Mara Wilson Talks Miracle on 34th Street’s 30th Anniversary (Exclusive)

Mara Wilson didn’t believe in Santa Claus when she filmed in 1994 Miracle on 34th Street – because her parents raised her Jewish, like her mother.

“When (my mom) said it was about a little girl who doesn’t believe in Santa, I said, ‘Oh, is she Jewish like us?’ And my mom was like, ‘I’m going to watch this,'” Wilson shares exclusively with PEOPLE.

But, she says, she was able to identify with her character of Susan – who eventually believes Richard Attenborough’s Kris Kringle is Santa Claus – partly because she “believed very strongly in the tooth fairy at the time”.

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

Wilson, who was seven at the time, had just appeared in her first film. Ms. Doubtfire. The creative team behind it Miracle on 34th Street – including author John Hughes – originally imagined her character as a little boy. This was a change from the original 1947 film in which Natalie Wood played the role. When Wilson got the pages to read for her audition, they still had “Jonathan” written on them. She doesn’t know why director Les Mayfield and his team changed their minds, but she was ultimately cast.

Wilson calls Attenborough, who died in 2014 at the age of 90, “the only Santa Claus I ever really believed in.” She remembers: “He was so nice and just had a stunning presence. He was very elegant and intelligent, patient and good with children…I think there were times when he kind of made me think that he might actually have been Santa Claus.”

Wilson also had a strong bond with Elizabeth Perkins, who played her mother Dorey Walker, and Dylan McDermott, who played Dorey’s lover (and Susan’s friend) Bryan Bedford. Wilson’s mother told her that in the film it looked like she and Perkins had “some routine” for the way they greeted each other in each scene. And McDermott, she says, “is one of the funniest men I’ve ever met.” She remembers that both actors were great with children: When her three older brothers visited the set, McDermott played basketball with them.

The hardest part of the film, Wilson said, was that they wore “absolutely beautiful” sweaters and coats while filming in Chicago in the spring and summer. “I had heat rashes,” she remembers. The film’s climactic courtroom scene was particularly brutal, and she placed her coat and shoes in the air conditioning between takes to cool them down.

But overall, most of Wilson’s memories of making the film – and its release in 1994 – remain intact. “It was truly a magical time for me,” she says. She was still at a “very unconscious age” where she wasn’t worried about being in the public eye. And her whole family traveled around the world to promote the film; “We’re talking about the time we had Thanksgiving dinner in Madrid,” she says. The family went to Tokyo and they were even allowed to go further The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. She says she talked to the host so much that she brought her back a second time.

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“A year later, my mother got cancer and eventually died from it,” she says. “And that was obviously a very difficult time.” But right after she filmed Miracle on 34th Streetshe made the film for which she is perhaps best known, Matilda. “I think it was this year, based on filming Wonder for filming Matildait felt like a truly magical part of childhood.

Although Miracle on 34th Street Now a popular film, Wilson recalls that it wasn’t well received when it was released, which she believes was partly because people didn’t accept remakes. “So I think it wasn’t until my teenage years that I realized what a hit it was, when someone came up to me and said, ‘I watch this every Christmas,'” she says. “And others were like, ‘Yeah, we watched it at Christmas time too.’ Wilson said it was “really nice” to realize she was part of people’s Christmas traditions.

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

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

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