Mara Wilson recalls learning childhood pal Michelle Trachtenberg died

Mara Wilson will never forget the moment she learned Michelle Trachtenberg had passed away.

In an emotional essay for Vulture on Tuesday, the Matilda star described the devastating phone call that stopped her in her tracks. 

“I was packing for a work trip,” Wilson, 37, wrote. “I looked at my phone and felt my stomach drop. My hands were shaking and my knees went weak — I thought I might pass out.”

Wilson and Trachtenberg, who passed away in February at 39, had been friends since middle school. Though life had taken them in different directions, Wilson never imagined she wouldn’t get the chance to see her again. 

“This wasn’t supposed to happen,” she wrote. “She was too young. She’d worked too hard. I always thought I would get the chance to tell her how much I’d always looked up to her.”

The Mrs. Doubtfire actress also reflected on their time growing up together, revealing that Trachtenberg had endured relentless bullying as a child star. 

“They call me Harriet the S**t, Harriet the Bitch, Harriet the Bitchy Spy … and so much worse. They never stop,” she remembered her friend saying, referencing Trachtenberg's role in the 1996 film Harriet the Spy.

Trachtenberg’s cause of death remains “undetermined” after her family objected to an autopsy. Friends and former co-stars, including her Buffy the Vampire Slayer co-star Sarah Michelle Gellar and Gossip Girl co-star Blake Lively, have since paid tribute to the late actress.