E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

would have been a very different film if Steven Spielberg hadn’t heeded the opinion of one of his actors and made some drastic changes to the script. In 1982, E.T. was among the earliest feature films Spielberg directed, and easily one of his most successful. However, it was the first time Spielberg had been working on a family film, since he previously directed тιтles such as Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Raiders of the Lost Ark in the 7 years prior.

All of these movies targeted a more mature audience, so it’s easy to see why Spielberg may have been a little unfamiliar with the landscape of family films, but he was also willing to learn and take feedback. This is plain to see in a pivotal change Spielberg made on the advice of Dee Williams, the actress who played the mother in E.T. But had he not made the change, the movie would have looked very different.

E.T. Originally Had A Very Questionable Scene Involving Mary

E.T. Wanted A Lot More Than To Phone Home In The Original Script

Initially, the film was supposed to contain an entire subplot where the alien, E.T., had a crush on Mary. As a young alien creature, this could have been innocent and sweet, as children are prone to have childish crushes on key figures in their lives. However, the way it was presented in the original script appeared much more creepy and out of place in a family film. While Dee points out that multiple scenes were supposed to play on the idea that E.T. was infatuated with Mary, one in particular appears to be stuck in her memory.

There was a whole B story in there about how E.T. had a crush on Mary. There’s a couple of little sH๏τs in there. You know when he walks in and leaves Reese’s Pieces when I’m sleeping? You remember that scene? Okay. Well, Steven saw it with the sheet way far down on my back. I’ll just let your imagination ride with that. And I said, ‘Steven, I don’t feel right about this.’ This is a family film, it’s about love. I understand why the parents and poser guy smoked pot, I got that. But I really don’t think this is right, this doesn’t feel right. So he called in Kathy Kennedy, and Melissa, our writer, so that we could talk about it. And they both agreed that probably it didn’t fit with this film for this sheet to be…it took it in a whole different way. So we ended up pulling the sheet up, I think to my shoulder blades.

In a scene where E.T. walks into Mary’s bedroom and places Reece’s Pieces on the bedside table, Mary was intended to have the blanket pulled much further down her body, exposing her bare back to the alien. Evidently, the plan was that this excited E.T. and sparked a crush that would persist in the subtext of the movie. However, Dee pointed out that this did not fit in a family film, and it felt weird. Spielberg acknowledged the point and quickly set about adjusting the scene, and preserving the innocence of the film.

E.T. Cutting The Alien’s Crush On Mary Was Absolutely The Right Decision

It Wasn’t The Only 1980s Movie To Feature A Relationship That Transcends Species…

Creating a plot where a small, juvenile alien forms a romantic attachment to an adult human woman would only confuse and distort the message of the movie. Today, E.T. is regarded as one of the sweetest and most endearing family films of all time, with emotional weight and a beautiful story of friendship. Inserting a romantic subplot would not only feel out of place, but it would create an uncomfortable awkwardness that likely would have tarnished the films’ reputation and resulted in something that no longer resembled the E.T. audiences know and love today.

In fact, to see an example of how this plot could have destroyed the reputation of the film, fans need only look to another movie that came out four years later. Howard the Duck is a movie that, despite technically being Marvel’s first theatrical release, is held in contempt for the bizarre romance between the тιтle character, an alien, and a young Lea Thompson who starred in Back to the Future one year earlier. Steven Spielberg made the right call cutting this romantic storyline, as it’s not hard to imagine it would have als been criticized for such a weird inclusion, rather than praised for the spectacle and vision that is the rest of E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial.