Drew Barrymore says she thought E.T. was real

Drew Barrymore has admitted that she thought E.T. was real whilst she was filming the movie as a child.

To be fair to Barrymore, she was only seven at the time, so it might have been more difficult to tell her that the titular space creature of Steven Spielberg’s family classic wasn’t real rather than have her believe it was.

They probably got a better performance out of her that way anyway.

On her show, she admitted that she always believed that the alien character was actually a real thing, rather than just a piece of cinema wizardry.

See what she had to say on the matter below:

Barrymore offered up this revelation whilst enjoying a reunion with fellow stars Henry Thomas and Dee Wallace on The Drew Barrymore Show.

In the episode, which airs today, the actor explained: "Now I believed E.T. was real,"

She then asked her co-stars: "I really loved him in such a profound way. Is it like true that … what would happen?

"Because I would go and take lunch to him."

Well, it turned out that Spielberg was in on the act as well, as Wallace – who played the family’s mother - explained: "We found you over there just talking away to E.T. and so we let director Steven [Spielberg] know,

"And 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."

Thomas, who played the brother of Barrymore’s character Gertie, explained how the young actor would go around pestering the ‘wardrobe lady’ to get a scarf for E.T.’s neck ‘because he was going to get cold’.

Universal Pictures

It’s a heart-warming though, and certainly adds a new dimension of believability to the film, which is regarded as one of the best of all time.

They’re unlikely to expand further on it though, with all parties seeming to dismiss the idea of revisiting the characters for a sequel.

That’s partially because of the death of screenwriter Melissa Mathison, who died in 2015.

Thomas said: "She was really the heart and soul of it," to which Wallace agreed: "It's a classic, leave it a classic."

Barrymore then piped up to say that she’d heard that Spielberg had said he would ‘never’ make a sequel.

She said: "And in that moment I thought, 'oh that's a bummer because that doesn't bring us all back together again for another round,' but I also understood and respected and completely knew that it was all about preservation of integrity for him.”

It’s coming up on the 40^th anniversary of the film’s release, and it’s definitely not lost on Barrymore that her children are around the same age now as she was when the film was made.

The Drew Barrymore Show

In fact, it was Spielberg who even pointed it out.

"So he's like, 'We're not missing this moment with your kids,” she told People.

"I'm like, 'Okay. You're right. We can't. You're right.' This is very emotional and full circle.

“My kids are very close to the age that I was when E.T. came out.

“Frankie actually is at the age. She is 7, and she will just be turning 8, and Olive is 9. She'll be turning 10.

“This is where I'm at, and they love Steven."