The actor looks back at how his life changed after he played Elliott in the 1982 blockbuster.

E.T.’s Henry Thomas recalls he did not handle being a child star well

The actor looks back at how his life changed after he played Elliott in the 1982 blockbuster.

By Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt is a writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2024. Her work has previously appeared on Yahoo and in American *Journalism Review* and *The Shreveport Times*.

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March 25, 2026 1:36 a.m. ET

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Henry Thomas in 'E.T.' (1982). Credit:

Bruce McBroom/Universal

Henry Thomas wasn't quite ready for the whirlwind of stardom that followed the release of *E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial** *in 1982.

"I wasn't ready for the fame. I had never even thought about being famous," Thomas said Tuesday on *The Hollywood Reporter*'s *It Happened in Hollywood *podcast.

*E.T. *changed a lot in a hurry. Within two weeks of the sci-fi blockbuster's release, Thomas said, his phone started ringing. Before that, agencies wouldn't call him back.

Henry Thomas in Burbank, Calif., in 2024.

Victoria Sirakova/Getty

So how did he handle the shift?

"Not very well," Thomas said. "I wasn’t ready for it and never saw it coming. The first time someone recognized me, it felt bizarre. And then there was this pressure to follow it up. I stayed in Texas for a long time, which in hindsight probably helped."

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The iconic film, directed by Steven Spielberg, depicted a 10-year-old Thomas as Elliott, who becomes friends with an alien who finds himself stranded on Earth but wants to return to his home planet.

The Oscar-winning film featured a cast that also included a young Drew Barrymore, who later famously overcame her own personal struggles, playing Elliott's little sister Gertie. Robert MacNaughton was cast as his older brother Mike, while Dee Wallace took the role of their mom, Mary.

'E.T.' stars Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore, and Robert MacNaughton.

Universal Pictures/ Everett

Thomas, who's now 52, was asked about how he's maintained a steady career in the decade after stardom.

Over the years, he's appeared in movies such as *Legends of the Fall* (1994), *Gangs of New York* (2002), and *Doctor Sleep* (2019). On TV, he's been on 2018's *The Haunting of Hill House*, *Better Things* (2017), and *The Haunting of Bly Manor *(2020).

Thomas said he doesn't really have a strategy.

Drew Barrymore reunites the cast of 'E.T.' for film's 40th anniversary

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"I just kept going. There were periods where things were great and periods where it felt like you couldn’t get arrested," Thomas said. "You realize eventually it’s all cyclical. You don’t get a rule book. You just keep showing up."

Still, he and the other *E.T. *actors have been known to reunite.

Thomas, MacNaughton, and Wallace stopped by Barrymore's talk show in 2022 to mark the film's 40th anniversary.

Listen to Thomas' full conversation on the podcast above.

- Sci-Fi & Fantasy Movies

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Source: “EW Sci-Fi”