Mara Wilson: I was asked about boyfriends from age six
The bisexual star says she is glad to have escaped the spotlight after such early success.
Mara Wilson – star of classic films such as Matilda and Mrs Doubtfire – has opened up about the darker side of fame.
During the promotion of her new book, she has revealed that she was inundated with questions about her love life from just six years old.
“I can’t even count how many times I did interviews with people and they asked me if I had a boyfriend,” she told AV Club.
“Keep in mind that I was, I guess, mild to moderately famous from ages 6 to 13. Of course, I didn’t have a boyfriend then.
“I was such a nerd. It just wasn’t something I would have wanted.
“And I didn’t want to act like an adult,” she added.
“They do it because they think it’s funny – because it’s easier to see children as mini adults than it is to imagine or to remember what it is to be a child again.”
In extracts from her upcoming book Where Am I Now: True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame, she also recalls looking herself up on the internet when she was just twelve-years-old.
Referring to a group of articles titled ‘Ugliest Former Child Actors’ she writes: “It is not my job to be pretty, or cute, or anything that someone else wants me to be.”
“So the next time someone hiding behind a username decides to tell me what would make me prettier, I’m going to propose the following: I will meet them in person and ask them to listen.
“I will tell them about going through puberty in the public eye after my mother died of cancer,” she added.
“I will tell them how it feels to find a website advertising nude photos of yourself as a 12‑year‑old.”
Earlier this year, Wilson came out as bisexual following the massacre in Orlando, which saw 49 people gunned down in gay club Pulse.
Where Am I Now: True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame is out September 22.
