How Mrs. Doubtfire star Mara Wilson, who lost her mother at an early age and was constantly told she was "fat and ugly," has changed in 30 years

In the 1990s, a young star named Mara Wilson broke out in Hollywood. In 1993, as a six-year-old child, she starred in the movie Mrs. Doubtfire with the iconic Robin Williams in the title role. And in 1996, the movie Matilda was released, which remained a hit for many, many years. Even adult actors could envy little Mara's career, but the girl herself did not feel successful or even happy, and as an adult, she faced obsessive-compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. And all this under the sauce of hate, depression, and constant self-criticism.

As a child, Mara was always protected by her mother. However, the woman died early, which was another huge blow for the girl actress. OBOZ.UA decided to talk about the fate of Wilson, who never wanted to have an acting career.

Indeed, as is often the case, Mara Wilson did not become an actress as a child by choice. At first, her mother simply took her to auditions where they were looking for children for commercials. The girl starred in several commercials, and then an audition for the movie Mrs. Doubtfire was announced, and Mara got the role.

The money she earned from filming, her parents saved for her education. They thought that Mara would do one movie and that would be the end of it. However, as the actress recalls, this process resembles a snowball. The first movie was followed by the second, then the third, and so on. Wilson became a real star after the release of Matilda, in which she played the lead role. She was only nine years old.

However, in addition to the popularity and love of the audience, the burden of childish criticism fell on her fragile childish shoulders. This ambiguous fame happened around the same time that the actress's mother died of breast cancer.

In her memoirs, the actress recalled: "I felt completely lost, completely off the ground... My mother was something omnipresent in my life. I really believed that she would never die, and the older I got, the more she took on mythical qualities in my mind. Losing her was an incredible shock. I didn't know who I really was."

Coping with both grief and fame was a double challenge. "I don't think you can be a child star without suffering some kind of long-term damage. People think that Hollywood is inherently corrupt and that being on a movie set destroys you. For me, this was not necessarily true. I always felt safe on the set. Of course, sometimes there were some uncertain, questionable things that happened - adults telling dirty jokes or sexually harassing people in front of me. People who did things like ask me if it was okay to work overtime instead of asking my parents, but I never felt unsafe. I think it's because I worked with a lot of really great directors who were used to working with children," she said in her memoir.

One of the most influential moments happened to Mara when she was a teenager. At the age of 12, she decided to Google herself and came across things that not only shocked her, but even broke her a bit.

"I have been sent obscene letters and written about on the Internet. I made the mistake of Googling myself when I was 12 and saw things I shouldn't have seen. My photos were on pornographic websites, my head was superimposed on the bodies of other naked girls," Wilson said.

All her life, the actress, as she told us, felt disappointed. She believed that she "did not meet the standards" of society. She was criticized by her fans, and traumatic articles were written in magazines that insulted the young star.

"I could see that they were disappointed that I wasn't as smart, pretty, and sweet as they expected. I think they expected me to be Matilda. She's great, but she's not real. She is wonderful in every way. She's smart, kind and strong. And then they met me, a nerdy, awkward teenager who sometimes got angry but couldn't even channel his anger into strength. While Matilda uses her anger for telekinesis, my anger simply deprived me of my friends," the celebrity admitted in her memoirs.

The actress's career slowed down when she hit puberty. Hollywood, in Wilson's own words, "kind of gave up on her". Earlier, in one movie, when she was 12, her body changed during filming, and the director asked her to wear a sports bra, ostensibly to even out her developing breasts. Wilson was no longer considered "cute".

"It affected me very much, because I had this Hollywood idea that if you're not cute anymore, if you're not beautiful, then you're worthless. Because I directly linked it to the collapse of my career. Even if I burned out on it, and Hollywood burned out on me, it's still unpleasant to be rejected. For a long time, I had a kind of dysmorphia about the way I looked, and I was too focused on it. "You're ugly! You're fat!" - this is what websites, newspapers and movie reviewers said about me. It got to the point where I became much more cautious, anxious, depressed and cynical, and when you are like that, it's very difficult to get a role because you have to be open and honest at the audition. It affected me," the actress said.

Eventually, a psychiatrist diagnosed Wilson with obsessive-compulsive disorder and also suggested that she might have post-traumatic stress disorder. Her father advised her to take a break from acting. She did just that. Mara also began to deal with her sexuality. She realized that she was different from other girls, but she didn't want to admit it, lest she become a disappointment again. Eventually, Wilson did come out as bisexual.

Wilson now mostly writes books and does voice-overs, including audiobooks and the fiction podcast Welcome to the Night Valley. She is not sure if she would like to return to television or film.

Marie Wilson is 36 years old. She can still face hate. When fans recall how the actress has changed in 30 years, some Internet users write offensive things about the celebrity's appearance. However, Wilson tries to react to this more calmly.

"I don't want to be told: 'You need to lose 30 pounds and get a nose job'. Finally, I'm not interested in changing myself. For so long, I defined myself in terms of the media, in terms of Hollywood, instead of defining myself by my own goals, my own relationships, my own life," Wilson said in her memoirs.

Earlier, OBOZ.UA wrote about how the actors of the Harry Potter movie have changed in 22 years. See the photos of then and now in our material.

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