Steven Spielberg 'felt helpless' watching Drew Barrymore's childhood 'being robbed' as he made E.T.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is one of those 80s sci-fi films entrenched in the childhood memories of millions of adults around the world.

But for its director Steven Spielberg, there is a sour note to the cult classic.

Spielberg directed E.T. back in 1982. It follows 10-year-old Elliot Taylor (Henry Thomas) as he befriends an extraterrestrial left behind on Earth, who he calls E.T.

It was Taylor's first major role, with him going on to star in numerous films and TV shows.

Most recently, he's acted in a number of Netflix originals with filmmaker Mike Flanagan, including The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, Midnight Mass, and The Fall of the House of Usher.

Starring alongside Taylor in just her second role was Drew Barrymore as Gertie Taylor, Elliot's younger sister.

Together with their family and friends, the story follows Elliot and Gertie trying to get E.T. back to his home planet. The film became the highest-grossing movie of the 1980s, launching Barrymore to child stardom.

While filming E.T., Spielberg formed a strong bond with Barrymore, with the then seven-year-old even asking Spielberg, now 77, to be her dad.

In a profile of Barrymore by Vulture, she called Spielberg 'the only person in my life to this day that ever was a parental figure'.

Spielberg never became her legal parent, but did agree to be her godfather.

Drew Barrymore and Steven Spielberg back in 1982 (Mark Sennet/Getty Images)

John Drew Barrymore, Drew's biological father, was an abusive alcoholic. Drew Barrymore paid for his medical bills up until his death aged 72 in 2004.

Barrymore herself has been very open about her experience with illegal substances, using cannabis at the age of 10 and abusing cocaine aged 12.

She was admitted in to rehab at the age of 13, and tried to take her own life a year later, after which she returned to rehabilitation care.

On Barrymore's childhood during the filming of E.T., Spielberg said: “She was staying up way past her bedtime, going to places she should have only been hearing about, and living a life at a very tender age that I think robbed her of her childhood."

A classic (Universal)

He added: “Yet I felt very helpless because I wasn’t her dad. I could only kind of be a consigliere to her.”

During the filming of E.T., Spielberg tried to keep the magic alive for Barrymore, telling her that the alien was in fact real.

After a few weeks, the young actor spotted several men operating her extraterrestrial friend, with the director demanding they leave the set to keep the magic alive.

"I didn’t want to burst the bubble," he said.

Drew Barrymore during one scene with E.T. (Universal)

“So I simply said, ‘It’s okay, E.T. is so special E.T. has eight assistants. I am the director, I only have one'."

Barrymore and Spielberg are still very close to this day.

The actor was emancipated from her parents at the age of 14.

She has been sober since at least 2019 and now hosts her talk show, The Drew Barrymore Show.