Things You Didn’t Know About E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial

#1 It Was A ‘Wimpy Disney Movie’

When director Steven Spielberg decided to pitch his movie idea for ET he went to Columbia, where he's been working and offered it to them. They told him they didn't need another 'wimpy Disney movie' and passed on the project. The first draft of the movie was actually called 'E.T. and Me', and was created by Spielberg and Melissa Mathison. He’d been looking for something juicy to sink his teeth into after becoming bored with the filming of Raiders of the Lost Ark

#2 It Made Spielberg Broody!

Spielberg reported years later that it was while making ET - The Extra Terrestrial that he decided to have a family and kids of his own. He said that working with the children in the film made his want to become a father, and he was especially fond of little Drew Barrymore.

#3 ET Had Private Healthcare

In the heartbreaking scene when ET requires medical attention to survive on this planet and lies ill in Elliot's room, Spielberg decided not to use actors for the scene. Instead, he hired professionals from the local USC Medical Center to make it more authentic.

#4 Here’s How To Cry On Demand …

When lead actor Henry Thomas was required to shed some tears in a scene, he did it the same way he did during his audition for the role. He thought about the death of his best friend. His dog.

#5 It’s A Movie Of A Lifetime

Not many films can boast about this but ET is in a category with just a select other films. Just to prove that it’s a movie that will literally last a lifetime, the National Film Registry of United States entered it into their library in 1994.

#6 Steve’s Imaginary Friend

Steven Spielberg actually came up with the idea for ET when he was just a young child. Going through a tough spot while his parents divorced and finding life difficult to deal with in 1960, Steven invented an imaginary friend, who eventually went on to become the world's most beloved alien, ET.

#7 Aliens vs. Dinosaurs

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was a big blockbuster hit and became the highest grossing film of all time until Spielberg surpassed it with another of his own creations, Jurassic Park.

#8 Hundreds Before Henry

The part of Eliot was difficult to cast, and it almost didn't go to star Henry Thomas. His initial audition was a disaster but he was accidentally placed on a call back list. During the call back auditions, he wowed the director and casting crew with his improv performance and ability to cry on cue.

#9 I’ll Give You $380 For Your Voice

ET had a strange and rattly voice that most suspected was altered electronically. However, it was not done with special effects and was voiced by actor Pat Welsh, a chain smoker from California, who got paid just $380 to read the lines for ET. It took Welsh just 10 hours to record all of the ET's scripted lines. But Spielberg decided to use Welsh's voice for other sounds in the movie as well. Some of the sounds created by Welsh include creeks, cracks, otters, horses, a snoring wife, and a professor’s burp.

#10 No Sequel

In July 1982, during the film's first theatrical run, Steven Spielberg and Melissa Mathison wrote a treatment for a sequel to be titled E.T. II: Nocturnal Fears.[114] It would have shown Elliott and his friends getting kidnapped by evil aliens and follow their attempts to contact E.T. for help. Spielberg decided against pursuing it, feeling it "would do nothing but rob the original of its virginity".

#11 Harrison Ford Was In It!

Only a few filmed scenes were cut from the final version of the film, and one of those was where the school principal gives a stern lecture to Elliot's class on underage drinking. That principal was Indian Jones himself, Harrison Ford.

#12 It Provoked Royal Tears

Prince Charles and Princess Diana were given private screenings of the movie, and they were quickly ushered out at the end after it was reported the film had made the Princess cry so much, her mascara had run all down her face.

#13 Women of Delta

Although the character of ET was already inside of Spielberg's head since he invented him in 1960, he could not conceptualize what he actually looked like to make it believable and not horrific for his target audience, children. After seeing a painting by Carlo Rambaldi called “Women of Delta”, the 'women' in the painting became the inspiration behind what E.T. looks like for the viewers, with Spielberg requesting an alien form that the audience could sympathize with, for once.

#14 Four Days Ahead Of Schedule

It was one of Spielberg's quickest movies to finish and everything fell into place perfectly. The movie should have taken 65 days to film. Spielberg managed to finish it four days ahead of schedule, before opening at number one, staying in the box office for six weeks, and grossing over eleven million dollars.

