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- [00:00]
Matt Demerit
Not all holiday presents get delivered by slay. A lot come from shopping online, which means you may be exposing your personal.
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Dana Schwartz
Information to cybercriminals when shopping or browsing during the holidays.
- [00:11]
Matt Demerit
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- [00:21]
Dana Schwartz
Stay safer this holiday season with Norton360.
- [00:25]
Matt Demerit
Save up to 58% off your first year at Norton.com Secure hi everyone, it's.
- [00:31]
Dana Schwartz
Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotme from the Today Show. Nobody does the holidays like today. From festive performances and great gift ideas to tips for the perfect holiday feast. Join us every morning on NBC and make today your home for the holidays. Stay Farm and DJ Dramos from Life as a Gringo. No making smarter financial moves. Today secures your financial freedom for a successful tomorrow.
- [00:53]
Matt Demerit
In my family, one of the biggest points of contention was finances. And I know as I gotten older I made it a promise to myself to say I don't want to relive that. You know, hiring somebody to do credit repair for me. That was a gift that I gave myself that allowed me to then get my first apartment, then eventually buy my own home. Like these are all things that are possible.
- [01:12]
Dana Schwartz
Like a good neighbor.
- [01:13]
Matt Demerit
State Farm is there. State Farm, proud sponsor of my Kultura podcast network, Odoo is business management made so simple a kid could explain it. Sometimes business software can't talk to other programs, but Odoo, funny word, has every program from CRM to HR to accounting in one platform. It should cost a lot, but it doesn't. So you should use Odoo because they save you money. Odoo makes a lot of sense, but doesn't cost a lot of sense. Sign up now@odoo.com that's o d o.com Good job. Thanks.
- [01:48]
Dana Schwartz
Where'd you get those shoes? Easy. They're from dsw. Because DSW has the exact right shoes for whatever you're into right now. You know, like the the sneakers that make office hours feel like happy hour, the boots that turn grocery aisles into runways, and all the styles that show off the many sides of you, from daydreamer to multitasker and everything in between. Because you do it all in really great shoes. Find a shoe for every you at your DSW store or DSW.com this is an I Heart original. It's late summer 1981. 11 year old Matt Demerit is at his house in Torrance, California when the phone rings. His mother picks it up. Matt can hear just one side of the conversation.
- [02:45]
Matt Demerit
Yes, yes, that's my son.
- [02:48]
Dana Schwartz
Who?
- [02:49]
Matt Demerit
Jaws.
- [02:50]
Dana Schwartz
Steven Spielberg. Jaws. Steven Spielberg, the same director who has spent the past six years on top of Hollywood and who currently has the highest grossing movie of the summer. In Raiders of the Lost Ark, in.
- [03:07]
Matt Demerit
The distance, I could hear my mom and I having this very interesting conversation with someone who was interested in hiring me.
- [03:13]
Dana Schwartz
That's Matt.
- [03:14]
Matt Demerit
And basically told my mom that they were doing a movie and it involves someone being in a costume. They didn't want to give away too much for someone being in a costume to walk around.
- [03:26]
Dana Schwartz
To put this call in perspective, Matt wasn't a child actor or a performer of any kind. At 11, he also wasn't a cinematographer or effects artist. He was just a suburban kid enjoying his summer before he had to go back to school. And school wasn't going so well for Matt, which we'll get to shortly. But Matt had something no other kid had. Something that made him shy at times, but something Steven Spielberg needed in order to embark on his most ambitious movie yet. A movie that for many years held the title highest grossing film of all time. And from a certain point of view, a movie that would feel feature Matt as the star. The movie went by many different names during its development. Watch the Skies, Night Skies, a boy's life, E.T. and me. And finally, E.T. the extraterrestrial. And for Matt Demerit, it would prove a bittersweet experience, one that would help him through one of the most formative events in his life. For now, all he knew was that he needed to have a conversation with his parents and go meet Steven Spielberg. And, well, there was one other thing.
- [04:53]
Matt Demerit
Mom, who's Steven Spielberg?
