MARA WILSON IN
THE ACTOR LOOKS BACK ON PLAYING THE MAGICAL BOOKWORM — AND TELLS US HOW MATILDA STILL BRINGS JOY
MARA WILSON WAS the grand old age of seven when she bagged the title role in Danny Devito’s sweet, funny and hugely empowering adaptation of Roald Dahl’s story. Wilson exuded sincerity and heart as the bookish, downtrodden and, oh yes, telekinetic young girl who, with the help of her ally, the uncompromisingly kind Miss Honey (Embeth Davidtz), rises up against her tyrannical teachers and parents. Now 32, the actor and writer reveals how the character has stayed with her.
Matilda is a kids’ film, but it can hit home at any age. Do you feel that?
Yeah. A lot of people unfortunately can relate to feeling misunderstood by their family, their society, their situation, but can find a place where they feel really loved and understood by making friends and using their gifts and talents. It’s actually a pretty radical message: you don’t have to accept your station in life. You are worthy of being loved for who you are. The film is especially big in all kinds of marginalised communities — it’s got a really big LGBTQ following. People have said to me, “Your movie was the way my mum knew I was gay.” Or, “It was the way I knew I was gay, because I was in love with Miss Honey.” I hear that sort of thing once a week from various women.
So you still often get emotional feedback from fans?
All the time. For a while having Matilda in my life was a little frustrating because it felt like being overshadowed by a big sister — everybody loved the character and not me. At university people were still calling me Matilda. I struggled with it, and I felt a separation from her. But I’ve embraced her now. Every now and then I remind myself: “You did something when you were eight years old that still inspires people.” I get messages at least once a week, from all kinds of people, saying, “This movie really gave me hope.”
The film is about kindness, and you’ve said Danny Devito and [his wife and co-star] Rhea Perlman were very kind to you and your mother when she was ill in hospital. Kindness was all around you.
It was. I loved Danny and Rhea right away; they were my new favourite aunt and uncle. My mother was ill, and she died shortly before the movie came out. But there was a lot of coordination to make sure that when she was in hospital, Danny and Rhea would have sleepovers at their house. They took me to see plays. We watched movies and had so much fun. I was really lucky. I was going through a very hard time and things were hard to deal with, but I was very well taken care of.
Do you think the character influenced the person you became? You’re fiercely forthright on Twitter.
I loved the book even before I was in the movie, and I still love her and look up to her. Sometimes I feel like, “I really should be reading more books right now. I should be speaking truth to power.” Because it’s kind of what people expect of me. Matilda is a good person, and you have to let that inspire you. Sometimes it’s hard to live up to, because sometimes you wanna be lazy, and free to make mistakes. But she inspires me to speak truth to power, to speak out against injustice. Some of these things I would probably be doing anyway, but yeah, she continues to inspire me. I know she doesn’t actually exist, but on an archetypal level it feels like she does, somewhere.