Later in the day, at 5:45pm ET: The Extra-Terrestrial is shown on ITV2 screens to celebrate Good Friday. Steven Spielberg’s legendary film focuses on love, companionship, and doing the right thing – but that means making sacrifices for the movie, too. The iconic picture featured such phenomenal actors as Drew Barrymore, Henry Thomas, and Pat Walsh as the voice of E.T. But she lost out as the Star Wars actor joined the fray.
If you missed ET: The Extra-Terrestrial on TV today, you can Watch it for free on Prime Video in your free time.
Spielberg wrote the entirety of ET: The Extra-Terrestrial while he was on location shooting Raiders of the Lost Ark just a few years ago.
In between takes for Indiana Jones, the director dictated the script to his collaborator, Melissa Mathison, who ended up marrying one of Star Wars’ biggest actors: Harrison Ford.
As it happens, when Spielberg started casting E.T., his best audition came from a young boy named Henry Thomas. The ten-year-old gave such a strong audition that it left Spielberg in tears. They hug, and he tells Thomas he got the job there and then.
But really, Thomas wanted to work with Spielberg because he was such a big fan of Harrison Ford. And once they started filming E.T., he started asking the director if he could interview the Han Solo actor.
Spielberg eventually gave in and wrote in for a cameo scene in which Thomas’ character, Elliot Taylor, is reprimanded by his unseen manager: Harrison Ford.
The scene was eventually cut, but Thomas recently spoke out about the experience, saying EW: “When I met Stephen, the first thing that came out of my mouth I guess was: ‘I love Raiders of the Lost Ark,’ and my hero was Harrison Ford. I was excited to meet Stephen in hopes of meeting Harrison.”
Although the scene in question was left out of the final movie, fans can still watch the moment below.
Spielberg also talked about Harrison Ford’s canceled moment in ET: The Extra-Terrestrial.
“[Ford] The director recalled “the scene where ET is in the house and he’s lifting all the stuff in order to communicate with him on the stairs.” “Elliott is in the principal’s office after the frog incident. We never see Harrison’s face. We only hear his voice and see his body.”
Spielberg then went on to describe the scene as being like a gunshot.
“Henry’s chair starts to go up,” Spielberg recalled. As ET lifts all the communicators off the stairs, Henry begins to rise off the floor on the chair until his head hits the ceiling. Just as Harrison turns, ET loses control of the weight of everything and the whole thing falls down the stairs, and Henry collapses to the floor, landing perfectly. Four-point touchdown. The manager turns around, and as far as he’s concerned, nothing ever happened.”
“That was the scene we cut through,” he added. “But this is the place [Henry] I got a chance to meet Harrison.”
ET has been a huge success. It grossed $793 million at the box office on a shoestring budget of $10 million.
He also won a round of accolades, including four Oscars.
ET: The Extra-Terrestrial won awards for Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Sound, Best Visual Effects, and Best Original Score.
You can watch ET: The Extra-Terrestrial for Free on Prime Video now.
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