- [04:57]
Dana Schwartz
For iHeartRadio, this is very special episodes, an iHeart original podcast. I'm your host, Dana Schwartz, and this is ET And Me. ET Is one of those movies that I have such a distinct memory of my dad taking us to see the rerelease in theaters when we were kids. So it was very, very exciting for me just to listen to this episode because to be honest, I knew absolutely nothing about how it was made.
- [05:28]
Matt Demerit
I love it. One of our best episodes last season was the Titanic episode about how the cast and crew got poisoned on set. And it was similar.
- [05:37]
Dana Schwartz
This is a good lane for us.
- [05:38]
Matt Demerit
Where we have some loved film and we're getting a lot of the behind the scenes from the people who actually made it. Yeah.
- [05:44]
Dana Schwartz
Also there's big surprises like the creature for the Black Lagoon shows up. I love this one. From all the Hollywood History. Should we dive back in? Hell, yeah. In a lot of ways, Matt Demerit's childhood looked a lot like everyone else's. Maybe like yours. He grew up in the suburbs of Torrance, a coastal city in Southern California with beautiful views and a laid back atmosphere. The local newspaper is named the Daily Breeze, if that tells you anything. Matt had some artistic inclinations which he might have inherited from his father, an illustrator for the post office.
- [06:23]
Matt Demerit
I would draw a lot as a kid. I loved to look at my dad's drawings and ask him to draw me monsters and stuff. I was so fascinated when he could draw creatures for me. So I tried to emulate him. That was what kind of kid I was. I drew a lot and I skateboarded a lot. And I like to hang out with my friends and go to the park and do stuff like that.
- [06:48]
Dana Schwartz
That's Matt. And while there was plenty of normal kid stuff to do, Matt did it a little differently. That's because Matt was born without legs.
- [06:59]
Matt Demerit
Well, apparently my mother took an anti nausea medication when she was pregnant with me called Bendectin and that was a popular drug at the time for that condition. And it turned out that there were a lot of birth defects that seemed to be correlated with the drug. And so all the parents filed a class action lawsuit against the maker of the drug, Meryl Dow. Merrill Dow had a lot of lawyers and basically were able to counter all the evidence that they had that it might have caused birth defects. So nothing really ever came of it. Could either have been that or it could have been a natural birth defect. You know, sometimes that happens where you can't really attribute to anything specific.
- [07:41]
Dana Schwartz
For a variety of reasons. Prosthetic legs were a poor solution for Matt, who learned to locomote around in a wheelchair in addition to walking on his hands. He even learned to use a skateboard.
- [07:54]
Matt Demerit
I loved skateboard parks when I was a kid. I couldn't do tricks, you know, quite at the Tony Hawk level, but I could go on those bowls and I could do like hand plants and stuff like that.
- [08:05]
Dana Schwartz
Matt says that because he didn't lose his legs exactly, he never really missed them.
- [08:11]
Matt Demerit
I just always perceived my condition as normal. That's all I was used to. I wasn't struggling with the loss of limbs. I just always got around naturally. You know, I learned to walk on my hands just like anyone learns to walk on their legs. Reaching for stuff or asking for help wasn't of a problem. I could either climb up and get the thing that I needed, or I always had the support system for people who could get stuff that was out of my reach.
- [08:37]
Dana Schwartz
But there were other challenging things about Matt's life. His father had been diagnosed with a serious issue bipolar disorder. The condition used to be referred to as manic depression. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, the diagnosis is characterized by clear changes in mood, energy and activity levels. Depending on the particular diagnosis, people can experience moods that range from euphoric or energized to extremely despondent.
- [09:10]
Matt Demerit
My dad was in denial that he had bipolar, and so he wouldn't take this medication and he'd be very withdrawn, which is one of the symptoms of being depressed. So at times we wouldn't communicate at all.
- [09:24]
Dana Schwartz
But there was something that did help strengthen the bond between Matt and his dad. Creature features monster movies, Men in rubber suits. It was a fantasy escape from a reality that could often prove challenging and a way to get closer to his father, who sometimes seemed far away.
- [09:46]
Matt Demerit
My dad and I used to watch monster movies on Saturdays. There was a kind of a marathon that happened every Saturday on Channel 5 called Monster Rally. And so this, the first horror film I saw was A Creature from the Black Lagoon.
