I still get recognized. It's flattering, but it can be uncomfortable. Maybe because it only seems to happen when I'm looking and feeling crappy.
My mother died when I was young, and I was filming all the time. I was all over the place. Acting was the one constant.
If I ever have children of my own, they will read Matilda. They will watch the movie. And you can bet they will see Matilda: The Musical.
I think if I could do it over again - as much as I loved meeting the people I did on the films after 'Matilda' - I wish that I had stopped after 'Matilda.' I wish that I had just focused on my own life for a while.
I'd rather be known for my accomplishments, and for things that I really do take pride in, rather than known for this doll-like image I had when I was a child.
That's my suggestion for kids who want to act, by the way: Make sure it's really your choice, get out of it when it stops being fun, and get an education.
I didn't want to be a former child actor for the rest of my life, although in some ways I suppose I am. I am going to be that.
I don't know if I'm always going to be acting. Maybe when I grow up, I will be a scriptwriter. I already have a few scripts in my head.
There's a reason that girls cut off all their Barbie doll's hair and dye it and do things like that. I destroyed my Barbie dolls, and I know other girls did as well. And that's kind of the way they see kids movies and child actors in kids movies, as something that you've moved on from. It's babyish.
I've never considered myself cool, and I don't think I ever will be. Honestly, it's better that way. It's much less pressure.
I'm surprised by how much I remember [on childhood on film]. I think it's just because I had these interesting moments. Of course, you never know when they're interesting moments, but there was a lot of stuff that I remember and have attached significance to later. I remember enough. I remember highlights.
People view child actors the same way that girls treat their Barbie dolls.
My grades in high school were not very good. I was that kind of perfectionist that figured if you can't do it perfectly, why do it at all?
For me [being a kid actor], it's a bit like when you see your mom's friends, and they're like, "I remember when you were this big. You'll always be that cute little kid to me." It's like that times a thousand. Well, times a couple thousand.
It's a little bit annoying, because it feels like everybody's taking the power away from you. Everybody's taking your adult life away from you. On one level, I used to resent it.
It definitely is something that can get frustrating, because you want to live life on your own terms, and it feels for a while like you can't. But I've come to understand that I got to have all these amazing experiences that other people don't have. So this is the trade-off.
There were things that I knew that I was going to keep to myself.
Of course I didn't have a boyfriend then. I didn't even have a camp boyfriend then [at age of 13].
I was such a nerd. It just wasn't something I would have wanted. And I didn't want to act like an adult.
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.
I guess I was a philosophical child.
The Hollywood stuff in the book tended to come later. I think it was because I was worried about leading with that stuff. I wanted to try to make sure that the other stories in the book were as interesting. I wanted to spend more time on them and craft them. The thing is, with writing, it's form or content.
Nobody cares about that. I do have guys every now and then who say - it's always guys by the way, it's never women - who say, "You were my childhood crush, can we date?" And I'm like, "There's something kind of creepy about that. Do you hear yourself?"
Puberty was definitely difficult for me. I remember my friends and I looking forward to puberty because it seemed exciting at first. You read Judy Blume and you think, "This is kind of cool." But when it actually started happening to me, I was terrified.
I'm surprised by how much I remember.