#15 It Was Filmed In Chronological Order

One of the reasons the film was finished so easily was because Spielberg tried something he had never done before. He recorded every scene in order and usually in less than two takes. The entire movie was filmed in chronological order, or as close to it as Spielberg could get, and this caused the young cast to have an emotional attachment to the terrestrial. When they were then filing the quarantine scenes, the emotion you see on screen is genuine.

#16 True Reaction

Because the children had actually grown so fond of the character ET, their reactions to him are all real and unscripted. When Michael jumps back and hits the bookshelves during his first encounter with the terrestrial, it’s an accident. E.T.’s actual physical appearance startled actor, Robert MacNaughton, and they decided to keep the scene.

#17 Re-Released Twice

The movie was re-released twice, more recently in 2002, and also in 1985. During those times, another $128 million was added to the total sales, and worldwide it’s reported to have made close to $800 million. With licensing fees and sales from ET related products like lunch boxes, posters, tee shirts, stuffed toys, and more, the character has made an additional $775 million since its release.

#18 Immortalized In Wax

The alien himself has since been immortalized forever in wax form, with Madame Tussauds unveiling six of the guys around the world in October of 2012. One of the original figures can be seen at Universal Studios theme park in Florida.

#19 Damn The Pirates

Video piracy is everywhere these days, but E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was one of the first ‘major’ movies to have been pirated, with many audiences just too damn impatient to wait to see it. Many copies of the film were copied and sent out of China for sale to European viewers and then eventually to the Unites States and Canada. A cargo ship was stranded in the Pacific Ocean in the summer of 1982 and officials who boarded the ship found 35,000 pirated copies of ET leaving China and headed for California.

#20 Keys Was Keys Because He Was Clumsy

Peter Coyote, who plays E.T.’s Keys, only got the part because he was so clumsy. He fell over during an audition for Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Spielberg remembered that, prompting him to consider Coyote for the role that wasn't meant to be included in the film at all but was added by head writer Melissa Mathison after Spielberg told her about Coyote.

#21 Drew Barrymore Lied

Drew Barrymore almost didn’t get the part at all. It was only when she started to tell Spielberg white lies about being in a punk rocker band that he saw her imagination and potential, so he chose to give her a shot. It was a big break for her and for him since he fell in love with her humor and imagination and she inspired him to have children of his own. They remain close friends to this day and Barrymore often calls the director for guidance.

#22 There’s A Genuine Bromance

The film was produced by George Lucas at his Industrial Light and Magic Studio, lending to himself and Steven Spielberg to have this whole bromance thing going on, where they give each other little ‘nods’ in their movies. Spielberg had a child dress up as Yoda in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. In response to the Yoda-love, George Lucas paid some respect right back to Spielberg by incorporating E.T. lookalikes into The Phantom Menace.

#23 One Expensive Puppet!

The puppet of E.T. took about three months to make, and the cost totaled over $1.5 million. Despite costing so much, even Spielberg agreed it was something only a ‘mother could love’. But there were several costumes and partial pieces to ET constructed for various scenes. Three people were used to wear the costume on set, dependent on what takes were being filmed. One of the ‘wearers’ was Matthew DeMeritt, a 12-year-old boy minus who was missing his legs and arms.

#24 The Many Faces Of ET

Aside from the costumes, the face of ET was very important. The face of E.T. was actually created using three famous faces as inspiration – Ernest Hemingway, Carl Sandburg, and Albert Einstein, and four different heads were made to create the movie. They needed a costume, a facial expression version, and one for the filming itself.

#25 A Boy’s Life

When filming began for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, it was done so under a different name because Spielberg was worried that someone else would find out about the story. He used the title ‘A Boy’s Life’. The director had already been under fire for claims of plagiarizing a script called The Alines (1967) by veteran filmmakers Martin Scorsese and Richard Attenborough when he made Close Encounters Of The Third Kind. Sure enough, upon the release of the ET, the script's writer Satyajit Ray sued for plagiarism but lost.

#26 ET Actually Wanted M&Ms

In fact, E.T.’s ugliness almost worked against him when it came to product placement. Spielberg originally wanted the Reese’s Pieces in the movie to be M&M’s, but because the alien was so ugly, M&M's passed. A stagehand suggested Reese's Pieces at the last minute and the rest is history. The candy became the biggest seller in the market for over 2 years after the film's release.

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