E.T's actor only appeared in three films and was paid just $380 for the iconic role
E.T. the Extra Terrestrial is undeniably one of the most iconic films ever made, but very few people know who actually played the adorable central alien the film is built around.
Most instead remember that Drew Barrymore, well before she was a popular celebrity, starred in the film as a child, and the Henry Thomas’ leading performance as the kid who finds E.T, Elliot.
Even though Henry Thomas has come forward to say that he regrets the role, stating that his world went ‘completely crazy’, and that he became so famous that he couldn’t go anywhere even though he was just a child, many still hold the film dear 44 years on.
The character of E.T. was a combination of people in the film, so attributing one sole ‘actor’ is difficult. The puppets were the work of special effects artist Carlo Rambaldi, and multiple puppeteers brought his work to life.
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Some of the scenes where he stumbles were actually the work of kids in costumes, with the most notable actor to play him being a child born without legs called Matthew De Merritt who would even walk on his hands.
When you think of E.T. though you think of “E.T. phone home”, and the voice behind that was an actor who only ever appeared in three films in her lifetime and was discovered at a mall.
Most of E.T.’s voice lines were done by Pat Welsh, an American woman who was 75 at the time of the film’s release.
Welsh was discovered by a sound designer at a mall, picked for her raspy voice that came from a lifetime of smoking two packs of cigarettes a day (supposedly).
Ben Burtt, the film’s sound designer who also worked on Star Wars, said of discovering Welsh: “Although Pat had always wanted to be an actress and in fact had briefly pursued her ambitions in those directions, she wasn't a professional.
“I explained what I was trying to do, which was to search for an interesting quality voice for an alien character. Pat was a real sport, and she recorded all of E. T. 's dialogue, which I altered electronically by changing the pitch. Then I mixed Pat's voice with breathing sounds of animals that I had recorded to bring in a non-human quality.
"I should mention that all told there were 18 different contributors to the voice of E. T. including animals and various humans who might have provided a snort, a breath or a burp.
“But certainly, Pat Welsh's was the most significant single contribution because she did all of the actual dialogue.”
The actor was paid just $380 for a 9.5 hour recording session, with the film going on to make a whopping $797.3 million off a budget of just $10.5 million. Henry Thomas meanwhile made just $15,000 for the role of Elliot.
Welsh was only in two other films, an uncredited appearance in 1940’s Waterloo Bridge and a small voice role in one of the few movies that more people may have seen than E.T: Star Wars – Return of the Jedi.
Burtt also worked on this film, explaining why he used her as the voice of ‘Boushh’ the alien bounty hunter who Leia impersonates in the film. He said: “I've found elderly female voices to be a superb starting point for aliens.
“I suppose this stems from the success I had in E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial using Pat Welsh as the English-speaking component of E.T.'s voice. She had a deeper tone than average, and with a little electronic pitch shifting, her voice could become completely detached form any age or gender bias.”
Welsh sadly died in 1995 at the age of 97 of pneumonia.
Topics: TV and Film, Film, Nostalgia
Michael Slavin