- [10:03]
Dana Schwartz
While all this was happening, Steven Spielberg was grappling with something of a creature feature of his own, One that would require Matt's unique abilities, though no one quite knew that yet. By this point in the 1980s, the director was enjoying that rare blend of critical commercial and financial success that proved elusive for a lot of filmmakers. His adaptation of Peter Benchley's beach read Jaws in 1975 was a phenomenon. In 1977, he led Jaws co star Richard Dreyfus to a fateful meeting with aliens in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Raiders of the Lost Ark, meanwhile, was waiting in the wings. It would spawn four sequels and make Indiana Jones one of the great movie heroes. Spielberg's only Misfire had been 1941, a big World War II comedy that audiences didn't find very funny in Hollywood terms. Spielberg had a blank check, the ability to make practically anything he wanted. And what Spielberg was looking to do was tell a story about a skittish, harmless alien who comes to Earth and befriends a boy still coming to terms with his parents separation. It would be a family movie, something with themes that resonated deeply with Spielberg, who was himself a product of divorce. His parents, Arthur and Leah, had gone their separate ways when Spielberg was 19, after several years of acrimony. His mother had grown close with his father's best friend. Though Arthur told his children he was responsible for The Separation. It strained Spielberg's relationship with his dad for years, and there's no question it informed his filmmaking. But ET Would be his most personal work to date. A close look at a child dealing with the anger of a fractured household not yet able to process the convoluted adult world. Something plenty of kids, including Matt, could understand. It was the story of his youth. It was his childhood. It was his parents divorce. That's Simon Brew. Simon is the founder of the Den of Geek website and a pop culture historian. Jason and I actually used to work with him at Mental Floss, and he hosts a podcast, Film Stories, that goes deep into the making of great films. You should listen after you finished this episode, of course. And the idea wasn't that this would be his biggest film, although you can't ever design how an audience will react. The whole idea was, this is something smaller. This is me going right back to my roots. I'm just going to almost do one for me. A couple of years prior, Spielberg had envisioned a movie with a spaceship full of sinister aliens descending on a farmhouse. Just one of the aliens in that script, called Watch the Skies and later Night Skies, was friendly. But after developing the film and even having its alien creatures designed, Spielberg realized that wasn't the movie he wanted to make. Instead, he commissioned a script for his alien buddy story for Melissa Matheson, whom he had met filming Raiders of the Lost Ark. Matheson was the future wife of that movie's star, Harrison Ford. But more importantly, she was a screenwriter who was extremely adept at getting to the beating heart of Spielberg's story. The bond between an alien stranded on Earth and Elliot, a boy mourning the absence of his father, after his parents separate. That left just one major piece of the puzzle. How to create ET While the technology was rapidly finding itself in summer blockbusters, artists couldn't just turn to computer animation. The alien would have to be in the scene with the actors. Early on, someone broached the idea of sticking a monkey in a costume. That was quickly discarded. Then someone suggested putting a person in a suit, but Spielberg vetoed that as well. The entire point of E.T. s physique was that it was something other than human. He didn't want anyone to think it was merely someone encased in rubber. Instead, Spielberg approached his Close Encounters colleague, a special effects artist named Carlo Rambaldi. A prop expert, Carlo had helped reimagine King Kong for the 1976 remake. But despite that movie's giant ape, E.T. would prove to be the bigger problem. Carlo was given just a few months to Conjure up ET as an animatronic puppet. He'd be animated by servos and wires by a team of puppeteers. They would control everything from his eyes to his mouth to his elongated neck, which went up and down like a carjack. It was in the end, production illustrator Ed Voreau, who got kind of the eureka moment of what he was, the one who twigged what Spielberg was actually afterwards that he wanted. It was described as a combination of the innocence of youth and the wisdom of age. And that was in the design and the sketches that were being done for the creature. There was also the idea that they wanted ET to be, quote, a creature that only a mother could love, which I really, really love as well. Rambaldi was a master, and ET Quickly evolved into a