Drew Barrymore has been working since she was a little child, with one of her first movies being Steven Spielberg’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. To this day, the sci-fi flick is considered one of the director's and Barrymore’s best movies, and it’s also still very meaningful to her as she’s remained close to the legendary filmmaker. At the time, Speilberg kind of took the actress in, as she had a tough childhood, and he acted as a godfather of sorts. However, he also explained why he “felt very helpless,” during that time as he tried to help the young star, who was only 7 when they made the movie.
The Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark director explained that while he was working with Barrymore on E.T. when she was 7 years old, she asked him if he could be her father. Her biological dad, John Drew Barrymore was an alcoholic and abusive. While Spielberg said he couldn’t be her dad, he did agree to be her godfather. The two remain close to this day, but at that time, the director explained how “helpless” he felt while trying to help her, telling Vulture:
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. Yet I felt very helpless because I wasn’t her dad. I could only kind of be a consigliere to her.
Barrymore explained that to her the E.T. director was “the only person in [her] life to this day that ever was a parental figure.” When she was a child, she would stay with Steven Spielberg on the weekends, he’d take her on fun outings to theme parks, he even got her cat according to the article. Considering the challenges she faced growing up, the director really helped her, and he took her under his wing. However, he also felt bad about her upbringing, which is why he was he felt “helpless.”
For some context, Drew Barrymore faced a lot of adversity at a young age, as she said she was “institutionalized, blacklisted, [and had] no family” at 14. Over the years, she has been open and candid about the hardships she faced growing up. However, The Drew Barrymore Show host has also explained how much mentors like Steven Spielberg meant to her.
Later in the story, the Saving Private Ryan director made a comment about Barrymore’s maturity, explaining she was like “7 going on 29.” It’s clear both the director and the actress really admire one another, and they created a wholesome and important bond while making one of Spielberg’s best movies.
You can buy or rent E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial on Amazon, and you can watch Drew Barrymore’s talk show on the 2023 TV schedule as The Drew Barrymore Show airs weekdays on CBS, you can also stream it with a Paramount+ subscription.
