Matilda actor swung by their hair quit Hollywood years after iconic stunt was filmed practically

Watching Matilda you would think the majority of the child stars from the film were destined for greatness, yet several of the cast have not gone on to have major careers in Hollywood.

Beyond Mara Wilson, who famously stepped back from acting in 2000 after starring as the titular Matilda, one of the most iconic roles in the movie is that of Amanda Thripp.

Amanda being spun around by her pigtails by Miss Trunchbull is arguably the most nostalgic moment from the film 30 years on, and it was filmed practically.

Jaki Steiger who played Amanda thankfully was not actually hammer throwed across the field in real life as she was in the film though. They have now since quit acting however after appearing in TV and Fiml throughout their entire childhood.

The former actor has spoken out on Instagram since on what they are doing now, their new life, and how the scene was filmed practically.

Jaki has had a number of jobs in and out of of Hollywood and quit acting because they ‘had to keep cancelling important social plans’

Jaki, who went by Jacqueline at the time, keep an Instagram post pinned to their profile which explains what they’ve been up to since Matilda.

The former child actor, who goes by They/She pronouns, said in the post that they acted ‘pretty consistently their whole childhood’, also appearing in the Sally Field movie Beautiful. Ultimately though they said they got ‘tired of cancelling important social plans’ to audition three times a week and quit acting, studying Linguistics & Anthropology & Queer theory at University.

They stated that whilst they initially worked in production their health issues prevented this, leading them to work a number of different jobs: teaching English in Thailand, working in customer support and onboarding, becoming an educational designer, providing ‘knowledge architecture’, and writing grants.

Jaki does not shy away from their role in Matilda however, offering cameos, appearing at a recent concert version of the film and reuniting with Danny Devito, and appearing in a 2013 reunion where they recreated their iconic scene.

In this reunion they recount how they ‘loved’ filming it, particularly because they were made to ‘feel like they could fly’.

Amanda Thripp’s iconic scene was filmed practically through the mix of a rig, a crane, and small bits of CGI

Danny Devito himself explained how they pulled it off in the bonus material for the DVD, explaining: “We had a crane, we had a very, very big crane. It went up and came down and we put her in a harness.

“The thing about Jacqueline (now Jaki) I remember really well is that she read. Constantly, she read as much as Matilda.”

Jaki wore special braids ‘so they could swing her around in a wide shot, top down’, and explained in a 2016 Uproxx interview: “They had a little person to be my stunt double, and I don’t think she worked a whole lot because I was really excited to do all the climbing and spinning and the stunt team was really great, all of the effects people were so accommodating and so excited that I wanted to try everything.”

The incredibly cute video also shows that Jaki’s codeword for being too dizzy from it was ‘jellybeans’.