Watch Henry Thomas’ Perfectly Improvised Audition for ‘E.T.’

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was released over thirty years ago; it’s an enduring story about a lonely boy who makes close friends with an abandoned alien called “E.T.”

The film’s concept was based on an imaginary companion that a then-teenage Steven Spielberg conceived of after his parents divorced. Spielberg once described this imaginary alien as “a friend who could be the brother I never had and a father that I didn’t feel I had anymore.” Years later, he sought to make a movie based on this concept.

Enter ten-year-old Henry Thomas who had just had his film debut playing the role of Harry in the 1981 Sissy Spacek film Raggedy Man. Now as an adult, Thomas recalls the day this way: “I read a scene from some early version of the script, and then I was asked to do an improvisation. I think the gist of the improv was, ‘You found someone, and they’re going to take them away from you, and it’s your friend and you really don’t want your friend to go away.’ So I started crying, and really going for it I guess.”

Thomas managed to hit it out of the ballpark, making everyone around cry – including Spielberg himself. You can hear the famed director say, “Okay kid, you got the job!” There lies the power of improvisation!

It’s been reported that Thomas tapped into the memory of when his dog died for inspiration in the audition.

Spontaneity was so important to Spielberg that he didn’t storyboard most of the film, and he shot E.T. in chronological order to give the child actors as real of an emotional experience as possible. He also tried to hide the puppeteers controlling the beloved E.T. to make the kids’ relationship with the alien seem as authentic as possible.

It all certainly seemed to pay off. E.T. is the seventh highest-grossing film of all time as of this writing when adjusted for inflation.

Can you watch this clip without shedding a tear?

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