Wilson mentioned she typically got here to her protection, noting that she discovered it troublesome to “reconcile” the names Trachtenberg was being known as “with the Michelle I might identified.”
Mara Wilson is recounting her friendship with the late Michelle Trachtenberg and the struggles they each went by as baby stars.
In an emotional tribute shared to Vulture Tuesday, Wilson described how she and Trachtenberg — who was discovered lifeless in her New York Metropolis residence on February 26 on the age of 39 — turned buddies within the ’90s after she starred in Matilda and Trachtenberg in Harriet the Spy.
Wilson recalled how she, Trachtenberg and different baby stars, together with Jerry Maguire‘s Jonathan Lipnicki, shaped an in depth friendship group and would typically hang around.
“Not solely was she good, I noticed, however she was remarkably clever,” Wilson wrote. “But she managed to not be condescending and did not attempt to impress with huge phrases, the way in which different youngsters (together with me) may need. She was sensible, however she was additionally self-possessed, and did not want to indicate off.”
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She additionally recalled how Trachtenberg was there for her after her mother died.
“That April of 1997, whereas we had been on the movie competition, marked one yr since my mom had died,” she continued. “Being with the group in New York felt secure, the one place my mom’s absence did not hang-out me. Nonetheless, on the anniversary of her loss of life, I burst into tears. Michelle and everybody else rallied round me, giving me hugs and doing no matter they may to make me giggle.”
The pair would later go on to attend the identical center faculty in Los Angeles, the place she mentioned the Buffy the Vampire Slayer star pulled her apart at some point and requested, “‘Are the children right here imply to you?'”
In tears, Trachtenberg continued, “‘As a result of they’re to me… They name me Harriet the Slut, Harriet the B–ch, Harriet the B–chy Spy… and a lot worse. They by no means cease.”
Although Wilson remembers that “all people fell in love with Michelle Trachtenberg,” it was her fame and that uber-friendly demeanor that induced her to be misunderstood at school.
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“Each time I even heard somebody say ‘Michelle Trachtenberg,’ a child would bounce in to say that they’d heard she was imply, filled with herself, a complete b–ch.”
Wilson mentioned she typically got here to her protection, telling the merciless youngsters: “‘She’s not… she’s very nice!'” writing that she discovered it troublesome to “reconcile” the names Trachtenberg was being known as “with the Michelle I might identified, the one who was by no means something however heat and type.”
Wilson had “by no means seen Michelle cry earlier than” the day she confided in her at college, which led her to the belief: “A lot of being a toddler actor is about making everybody pleased. It felt cruelly ironic to be so hated when our raison d’être was getting individuals to love us.”
Trachtenberg shared her expertise with bullying earlier than her passing, taking to Instagram in 2020 to open up in regards to the challenges that she confronted rising up as a child in Hollywood, and the way that impacted her relationships afterward in life.
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As an grownup, Trachtenberg was open about her expertise of childhood bullying, and in regards to the challenges that fame poses to interpersonal relationships at the same time as you age.
Sharing a photograph of herself throughout her Harriet the Spy days, Trachtenberg wrote, “Again in my day all the children needed to write a bulls–t Valentine’s Day card to everybody within the class. I by no means obtained one on function, everybody obtained a valentine card. Nobody ever gave me one they usually thought I did not want the eye. The youngsters and workers all laughed and thought everybody else ought to get one, being an actress since I used to be 3, apparently I did not want one.”
“The youngsters had been merciless… I nonetheless have scars from being thrown down stairs and slammed into lockers head first,” she continued. “However summoning the brave optimism that outlined a few of her finest characters, resolved, “There is no such thing as a must harp on the previous… I write this to each baby, teen, particular person, on the market who’s bullied. You might be one thing.”
Whereas she was mentioned to be battling issues from a liver transplant, an actual reason behind loss of life for Trachtenberg remains to be unknown, because the actress’ household objected to an post-mortem.
Trachtenberg is survived by her dad and mom, her sister and her boyfriend, Jay Cohen.