highly convincing presence with big, bulbous eyes that took inspiration from Albert Einstein. The various ETs Rambaldi built could express themselves, blink, move their mouth, furrow a brow. And what Rambaldi told Spielberg is, you're going to need nine months to do this. Spielberg gave him six. And they just worked round the clock to put this creature together. And I mean, they really made it. I think they made in the end three different ETs with different electronics and different capabilities within them. And what Spielberg was wanting, really, that he wanted a creature that was slow and sure footed, and as Spielberg said, he's much more conditioned to a heavier atmosphere, a heavier gravity. And they got really, really forensic on what this creature and what this character was. It's supposed to be an alien walking on a planet which it wasn't familiar with. But even Rambaldi didn't have a perfect solution for ET Walking or performing big physical movements like falling down to try and control his feet via remote robotics would make him look like a jerky marionette or a clumsy battery operated toy. It would also cost another million dollars for what was supposed to be Spielberg's tiny movie. So Spielberg listened as his producer, Kathleen Kennedy suggested having a human performer inside of a costume, provided it was someone close to E.T. s stature that eliminated most adults. Rambaldi quickly created a simple mockup suit that the four year old daughter of Spielberg's lawyer climbed into for a screen test. She hated every minute of it throwing a tantrum, but the idea itself was sound. The kid in a suit looked convincing. Now all they had to do was find the right kid. Someone had the idea to call UCLA Medical Center. UCLA had a program devoted to the treatment of individuals with unique physical attributes. One of the physicians at UCLA recommended Matt, who had undergone physical therapy. There what made Matt unique was how he got around. Walking on his hands gave Matt a very specific skill, giving him a profile similar to E.T. by using his hands as E.T. s feet, he could step in when E.T. needed more agility than the puppeteers could provide. Matt could tackle stunts that might prove too daunting for a little person inside the suit.
- [18:56]
Matt Demerit
So Universal Studios reached out to UCLA Medical center to see if there was anyone with dwarfism or was in a small stature that could fit in the costume. And the only one they had on hand who was short was me. And I think they kind of pitched it to them. They said that I could walk on my hands just like my hands were legs. And they said, that's intriguing. Would he be able to come down for an audition? So the doctor gave him my number.
- [19:23]
Dana Schwartz
Matt's doctor acted as his talent agent. Very L. A. That's how a producer wound up phoning Matt's mom and how Matt wound up going to audition for Steven Spielberg, a guy he barely knew. In fact, Matt's father needed to take him to see Raiders that summer to give Matt a better idea of just what he was getting himself into. Oddly enough, Matt was already a fan of Carlo Rambaldi. Carlo had done the mechanical effects for the alien head in the movie Alien, the R rated gore fest which Matt had seen in 1979 as a nine year old. He was a monster kid, remember? So for Matt, going to Rambaldi's effects house was like going to Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. He was in Creature Heaven.
- [20:17]
Matt Demerit
Got in the studio and oh, it smelled so interesting too. It was like a workshop, you know, it was like Geppetto's workshop. Smelled like wood and sawdust and plaster. And that was very intriguing that I was going into this very creative environment, you know, where there are all these creatures that Carlo had designed for other movies.
- [20:39]
Dana Schwartz
At the shop, Matt met Spielberg, who did something that immediately endeared him to his would be ET Spielberg didn't loom over him like a gargoyle. Hands on knees, he bent down so he could look Matt eye to eye. The same way E.T. s telescoping neck allowed him to come face to face with new friends. Spielberg understood how looking up at the world can be intimidating. He wanted Matt to feel comfortable.
- [21:09]
Matt Demerit
That was something interesting about him. Not everybody did that. I remember Carlo doing that. And it's. It's not that it's rude that other people don't do that. They just. It's something that some people think about immediately and some people don't really take into consideration until maybe later. He did it immediately, and I thought that that was pretty cool.
- [21:27]
Dana Schwartz
Spielberg asked Matt about getting around on a skateboard. Matt offered that it wasn't his only way of travel. In the shop, Matt was stuffed into another makeshift ET Suit and then showed them a couple different ways he got around.
