Danny DeVito Screened Matilda for Mara Wilson's Dying Mother. He Kept It Secret for Years.

Mara Wilson was nine years old when she landed the lead role in Matilda. During filming, her mother Suzie was diagnosed with breast cancer in March 1995. The prognosis was not good.

Surrogate Parents on Set

Danny DeVito directed Matilda and played the villainous Mr. Wormwood. His wife Rhea Perlman played Mrs. Wormwood. As Suzie's condition worsened, the couple quietly stepped in as surrogate parents to Mara on set - driving her to and from filming, helping with homework, and making sure she felt safe during what was becoming an increasingly painful time at home.

The cast and crew shielded Mara as much as they could. DeVito adjusted the shooting schedule to accommodate her family's hospital visits. Perlman kept things light between takes. For a nine-year-old carrying an entire film while watching her mother deteriorate, the DeVito household became a second home.

The Private Screening

What DeVito did next stayed private for years. He arranged for a rough cut of Matilda to be screened at Suzie's bedside in the hospital. The film wasn't finished - effects were incomplete, the score wasn't done - but it was enough. Suzie got to watch her daughter become Matilda.

Suzie Wilson died on April 26, 1996, four months before Matilda premiered in theaters. She never saw the finished film on a big screen. But thanks to DeVito, she saw the version that mattered.

The Dedication

The film was dedicated to Suzie's memory. Mara didn't learn the full details of the bedside screening until years later, when DeVito told her about it himself.

She wrote about the experience in her 2016 memoir Where Am I Now?, describing how DeVito and Perlman's kindness during that period shaped her understanding of what decent people do when someone else's world is falling apart. They don't make speeches. They show up. They adjust the schedule. They bring the movie to the hospital.