Steven Spielberg Says 6-Year-Old Drew Barrymore Was ‘Irrepressible’ on “E.T.” Set — and Made Up ‘a Lot’ of Her Own Dialogue

The best films are usually collaborations — and E.T. was no exception.

On Saturday, Jan. 25, legendary director Steven Spielberg and star Drew Barrymore opened up about their work on E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and how Barrymore, who was just 6 at the time, shaped her character Gertie. The duo reunited for a conversation about the film during a panel moderated by Dave Karger at the TCM Classic Film Festival at 92NY in New York City.

Spielberg, 78, said that he knew Barrymore was right for the part the moment she came into his office and, before he could start asking her questions, she started “interviewing” him. That spirit also shined while they were filming the movie and the talk show host, now 49, had a lot of input.

“The camera was rolling and Drew said, ‘I don't like his feet.’ We used it,” the director said. “Drew made up a lot of her own dialogue because she was irrepressible.”

“It was gold,” he said of her improvisational reactions. Screenwriter Melissa Matheson, who died in 2015, was on set every day, and, the director remembered, “She couldn't believe the stuff that Drew was coming up with.”

Related: Steven Spielberg Says Directing a Young Drew Barrymore in E.T. ‘Made Me Want to Be a Father’

“I can't believe the stuff I came up with,” Barrymore added. The actress said she had a new, mature perspective on the movie when she attended the 20th anniversary celebration in 2002, where composer John Williams conducted the score live. She noted that when she watched the movie that day, she “couldn’t believe” Spielberg had left so many of the things she came up with in the movie.

She felt “honored and appreciated” in a way she couldn’t realize when she was younger, even though she “was highly aware," she said. As for the creative spirit that inspired her dialogue, she said, “I don't remember, like, how and why and where it came from.”

E.T., released in 1982, became the highest-grossing movie of all time, a record Spielberg himself broke with 1993’s Jurassic Park. The cast also included Henry Thomas as Elliott, Robert MacNaughton as Elliott and Gertie’s older brother, Dee Wallace as their mom and Peter Coyote as government agent Keys. Pat Welsh voiced E.T., who was also brought to life by a team of puppeteers.

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Back in May 2024, Barrymore told PEOPLE, “I remember E.T. like it was yesterday, funny enough.” She said the alien was kind of her “first imaginary friend,” even though she knew he “wasn’t real.”

Related: Close Encounter: Remember When a Young Drew Barrymore Gave Princess Diana an E.T. Doll?

“I fully understood, but I think we need to project a matter of a belief system in things,” she said. “Whether it's imaginary or very real and tangible, it's part of a survival mechanism, as well as just an absolute pleasure to identify things that make us feel good, that we feel like believe in us, like we believe in them.”

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