Miracle on 34th Street's Mara Wilson Says Richard Attenborough's Santa Was the Only She 'Ever Actually Believed in' (Exclusive)

Mara Wilson did not believe in Santa Claus while filming in 1994 Miracle on 34th Street — because her parents raised her as a Jew, as did her mother.

“When [my mom] said it’s about a little girl who doesn’t believe in Santa Claus, I said, ‘Oh, is she Jewish, like us?’ And my mom was like, ‘I’ll look into it,'” Wilson shares exclusively with PEOPLE.

But, she says, she could relate to her character Susan – who believes that Richard Attenborough’s Kris Kringle is Santa Claus – partly because “at the time she was a very strong believer in the Tooth Fairy.”

“I knew what it was like to really believe in something and have that magic in your life,” explains the now 37-year-old actress.

From left: Richard Attenborough, Mara Wilson, Dylan McDermott and Elizabeth Perkins in ‘Miracle on 34th Street’ in 1994.

20th Century Fox/Kobal/Shutterstock

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Wilson, then 7 years old, had just appeared in her first film, Mrs. Doubtfire. The creative team behind Miracle on 34th Street – including writer John Hughes – originally envisioned her character as a little boy. This was a change from the original 1947 film, which starred Natalie Wood. When Wilson got the pages to read for her audition, they still said Jonathan. She doesn’t know why director Les Mayfield and his team changed their minds, but she was chosen in the end.

Wilson calls Attenborough, who died in 2014 aged 90, “the only Santa I ever really believed in.” She remembers, “He was so nice and just such a beautiful presence. He was very classy and intelligent, patient and good with children… I think there were times when he made me believe he was actually Santa.”

Wilson also had a strong bond with Elizabeth Perkins, who played her mom Dorey Walker, and Dylan McDermott, who played Dorey’s lover (and Susan’s friend) Bryan Bedford. Wilson’s mom told her that in the movie, it looks like she and Perkins have a “little routine” for the way they greet each other in each scene. And McDermott, she says, is “one of the funniest men I’ve ever met.” Both actors, she remembers, were great with children: When her three older brothers came to visit the set, McDermott played basketball with them.

Mara Wilson in ‘Miracle on 34th Street’ 1994.

Michael P Weinstein/20th Century Fox/Kobal/Shutterstock

The hardest part of the film, Wilson says, was wearing “absolutely beautiful” sweaters and coats — while filming in Chicago in the spring and summer. “I was breaking out in a heat rash,” she remembers. The film’s climactic courtroom scene was particularly brutal, and she would put her coat and shoes in the air conditioner to cool them between shots.

But overall, most of Wilson’s memories of making the film — and of its 1994 release — are fond. “It was a really magical time for me,” she says. She was still at a “very unconscious age” where she didn’t worry about being in the public eye. And her entire family had to travel the world to promote the film; “We’re talking about Thanksgiving dinner in Madrid,” she says. The family went to Tokyo, and she even came further The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. She talked so much with the host that they came back to her a second time, she says.

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“A year later, my mother was sick with cancer and eventually died of it,” she says. “And it was obviously a very difficult time.” But right after she recorded Miracle on 34th Streetshe shot the film for which she is perhaps best known, Matilda. “I think it was that year, after the recording Miracle to recording Matildait seemed like a really magical part of childhood.

Mara Wilson 2019.

Eric Charbonneau/Getty

Still Miracle on 34th Street is now a beloved film, Wilson remembers that it wasn’t well received when it was released, in part, she thinks, because people didn’t buy remakes. “So I don’t think I realized what a hit it was until my teenage years when someone came up to me and said, ‘I watch it every Christmas,'” she says. “And other people said, ‘Yeah, we watched it at Christmas time, too.’ ” Wilson said it was “very nice” to realize that she is part of people’s Christmas traditions.

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“One of mine [pieces of] advice to actors is to act in a holiday movie because it’s nice to know you’re making someone’s holiday. Maybe they are sad on holidays. They may not always get along with their family, but they can watch one of their favorite movies and they’ll enjoy it, and they’ll show it every year,” she says. “You’ll have a place in people’s hearts and probably some financial security if you’re in a holiday movie.”

At the age of 7, Wilson had no idea what film would mean one day. “I think it’s much easier in your 30s to understand the magnitude of things,” she says.

“I can’t describe it other than magical. I remember feeling uncomfortably hot and tired, but when I look back on it now, I think, ‘God, I was really lucky.’ ”

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Source: HIS Education