Mara Wilson had doubts about being a child star.

THE “Mrs. Doubtfire“breakout actress, who went on to cement her status as a ’90s icon in”Matildaand “Miracle on 34th Street,” opened up about the “sexualized” pressures of growing up in the spotlight.

“I don’t think you can be a child star without there being some kind of lasting damage,” Wilson said. The Guardian while promoting the memoir “Good Girls Don’t”, adding, “People don’t realize how much constantly talking to the press as a kid weighs on you.”

Wilson began his career at the age of six. At the age of seven, Wilson’s fame “snowballed” and reporters began asking her if she knew what the French kiss was or if she could choose which other actor she found “the most sexy”.

“I’ve had people send me inappropriate letters and post things about me online,” Wilson continued, citing that her photo had been posted on pornography websites superimposed on the bodies of adult women. “I made the mistake of searching Google myself when I was 12 and saw things that I couldn’t ignore.”

She added: “What people assume is that Hollywood is inherently corrupt, and there’s something about being on. movie sets that destroys you. For me, that was not necessarily true. I’ve always felt safe on film sets. There were definitely some sketchy, dodgy things that happened sometimes – adults telling dirty jokes, or sexually harassed people in front of me. People who did things like asked me if it was OK if I worked overtime, instead of asking my parents, but I never felt unsafe. I think it’s because I’ve worked with a lot of really great directors, who used to work with kids.

It was when Wilson hit puberty that Hollywood seemed to turn against her. At age 12, a director asked Wilson to wear a sports bra to hide her developing breasts; Wilson thought she was no longer “cute” and that the film industry was “kind of done” with her.

“It affected me for a very long time because I had this Hollywood idea that if you’re not cute anymore, if you’re not beautiful, then you’re worthless. Because I tied that directly to the end of my career,” Wilson said. “Even though I was kind of exhausted by it and Hollywood was exhausted by me, it still doesn’t feel good to be rejected. For a long time I had this kind of dysmorphism about my appearance and I was too obsessed with it.

One of Wilson’s last auditions led to Kristen Stewart being cast, only fueling Wilson’s self-doubt further.

“You think, ‘I’m ugly, I’m fat’ — and there were real websites, newspapers, and movie reviews that said that about me,” Wilson recalled. “It got to the point where I became a lot more reserved, more anxious, 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 cost me dearly.”

Wilson has previously spoken of being fetishized by fans and admitting that she “felt illand ‘furious’ to see current child stars like ‘Stranger Things’ actress Millie Bobby Brown experience similar abuse online.

“What’s really at play here is the chilling and inappropriate public tendency to sexualize young girls in the media,” Wilson wrote in 2017, when Brown was 13. “I am no longer a child. Millie Bobby Brown is. To comment on a child’s body, whether in a “positive” or “negative” way, in a sexualizing or pitiful way, is always to comment on a child’s body. »