Steven Spielberg ‘Felt Helpless’ Watching Drew Barrymore Being ‘Robbed of Her Childhood’ While Making ‘E.T.,’ but ‘I Wasn’t Her Dad’
variety.comZack Sharf Digital News Director Steven Spielberg has always been a father figure to Drew Barrymore, but he actually said no when Barrymore asked him to be her real father during the making of their 1982 classic “E.T.
the Extra-Terrestrial.” Barrymore was only 7 years old at the time. In a new Barrymore profile published by Vulture, Barrymore praised Spielberg as “the only person in my life to this day that ever was a parental figure.” He eventually agreed to be her godfather.
Barrymore’s own father, the actor John Drew Barrymore, was an abusive alcoholic. “Talk about someone who was not a careerist,” Barrymore said. “He was like, ‘I will burn this fucking dynasty to the ground.’” During the making of “E.T.,” Spielberg made it his top priority to preserve the magic of the title character for the young Barrymore.
In other words, she thought E.T. was real and he wanted to keep it that way. A couple weeks into filming, Barrymore noticed several men operating E.T.
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