Drew Barrymore, 47, admitted she thought E.T., the puppet in the 1982 Steven Spielberg-directed film, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which she starred in as a kid, was real, in a recent episode of her talk show, The Drew Barrymore Show. The actress, who played Gertie, reunited the main cast of the memorable flick, including Henry Thomas (Elliott), Dee Wallace (Mary), and Robert McNaughton (Michael), in honor of its 40th anniversary, and opened up about her feelings for the beloved puppet that captured many people’s hearts. “Now I believed E.T. was real,” she said to her former castmates on the episode.
“I really loved him in such a profound way,” she continued. “I would go and take lunch to him.” Henry then chimed in to explain what he remembered from Drew’s days with E.T. back then.
“The first thing I remember is that we were on stage and it was quite cold on the stage and you asked the wardrobe lady if you could have a scarf for E.T.’s neck because he was gonna get cold, so you wrapped the scarf around his neck,” he said. “But Dee has a great story.”
“We found you over there just talking away to E.T. and so we let Steven know,” Dee then said. “So Steven, from that time on, appointed two guys to keep E.T. alive so whenever you came over to talk to him, he could react to you.”
The sweet stories endeared Drew’s studio audience and helped the cast reminisce on some of the best times of their acting careers. It also reminded Drew, who was seven during the filming, how young and innocent she was at the time and how impactful her friendship with E.T. was. They also revealed they aren’t too interested in returning to the big screen for an E.T. sequel since screenwriter Melissa Mathison died in 2015.
This isn’t the first time Drew reunited with someone from her E.T. past on her talk show. In Apr., Dee met up with her former TV daughter to gush about the film. “That was the first day on the set and I’m sitting in this really high director’s chair,” Dee said while looking at a photo of the two of them. “And Drew comes up to me and she says, ‘Hi, I’m going to sit on your lap now.’ And I said, ‘Well, come on up Drew.’ I mean, I knew you were going to be a director/producer back then.”