‘Matilda’ star Mara Wilson recalls Michelle Trachtenberg crying over childhood bullying

nypost.com:

was found dead Feb. 26 at age 39, was severely bullied in middle school, according to original “Matilda” star Mara Wilson.Wilson, 37, recently wrote an essay for Vulture about her friendship with Trachtenberg.

They attended the same middle school in Los Angeles. One day, Trachtenberg approached Wilson and asked her, “Are the kids here mean to you?” Trachtenberg told Wilson through tears, “Because they are to me… They call me Harriet the Slut, Harriet the B—-, Harriet the B—-y Spy… and so much worse.

They never stop.”At the time, Trachtenberg found fame from starring in the 1996 comedy movie “Harriet the Spy.” Wilson played the titular role in “Matilda” that same year.“I had never seen Michelle cry before,” Wilson wrote in her essay. “I’d never seen her anything other than perfectly composed and confident.

That’s what it was, I realized. That’s why they said she was ‘mean.’ Because they were mean to her first, then when she went on the defense, they called her a b–h.”Wilson said that other students would say “they’d heard [Trachtenberg] was mean, full of herself, a total b—h,” so she defended the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” star and would tell them, “She’s not.