form their own identity. But there were a lot of children whose parents didn’t do that. If you have a lot of pressure and a lot of money, it’s no surprise that so many of us get into drinking, partying, drugs. I definitely had a self-destructive streak, but it took a different mode. . For me, it was a lot of hating myself and saying, like, you’re a loser, you’re a failure, you’re ugly.”
Wilson explained how her roles stopped coming once she reached puberty at 12 and she felt like she was no longer cute as a child star because she was asked to bind her breasts. There was an instance where a role went to Kristen Stewart because of her age and appearance at the time.
“You think, ‘I’m ugly, I’m fat’ – and there were actual websites and newspapers and movie reviewers saying that about me. It got to the point where I became much more guarded, more anxious and depressed and cynical, and when you’re like that, it’s very hard to land a role, because in an audition, you have to be open and honest. It took a toll on me.”
Wilson went on to focus on school and was diagnosed with OCD after taking time off from acting.