Starry Role

Why Drew Barrymore was so into her role

Dee Wallace Stone (52, played Mary, the mom) At 6 years old, children cannot determine what's real and what's fantasy. And so we would find Drew between takes talking to E.T., whom somebody had stood against a wall. Telling him secrets and stuff. Everybody was aware that Drew thought E.T. was real. So whenever they found her over there talking to him they would try and sneak behind the hydraulic place so that they could make him come alive for her.... I'm hoping that [Drew's mom] went out of her way, like I did with Danny Pintauro in ''Cujo,'' to keep reminding her that it was pretend and that we weren't really hurting E.T. As I worked with her, I tried to do as much of that as I could.

Drew Barrymore (27, played Gertie, the youngest child) When I was younger, I really believed that [Henry Thomas and MacNaughton] were my brothers. And that E.T. was real, and that this whole world existed.... Steven told me never to act my characters, but to be my characters. And that's guided me over the last 20 years. Always the world I'm entering is real. I can't just make believe, I can't pretend, I can't switch mind-frames back and forth like that. I just have to believe I'm that person, and go there.