Matilda star Mara Wilson 'very upset' by reaction to coming out as bisexual

The former child star was not prepared for what would happen next after she identified as bisexual

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Mara Wilson has admitted to feeling “upset” by the unprecedented reaction her identification as bisexual.

The actress most well-known for her role in the adaptation of Road Dahl's Matilda has a burgeoning following on Twitter and often answers questions from fans on her page. But she did not foresee the headlines borne from one reply to a simple question about her sexuality.

Wilson, 29, told fans she identified as bisexual after sharing a picture of herself, aged 18, in a gay club in the wake of the Orlando nightclub shootings. She said the LGBTQ community always felt like home, “especially a few years later when I, uh, learned something about myself”.

When asked by one fan if she identified as bisexual, she responded by describing herself as a ‘2’ on the Kinsey scale. The Kinsey scale ranges from exclusively heterosexual (0) to exclusively homosexual (6). Two relates to being predominately heterosexual but more than incidentally homosexual.

Wilson told Vanity Fair: “I was very upset for a few days. I was like, 'How could I have done this?’ It was an impulsive decision. It was definitely an impulsive, emotional decision. I did not expect it to trend on Facebook.”

Her tweets made news internationally, shaping the narrative of her coming out story.

She admitted that if she could do it again, it would not be in that way.

“Ideally, I was wishing it would be because I was dating Janelle Monáe or something.”

After the death of her mother from cancer while she was filming Matilda and her struggle with OCD and anxiety, Wilson stepped away from the public eye. She attended New York University and has spoken in the past about her battle with self-confidence and self-image, telling People in August: “I always knew there were girls much prettier than I was, and I knew that I was always competing with them. That has followed me my whole life.”

Wilson’s book, Where Am I Now? Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame, marks her first deliberate foray back into the public eye. Like Macaulay Culkin, the interest in her drummed up by her work in film as a child star continues well into her adulthood despite the fact that she did not return to mainstream acting after 2000.

Wilson also revealed she attended NYU alongside fellow child stars Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen and Haley Joel Osment but avoided them.

“We were like, ‘We can't be friends because this will be too weird.’”