Beloved Actress, 59, Says Son Threatened to Tell Fans She's 'Nothing Like' Her Iconic Role
- - - Beloved Actress, 59, Says Son Threatened to Tell Fans She's 'Nothing Like' Her Iconic Role
Isabella TorregianiJuly 15, 2025 at 12:51 AM
Michael Tran/FilmMagic
Beloved Actress, 59, Says Son Threatened to Tell Fans She's 'Nothing Like' Her Iconic Role originally appeared on Parade.
Embeth Davidtz may be best known for playing the sweet and gentle Miss Honey in Matilda, but according to her son, she’s not always like that character in real life.
Davidtz, 59, recently opened up about parenting her two children, Dylan and Charlotte, and how her iconic role would sometimes come back to bite her.
“There was a moment in time when the kids were really little and people would say anything about Matilda, I'd see them sort of get thrilled that my mom is Miss Honey,” she told PEOPLE. “But occasionally my son would sort of mutter, 'You're nothing like Miss Honey.'”
In the beloved 1996 adaptation of Roald Dahl’s novel, Davidtz plays a warm, nurturing teacher who helps Matilda find safety and support at school.
However, at home, her son didn’t always see that softer side — especially when he got into trouble.
"If I'd say, 'You are in a timeout,' or consequences for behavior or whatever, he'd go, 'You're so mean. And the next time someone comes up and tells me that they love you as Miss Honey, I'm going to tell them that you're nothing like her,'" she quipped.
Davidtz also reflected on the challenges of balancing motherhood with her acting career, especially during slower periods when roles were scarce.
"My son, again at a somewhat rebellious stage, he'd go, 'Well what do you do all day?' And I do think I felt, there were a couple of years when they were teenagers where I thought, 'I want my kids to see me working,'" she said.
Though she spent much of her time at the computer, she explained that she wasn’t idly browsing the internet, she was writing.
“I think they might've thought I was just on YouTube or whatever they do on their computers. But I really wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote it again," she explained.
That effort recently paid off as Davidtz made her screenwriting and directorial debut with Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, an adaptation of Alexandra Fuller’s memoir.
The film follows 8-year-old Bobo as she navigates a turbulent childhood marked by family struggles and the harsh realities of apartheid-era South Africa.
“I did many, many drafts of it,” Davidtz shared. “And then, when this happened, as my son left for college and my daughter was in her final year of college, they came to see the movie. I mean, it's sort of the fantasy that every parent has that your kids then go, 'Oh my God, that's what you were doing.’”
She added that it was “lovely on many, many levels” to finally share that full-circle moment with them.
Beloved Actress, 59, Says Son Threatened to Tell Fans She's 'Nothing Like' Her Iconic Role first appeared on Parade on Jul 15, 2025
This story was originally reported by Parade on Jul 15, 2025, where it first appeared.
Source: AOL Entertainment
