The Extra-Terrestrial, 1981 Revised Shooting Script by Melissa Mathison

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Here is a remarkable improvised audition by Henry Thomas that moved Steven Spielberg to tears.

Okay Kid, you got the job. Henry Thomas goes into more detail in this interview for Esquire Magazine.

ESQ: It’s a movie that’s impacted a lot of kids over the years. What was it like to be a young kid going through that?

HT: It was definitely not something I expected when I got chosen for the role. I didn’t expect any of the success to come about in the way that it did. It was the second film I had ever done. I got the part through a weird alignment of coincidences, and luck. Suddenly my phone was ringing and everybody wanted me in their film. It was kind of a roller-coaster ride for a few years there.

ESQ: Did you not understand because you were too young?

HT: I understood why films were made, and if they made a lot of money, they were successful. All of these things I knew. As a ten-year-old boy, I didn’t really think a lot about finances or celebrity. I always viewed films as kind of what I imagined a summer camp to be like.

ESQ: And you made Spielberg cry in your audition?

HT: Yes. I made everyone cry, and then I got the job.

ESQ: What exactly were you doing?

HT: I read a scene from some early version of the script, and then I was asked to do an improvisation. I think the gist of the improv was, “You found someone, and they’re going to take them away from you, and it’s your friend, and you really don’t want your friend to go away.” So I started crying, and really going for it I guess.

“In this shot, E.T. is on a hilltop overlooking the city. We realized the shot using a combination of a miniature set in the foreground and a matte painting in the background for the city. E.T. was a small puppet mounted to a rod that slid down a track, which gave the appearance that he was walking down the hillside toward the city. A lot of what makes this shot successful is the lighting and composition. The foreground looks a bit foreboding, whereas the cityscape has an almost magical quality about it. Hundreds of twinkling lights beckon him. In a way, it reflects what E.T. is feeling at this point in the story.”

 

The Kids of ET – 30 Years Later

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