Matilda star Mara Wilson says men inappropriately messaged her when she was 12

15 May 2023 , 21:16

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Matilda star Mara Wilson reveals men inappropriately messaged her when she was just 12 (Image: FilmMagic)

Mara Wilson, who rose to fame as a child actress and notably for her role in the Roald Dahl adaptation of Matilda, opened up about some of the negative experiences she faced as a child star.

Mara insisted that she was well looked after by her mother Suzie, before she sadly passed away after battling cancer in 1995.

However, the 35-year-old claimed that some "sketchy" things happened while on-set, for example, some Hollywood bosses would ask her to do overtime rather than her parents.

She told the Guardian : "If she didn’t like the way that something was going, she would not hesitate to make her concerns known."

Mara went on to explain that her parents thought she'd only be safe if she worked on children's movies, but ultimately balmes the world at large for sexualising her.

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Mara opened up about being a child star (Getty Images for Lambda Legal)

Mara revealed the horrific things she found when she Googled herself (Getty Images)

"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," she said before explaining that photos of her were on porn sights with her head superimposed onto the bodies of other girls.

"I don’t think you can be a child star without there being some kind of lasting damage," Mara continued.

Mara starred in Matilda (Rex Features)

"The thing that people assume is that Hollywood is inherently corrupt, and there’s something about being on film sets that destroys you.

"For me, that was not necessarily true. I always felt safe on film sets. There were definitely some sketchy, questionable things that happened at times – adults that told dirty jokes, or sexually harassed people in front of me."

Mara starred in Mrs Doubtfire alongside Robin Williams when she was six years old (SNAP/REX/Shutterstock)

Mara has written about the pressures of rising to fame at such a young age in her new memoir Good Girls Don't. In the book, she shares the pressures she was under as a child star and the relationships that shaped her as she grew into a teenager in Hollywood.

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Lauren Gordon