Some child stars go on to have long and diverse careers in film, continued from when they’re kids and spanning into adulthood — think Dakota Fanning, Lindsay Lohan, and others like them. Then there are child stars who remain a memory in our heads, but that we ultimately forget about over time: If you show us a picture of their character, we recognize them immediately, but have absolutely no clue about what’s going on with them today. This is one of the latter. She was definitely a memorable character in one of the most memorable movies of your childhood, but she kind of disappeared into the Hollywood ether. Now, we’ve seen some photos of her 19 years later, and it’s clear that this formerly precocious and adorable kid has turned into a beautiful, successful young woman. Find out who we’re talking about below — you’ll be surprised how quickly you remember her character.For some of us, this was a staple of our childhood afternoons. Just seeing this movie poster brings back memories.
The children’s author created some of the most iconic stories in the children’s literature lexicon, and Matilda was one of the most successful.
The story was about a very misunderstood little girl, whose family didn’t appreciate just how smart she actually was.
But this story isn’t about Matilda — she’s cool, but there was another character that often gets overlooked.
Her name was Lavender, and she seemed to instantly understand what made Matilda so special. She becomes one of her strongest allies throughout the story.
At the time she took the role, she may have been one of the cutest kids on the planet.
Together, they took on the terrifying Miss Trunchbull.
She’s 29 years old, and she’s almost unrecognizable.
As it turns out, she had a pretty lucrative career as a child actor.
And afterwards, she got a number of roles — though none as memorable as Lavender.
Can you spot Danny DeVito? He was in the film as Matilda’s dad, and he’s actually responsible for getting it made in the first place.
They’ve come a long way from their Matilda day, but they’re still hanging. Davael captioned the picture, “Lunch date shenanigans with my sis from another miss, Mara.”
The fact that 19 years have passed since Matilda makes some of us feel older than others.
Davael is still working, and she’s got plenty of great experience under her belt.
Only the true Matilda fans would probably spot 29-year-old Lavender in a crowd.
Mentally add a pair of Lavender’s glasses, and you can definitely tell.
Apparently, Lavender wasn’t supposed to look like Davael.
“Originally the character wasn’t quite what I look like. I think she was more supposed to be white but I’m not 100% sure. She wasn’t black, I know that much.”
“But we thought we’d go for it anyway because she was a precocious, smart child but also very intuitive and curious. And that was me.”
Whatever happened to this actress who played Amanda Thripp, the girl who got launched into the sky by her pigtails. Stay tuned to the Internet for the inevitable update. We just hope her head doesn’t still hurt.
