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.”
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Tim Allen explains why he has never trusted anyone as much as his “Toy Story” co-star Tom Hanks.
Few actors and actresses are as well-known to the general public as Tim Allen for their appearances in television shows and films.
Even though the 69-year-old has held a significant position in Hollywood for many years, neither reviewers nor fans have had anything to say about him.
It should go without saying that he’s made his fair share of friends over the years; after all, with the number of individuals Tim has worked with, you’d think he’d have a who’s who of contacts in his phone book.
However, the man adds that there is one person in the entertainment sector in whom he has the most faith. It’s fitting that he was played by a man in one of the best children’s movies ever made.
During a visit to Kelly Clarkson’s show, Allen recently described his quick friendship with Tom Hanks.
“He and I disagree on so many issues. I admire that man’s heart and mind,” stated Allen of Hanks.
The A-list pair were spotted out and about recently, raising rumors that they are working on a new film.
“We’ve been going to lunch twice a year since Toy Story 1, and we’re like two older women because we sit almost too close at a booth,” Allen explained.
In fact, when filming Toy Story 1, Hanks was observed taking fries from his co-star’s plate.
Allen admitted that he had never experienced anything like it before, especially given that he had grown up in a household where it was not expected.
On his bond with Tom Hanks, who played Woody in the Toy Story film series to Allen’s Buzz Lightyear:
“And I don’t think I’ve ever trusted a human being as much as Tom to even listen to me, let alone listen to me.” We have significantly different perspectives on so many issues, but he’s convinced me that he’s a lovely and engaging person. He’s the first guy that pays attention to me and doesn’t pass judgment.”
I don’t know about you, but I am happy to see two such likable people form such close friendships. Despite spending so much time at the pinnacle of their careers, Hanks and Allen have generally avoided scandal.
That, in my opinion, speaks volumes about their moral character.
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