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

Mara Wilson didn’t believe in Santa Claus when she was filming 1994’s Miracle on 34th Street — because her parents were raising her Jewish, like 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 said something like, ‘I'll look into that,’ ” Wilson shares with PEOPLE exclusively.

But, she says, she could relate to her character of Susan — who comes to believe that Richard Attenborough’s Kris Kringle is Santa Claus — in part because she believed “very strongly at the time in the Tooth Fairy.”

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

Related: As Prancer Turns 35, Former Child Star Rebecca Harrell Tickell Says She’s Living the Life Her Character Would Have (Exclusive)

Wilson, who was 7 at the time, had just appeared in her first film, Mrs. Doubtfire. The creative team behind Miracle on 34th Street — including writer John Hughes — had originally imagined her character as a little boy. That was a change from the original 1947 film, in which the role was played by Natalie Wood. When Wilson got the pages to read from for her audition, they still said Jonathan. She doesn’t know why director Les Mayfield and his team changed their minds, but ultimately she was cast.

Wilson calls Attenborough, who died in 2014 at age 90, “the only Santa Claus I ever actually believed in.” She remembers, “He was so nice and just this gorgeous presence. He was very classy and intelligent and patient and good with kids ... I think there were times that he kind of made me believe that he might have actually been Santa Claus.”

Wilson also had a strong bond with Elizabeth Perkins, who played her mom Dorey Walker, and Dylan McDermott, who played Dorey’s love interest (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 down” for the way they greet each other in every scene. And McDermott, she says, “is one of the funniest men I've ever met.” Both actors, she remembers, were excellent with kids: When her three older brothers came to visit set, McDermott played basketball with them.

The hardest part of the movie, Wilson shares, is that they wore “absolutely beautiful” sweaters and coats — while filming in Chicago in the spring and summer. “I was breaking out in heat rashes,” she remembers. The film’s climactic courtroom scene was especially brutal, and she would put her coat and shoes inside the air conditioner to cool them down in between takes.

But overall, most of Wilson’s memories of filming the movie — and from its 1994 release — are cherished. “It really was a magical time for me,” she says. She was still at a “very unselfconscious age” where she didn’t worry about being in the public eye. And her whole family got to travel the world to promote the film; “We talk about the time that we had Thanksgiving dinner in Madrid,” she says. The family went to Tokyo, and she even got to go on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. She talked so much with the host that they had her back a second time, she says.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

“A year later, my mother was sick with cancer, and eventually passed away from it,” she says. “And that was obviously a very difficult time.” But right after she filmed Miracle on 34th Street, she filmed the movie she’s perhaps best known for, Matilda. “I think that that year, going from filming Miracle to filming Matilda, it did feel like a really magical part of childhood.

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

Related: 42 Christmas Movies You Can Watch on Disney+ Now (Including Two of the Holiday Season's Most Iconic Franchises!)

“One of my [pieces of] advice to actors is to be in a holiday movie because it's nice to know that you are making somebody's holiday. Maybe they're sad on the holidays. Maybe they don't always get along with their family, but they get to watch one of their favorite movies, and they're going to enjoy it, and they're going to show it every year,” she says. “You will have a place in people's hearts, and probably also some financial security if you are in a holiday movie.”

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

“I can't describe it any other way than magical. I do remember feeling uncomfortably hot and tired, but looking back on it now, I think, ‘My goodness, I was really lucky.’ ” 

Read the original article on People