In the early 1990s, the world fell in love with the adorable Mara Wilson, the child actor known for playing the precocious little girl in family classics like Mrs. Doubtfire and Miracle on 34th Street.
The young star, who turned 37 on July 24, seemed poised for success but as she grew older, she stopped being “cute” and disappeared from the big screen.
“Hollywood was burned out on me,” she says, adding that “if you’re not cute anymore, if you’re not beautiful, then you are worthless.
In 1993, five-year-old Mara Wilson stole the hearts of millions of fans when she starred as Robin Williams’ youngest child in Mrs. Doubtfire.
The California-born star had previously appeared in commercials when she received the invitation to star in one of the biggest-grossing comedies in Hollywood history.
“My parents were proud, but they kept me grounded. If I ever said something like, ‘I’m the greatest!’ my mother would remind me, ‘You’re just an actor. You’re just a kid,’” Wilson, now 37, said.
After her big screen debut, she won the role of Susan Walker – the same role played by Natalie Wood in 1947 – in 1994’s Miracle on 34th Street.
In an essay for the Guardian, Wilson writes of her audition, “I read my lines for the production team and told them I didn’t believe in Santa Claus.” Referencing the Oscar-winning actor who played her mom in Mrs. Doubtfire, she continues, “but I did believe in the tooth fairy and had named mine after Sally Field.”
‘Most unhappy’
Next, Wilson played the magical girl in 1996’s Matilda, starring alongside Danny DeVito and his real-life wife Rhea Perlman.
It was also the same year her mother, Suzie, lost her battle with breast cancer.
“I didn’t really know who I was…There was who I was before that, and who I was after that. She was like this omnipresent thing in my life,” Wilson says of the deep grief she experienced after losing her mother. She adds, “I found it kind of overwhelming. Most of the time, I just wanted to be a normal kid, especially after my mother died.”
The young girl was exhausted and when she was “very famous,” she says she “was the most unhappy.”
When she was 11, she begrudgingly played her last major role in the 2000 fantasy adventure film Thomas and the Magic Railroad. “The characters were too young. At 11, I had a visceral reaction to [the] script…Ugh, I thought. How cute,” she tells the Guardian.
‘Burned out’
But her exit from Hollywood wasn’t only her decision.
As a young teenager, the roles weren’t coming in for Wilson, who was going through puberty and outgrowing the “cute.”
She was “just another weird, nerdy, loud girl with bad teeth and bad hair, whose bra strap was always showing.”
“At 13, no one had called me cute or mentioned the way I looked in years, at least not in a positive way,” she says.
Wilson was forced to deal with the pressures of fame and the challenges of transitioning to adulthood in the public eye. Her changing image had a profound effect on her.
“I had this Hollywood idea that if you’re not cute anymore, if you’re not beautiful, then you are worthless. Because I directly tied that to the demise of my career. Even though I was sort of burned out on it, and Hollywood was burned out on me, it still doesn’t feel good to be rejected.”
Mara as the writer
Wilson, now a writer, authored her first book “Where Am I Now? True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame,” in 2016.
The book discusses “everything from what she learned about sex on the set of Melrose Place, to discovering in adolescence that she was no longer ‘cute’ enough for Hollywood, these essays chart her journey from accidental fame to relative (but happy) obscurity.”
She also wrote “Good Girls Don’t” a memoir that examines her life as a child actor living up to expectations.
“Being cute just made me miserable,” she writes in her essay for the Guardian. “I had always thought it would be me giving up acting, not the other way around.”
What are your thoughts on Mara Wilson? Please let us know what you think and then share this story so we can hear from others!
If you are a baggage handler, here’s why you never should tie anything to your suitcase
Have you ever tried attaching a vibrant ribbon to the handle of your suitcase to make it stand out? So fasten your seatbelts because we have some news that may lead you to reconsider your decorating plan!
Everyone wants their luggage to be noticeable, especially when they are attempting to find it in a sea of similar cases at a busy airport. Many of us decorate our suitcases with name tags, ribbons, and humorous stickers in an attempt to deter someone else from inadvertently taking our priceless possessions.
However, John, an airport baggage handler in Dublin, claims that these well-intended decorations may end up causing more problems than they solve.
Let’s start by admitting that our bags need personal touches. Nothing is worse than finding out that your suitcase is still at the airport, hiding among the other bags, when you finally get to your ideal destination. Some people even go so far as to attach a GoPro to their luggage in order to monitor its travels!
But take John’s advise into consideration before you start bedazzling your suitcase. Although attaching ribbons to your suitcase handles could make it easier to find your belongings, there is a chance that this could go wrong. What John said was as follows:
When a person ties a ribbon to identify their luggage, it may interfere with the bag’s scanning process in the baggage claim area. Your suitcase might not make it to the flight if it can’t be scanned automatically and has to be processed manually, the man said.
Consider this: the scanner may not have been able to correctly read your bag, which is beautifully ornamented with a ribbon, causing it to miss the flight entirely. Quite not worth the chance, is it?
John advises taking out any outdated stickers from your suitcase as well. These may cause confusion during the scanning procedure, which could cause delays or luggage misplacement. Although we understand how sentimental those travel stickers are, it might be time to part with them in order to make the trip run more smoothly.
John also gave me this helpful tip: turn the wheels of your suitcase faceup. By following this easy tip, you may shield the wheels from harm and make sure your suitcase doesn’t sway into problems.
The real deal, though, especially for people who enjoy baking or have a sweet appetite, is that you should never have marzipan in your luggage. Why? According to John, Marzipan—a confection composed of sugar, egg, and ground almonds—has a density similar to some explosives. You did really read correctly. This can result in a thorough check of you and your luggage, which could cause you to miss your flight entirely.
Imagine having your luggage examined and swabbed simply for the presence of a small amount of almond paste. Holidays missed because to Marzipan are simply not worth it!
The lesson here is that, even while it could seem sensible to tie a ribbon or add a personal touch to your suitcase, it’s usually best to forego doing so. The same is true when it comes to packaging rich foods like marzipan. If you follow these suggestions, your journey should go more smoothly and without incident.
Let those ribbons stay at home and have a happy journey!
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