The Failure Pledge

Writer, former child actor

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Mara Wilson

Mara Wilson
Photo by Super Festivals. CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

What failed

After Mrs Doubtfire, Miracle on 34th Street and Matilda made her famous, and A Simple Wish flopped in 1997, she began losing parts as she got older — passed over for being too young, and then, by thirteen, unable to get call-backs at all. Offered the 'fat kid' in a new show when she had wanted the neurotic one, she understood what had changed. Her last film was panned and flopped. She has also said film acting was 'not very fun', and she chose school over it.

What happened next

She stopped auditioning for film and wrote instead — a play at a fringe festival, essays, and a memoir. She returned to performing on her own terms and at a much smaller scale: web series, a recurring podcast role, animation voice work.

The point

The film career did not come back, and she did not chase it: in 2001 she declined to audition for Donnie Darko. She reallocated the same instincts to a medium where nobody could reject her for her face, and now works steadily and unremarkably. Kept working does not have to mean kept winning.

The sequence

3 documented failures, shown with the successes in between. Every entry carries its own source — the wins are part of the record, and leaving them out is how these stories get distorted.

  1. 1998

    Loses a major role for being too young.

    failureMara Wilson (Wikipedia)

  2. 2000

    Stops getting call-backs at auditions.

    failureStylist

  3. 2000

    Her last film is panned and flops. She retires from film work.

    failureMara Wilson (Wikipedia)

  4. 2013

    Her play is produced at a fringe festival.

    successMara Wilson (Wikipedia)

  5. 2016

    Publishes a memoir and voices Jill Pill, a spider, in season 3 of BoJack Horseman.

    successMara Wilson (Wikipedia)

Sources

  • Mara Wilson on the dark side of child fame (Stylist)
    At 13, being pretty mattered – and not just in the world of movies and TV.
  • Mara Wilson on the dark side of child fame (Stylist)
    Wilson eventually chose to put her schooling above her acting career, and watched many of her child actor peers – such as Kristen Stewart and Scarlett Johansson – grow up and become "sexy" women.
  • Mara Wilson (Wikipedia)
    That year, Wilson explained why she quit film acting: "Film acting is not very fun. Doing the same thing over and over again until, in the director's eyes, you 'get it right', does not allow for very much creative freedom."
  • Mara Wilson (Wikipedia)
    She received a script for the 2001 film Donnie Darko but declined to audition.
  • A Simple Wish (Wikipedia)
    It bombed at the box office and received mixed to negative reviews from critics with praise for its cast and humor but criticisms for its weak plot.

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