Drew Barrymore Says Her 'E.T.' Director Steven Spielberg Is the Only 'Parental Figure' in Her Life

Drew Barrymore convinced Steven Spielberg to be her godfather during production on 1982's 'E.T. the Extra Terrestrial'

Drew Barrymore is praising Steven Spielberg's impact on her life from a young age.

In a new Vulture profile published Monday, Barrymore, 48, described the filmmaker as "the only person in my life to this day that ever was a parental figure" after he cast the then-child actress in a key role for 1982's E.T. the Extra Terrestrial.

The profile detailed some aspects of Spielberg's relationship with Barrymore, who was seven during E.T.'s production — including that he kept operators around to maneuver the E.T. puppet at all times so it could react to Barrymore.

“I didn’t want to burst the bubble,” Spielberg told the outlet for the story, noting he made sure to shoot the movie in chronological order — rare for film productions — as he discussed a moment in which Barrymore asked for the puppet's operators to leave during a scene. “So I simply said, ‘It’s okay, E.T. is so special E.T. has eight assistants. I am the director, I only have one.”

The story recounted that Barrymore would eat lunch with the E.T. puppet during filming and asked Spielberg to be her godfather, leading her to stay with the filmmaker during weekends.

Related: Drew Barrymore and Corey Feldman Recall Their First Date as Preteens — Arranged by Steven Spielberg

"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,” Spielberg once said of his thoughts on Barrymore's tumultuous childhood, per the outlet. “Yet I felt very helpless because I wasn’t her dad. I could only kind of be a consigliere to her.”

The story also discussed Barrymore's complicated thoughts on her parents, Jaid Barrymore and John Drew Barrymore, whom she won legal emancipation from at age 14. Barrymore recalled memories of her father acting abusive toward her from as early as three years old, when "he stormed in and tossed her into a wall," according to the outlet.

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Barrymore has spoken about how Spielberg approached her adorable relationship with the E.T. puppet on set before. While she reunited with her former costars Henry Thomas, Robert MacNaughton and Dee Wallace during an episode of The Drew Barrymore Show back in October, the actress recalled that she "believed E.T. was real."

Related: 'E.T.' Cast: Where Are They Now?

"I really loved him in such a profound way. Is it like true that … what would happen? Because I would go and take lunch to him," she asked her former cast mates at the time.

Wallace, 74, recounted during that reunion episode how Spielberg decided to keep puppet operators available at all times to operate the puppet for Barrymore's benefit. Thomas, 51, also recalled that Barrymore once requested the film's wardrobe team to obtain a scarf for E.T.'s neck "because he was gonna get cold" during filming.

"We found you over there just talking away to E.T. and so we let director Steven [Spielberg] know," Wallace recounted during the episode. "And so Steven, from that time on, appointed two guys to keep E.T. alive so whenever you came over to talk to him, he could react to you."

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