Dee Wallace revealed an early idea for a scene explaining the title character’s crush on Mary Taylor in ‘E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial’ during a recent appearance on ‘The Spiel’ podcast.
“There was a whole B story in there about how E.T. had a crush on Mary,” the actress recalled. “There’s a couple of little shots 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.’”
She explained, “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.”
‘E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial’ focused on the relationship between Elliott (Henry Thomas), and the alien E.T., who was left behind by his group after a hasty escape from U.S. government agents. Steven Spielberg made changes to the film even years after its release.
A scene in the original theatrical cut showed armed officers chasing a group of kids. The director replaced the guns with walkie-talkies for the film’s 20th anniversary.
“That was a mistake,” Spielberg admitted in a chat with Time last year though he said the change was a reflection of his evolving views. “I never should have done that because ‘E.T.’ is a product of its era.”
“I should have never messed with the archives of my own work, and I don’t recommend anyone do that,” he added.
The 1982 sci-fi classic also starred Peter Coyote as the government agent Keys, along with Robert MacNaughton and Drew Barrymore, who played Elliott’s siblings, Michael and Gertie.
