Steven Spielberg: Filmmaker Felt Guilty About Seeing Drew Barrymore Have ‘His Childhood Stolen’ In ‘ET’

Steven Spielberg was a father figure in the life of Drew Barrymorebut during the recordings of “ET” when the actress asked him to be her real father, the filmmaker refused, drew I was only 7 years old at the time and steven I couldn’t accept taking on such an essential role in a child’s life.

In an interview with vulture, Barrymorepraised Spielberg and described him as “the only person in my life to date who was ever a parental figure”. So the filmmaker agreed to be his godfatherdrew also told about his biological father being alcoholic and abusive.

During the production of “ET”, Spielberg had the mission to pass on all the “magic” of the ET character so that drew believe he was real. After a few weeks of filming, Barrymore saw several men messing with ET and demanded that they leave the set and not harm him.

“I didn’t want to burst the bubble,” he said. Spielberg. “So I just said, ‘Okay, ET is so special, ET has eight assistants. I am the director, I only have one.”

Spielberg also kept the operators on hand during off-shoot hours, such as lunch breaks, so that Barrymore could have meals together with ET. As Drew tells Vulture, she spent weekends with Spielberghe gave her a cat she named Gertie and took her to the Disneyland.

At the same time, off sets, Barrymore had to deal with the abusive father. The actress talks about starting smoking pot at age 10 and snorting cocaine at 12. She also checked into rehab at that age. Spielberg also talks about this time, and says he wished he had been able to help drew and felt guilty about it.