'Matilda' Star Mara Wilson Reveals Difficulties She Faced As a Result of Childhood Stardom

The actress opened up about mental health struggles in a recent podcast interview.

Mara Wilson, the actress best known for her lead character role in 1996 blockbuster film Matilda, is opening up about how childhood fame affected her over the years.

The now 35-year-old appeared as a guest on Mayim Bialik's Breakdown podcast where the two discussed Wilson's early career in show biz. Despite starring in wildly successful films including Mrs. Doubtfire, Miracle on 34th Street and most notably, Matilda, Wilson recalls the onset of anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and the death of her mother as the defining parts of her childhood.

"I was always very worried from a very young age. I worried about death, I worried about sickness, I was that kind of worrier. And it was strange because I was either, like I said, a very sort of upbeat extroverted kid or I was having an anxiety attack," she explained to Bialik. "When I was in third grade, that was really when all the s*** hit the fan. Third grade was when my mother was sick, I had just finished filming Matilda. I started having panic attacks about things like my pet hamster escaping."

Though she recalled "hearing the word anxiety," the former child star never knew to use the characteristic to define her feelings toward things or situations in her own life, unable to specifically identify what exactly her condition was related to at the time. However, she noted that associated behaviors did run in her family.

"I think that my mother was probably afraid because she knew that mental illness ran in her family," Wilson expressed. "And she was also just sort of like a just suck it up type mom anyway. So she was just kind of like, 'OK get over it, you'll be fine, deal with it.' And she had cancer, she was dealing with her own stuff at the time."

In addition to anxiety-related panic attacks, she also started to suffer from the consequences of things she'd do as a result of undiagnosed OCD.

"I started washing my hands all the time, so much so that my hands were always red and chapped and raw and my mother would have to put salves and ointments and all these kinds of … all of her home remedies on them to make sure that they wouldn't hurt so much anymore," Wilson explained. "It was a really hard time for me and I knew that it was weird. That was the thing. I knew that I was strange, I knew that this was something that other people didn't have and I started having panic attacks at school. I had a feeling that this was not something that other kids had."

The actress recalled speaking with her school guidance counselor about what she was experiencing, and even doing her own research on the condition as a youngster in search of answers or someone who could relate to her struggle.

"I looked up OCD with the rudimentary internet that we had at the time and what I knew in the library and encyclopedia and such and I was like, 'Oh, I have this.' And I went to my guidance counselors, I said, 'I think I know what's wrong with me,'" she recalled.

Wilson also shared that it was difficult to get her dad, who was a widow and single father after her mom's death, to "accept that there was something wrong with me." She added, "I think parents want to blame themselves for it. And they don't want to damn their kids with a diagnosis."

Ultimately, it was obtaining a medical evaluation and diagnosis as well as starting therapy as an adolescent that changed the course for Wilson going forward.

Exiting the industry at age 13 and returning several years later in various small roles here and there, she has been vocal about the way young entertainers are treated in the media in the past.