LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Drew Barrymore was just seven years old when Steven Spielberg originally hired her for 'ET: The Extra-Terrestrial'. Although the charming girl who played Gertie Taylor was gentle and reserved in real life, she was suffering horrendous abuse.
Barrymore, now 48 years old referred to her father, John Drew Barrymore, as an "abusive drunk" in a recent interview with Vulture. She mentioned that when she was just three years old, he "stormed in and tossed her into a wall," and it was her first memory of him. Fortunately, she received entirely new treatment when Spielberg entered the picture.
'I felt very helpless because I wasn’t her dad'
Spielberg was "the only person in my life to this day that ever was a parental figure," according to Barrymore. Her parents, John Drew and Ildikó Jaid Makó, eventually even asked the director if he would be her father. Overwhelmed, he said "no" but he ended up becoming her godfather.
Spielberg stated, "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." he added, "Yet I felt very helpless because I wasn’t her dad. I could only kind of be a consigliere to her."
Barrymore revealed that she tried cocaine for the first time when she was 12 years old and later spent 18 months in a facility. She also entered rehab at the age of 14 after making an attempt on her life. At the age of 15, she was successfully emancipated from her parents.
But Barrymore had great memories of the 'ET: The Extra-Terrestrial' production. Spielberg made an effort to perpetuate the young child's delusion that the alien was genuinely real. "I didn’t want to burst the bubble," he stated. "ET is so special he has eight assistants," he continued by telling her about the creatures' handlers. "I am the director, I only have one."
