Child star Mara Wilson reveals she resented ‘Matilda’ role, compared herself to Scarlett Johansson and Kristen Stewart

It has been a decade since the film “Matilda,” which followed the story of an adorable child genius, has won over the hearts of viewers.

Now, the child star who played the iconic role, Mara Wilson, confessed that she actually wasn’t too happy being identified with “Matilda” for quite some time. Years after exiting the Hollywood scene, the 29-year-old celebrity revealed the reason why, as well as other shocking bombshells about her struggles, in her upcoming memoir, “Where Am I Now?”

In an exclusive excerpt scored by People, Wilson said that while “Matilda” is always going to be a part of her, she resented that fact for a while. “This was someone who had given me a lot of opportunities, but then I came to resent that influence in my life. But I've eventually come to appreciate it. Young women didn't see many characters like that. So she was a revelation, and she meant a lot to them.”

Wilson, who also starred in “Mrs Doubtfire” with the late Robin Williams and Sally Field, claimed that during college, she compared herself with fellow child stars Lacey Chabert, Hilary Duff, Scarlett Johansson and Kristen Stewart. She said she’d see her former friends and peers on magazine covers “looking immaculate.” Then she’d tell herself, “That was never going to be me, anyway.”

It appeared that for Wilson, she’d never be a big of a star as she was if she remained in the entertainment industry. “I don't know who I would be if I had stayed in,” she wrote in her book. “I would be totally different. I might be miserable. I think that I probably wouldn't be super successful.”

Despite not being prominently visible on camera for quite some time, Wilson said that there are still a lot of people who recognise her for what she did as a child, which could be cumbersome on her dating life. The brunette beauty, who graduated from New York University, and is now based in Queens, New York, penned, “You can't date your fans because it's not fair to them, and it's not really fair to you either. Of course, not everybody knows who I am, and that's why I've been able to date anybody at all, I guess!”

The soon-to-be-released “Where Am I Now,” also delves into Wilson’s obsessive-compulsive disorder as a tween, her longtime friendship with former co-stars such as Danny DeVito and her stint in a high school show-choir.