Steven Spielberg has admitted that he felt ‘helpless’ watching Drew Barrymore’s childhood ‘being robbed’ while filming E.T. together.

Spielberg directed the childhood classic in 1982, where a 10-year-old Elliot Taylor (Henry Thomas) makes friends with an extraterrestrial thats been left behind on earth.

Starring alongside Taylor was a Drew Barrymore, playing Gertie, the younger sibling.

The film gained massive popularity and ended up being one of the highest grossing movies of the 1980s.

Spielberg, while directing the film, connected with 7-year-old Barrymore – so much so that little Barrymore asked if he could be her dad.

She later shared in a profile by Vulture that he had been ‘the only person in my life to this day that ever was a parental figure’.

Her biological father, John Drew Barrymore, was an alcholoic and abusive throughout his life. The actress paid for his medical bills up until his death in 2004, aged 72.

The actress herself has been open with her experiences with drugs and alcohol at a young age – admitting to using cannabis at aged 10 and cocaine aged 12.

At age 13, she was admitted to rehab and later attempted to end her own life – after which she went back to rehab.

Spielberg shared:  “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.”

“Yet I felt very helpless because I wasn’t her dad. I could only kind of be a consigliere to her.”

Barrymore was emancipated from her biological parents aged 14. She has been sober since 2019.