- [21:43]
Matt Demerit
Then I demonstrated to him the walk that I did eventually use in the movie where my hands are the feet and I lift my torso up so it's not touching the ground at all. My hands amble back and forth just like legs would or feet. And he said that's the one that he thinks is going to work. And they captured me doing that walk on camera, played it back and looked really good to them.
- [22:09]
Dana Schwartz
The hands for feet method proved surprisingly effective. It gave ET the kind of distinctive, not of this earth gait. Spielberg wanted one people weren't used to seeing. And practically no one but Matt could do it. But it would be a little while before Matt heard anything definitive. Then came another phone call. Matt was offered the job. Matt and his parents had a talk. Sure, it was cool, but it would also interrupt the start of Matt's school year. The movie would shoot from September to December 1981. They wanted to be sure it was something he really wanted to do. But for Matt, delaying school was no big deal. On top of everything else, he had the bane of any shy kid's existence. Bullies. And Matt's bullies were especially cruel.
- [23:11]
Matt Demerit
Boy, was it great to get away from school. Because around that time, I was bullied a lot. That was like the peak time of my bullying. Some of the bullies would come up from behind my wheelchair. I'd take my wheelchair to school and they'd tip the wheelchair over.
- [23:27]
Dana Schwartz
That would be enough for any kid to have to deal with. But the situation at home was also coming to a head. Matt's mother was frustrated his father wasn't willing to get the help he needed.
- [23:40]
Matt Demerit
They would get in a lot of fights about that kind of stuff. He wasn't abusive or he wasn't emotionally abusive. He didn't yell. He wasn't that kind of person. But just the general atmosphere at home when he was deep in depression was something that was great to escape from during that time.
- [24:00]
Dana Schwartz
So in September 1981, Matt went off to do something he never dreamed of. Play a crucial role in making the ultimate creature feature come to life. Like Elliot, he'd be taking on new responsibilities that would distract him from his own problem. But in order to do that, he'd have to overcome his inherent shyness while taking direction from the most successful director in the world. For many of us, the holiday season means more travel, more shopping, more time online and more of your personal information in more places you can't control. It only takes one innocent mistake, even.
- [24:49]
Matt Demerit
If it's not your mistake, to expose.
- [24:52]
Dana Schwartz
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- [25:22]
Matt Demerit
Gift yourself the peace of mind that.
- [25:24]
Dana Schwartz
Comes with LifeLock and spend more time doing more of the holiday things you love. Visit lifelock.com iheart and save up to 40% your first year. That's 40% off@lifelock.com iheartradio LifeLock for the threats you can't control. Hi everyone, it's Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb from the Today Show. We love this time of year. There's so much to celebrate. That's right, nobody does the holidays quite like today all season long. Join us for special performances with the brightest stars, plus festive recipes to whip up the perfect holiday feast and great deals on the hottest toys and gifts for everyone on your list. So join us every morning on NBC to make TODAY your home for the holidays. This is an ad by BetterHelp. What's your perfect night? Maybe you're settled at home, alone or with loved ones covered in blankets about to watch your favorite show. It's cozy, it's calm and you're ready for a perfect night in therapy. Can feel a bit like that. A place for comfort. A time when you replenish your energy and take care of yourself. And hey, you can even do it without leaving that same cozy couch. This season is the perfect time to give therapy a try right from the comfort of home with BetterHelp. Get matched with a tailored therapist based on your needs and preferences entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a therapist and switch therapist at any time for no additional charge. Find comfort this season with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com to learn more and save 10% off your first month.
- [27:11]
Matt Demerit
That's BetterHelp.
- [27:12]
Dana Schwartz
H E L P dot com this message is sponsored by Greenlight. We all know that old saying about teaching a man to fish and as parents, we want our kids to learn the things that will set them up for success. So this holiday season, give kids money skills that will last well beyond 2024 with Greenlight. Greenlight is a debit card and money app made for families where kids learn how to save, invest and spend wisely with parental controls built in. Sign up today@greenlight.com iheart greenlight.com iheart looking to improve your diet in the new year?
- [27:47]
Matt Demerit
Try seeing a personal dietitian with Nourish.
- [27:50]
Dana Schwartz
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- [27:57]
Matt Demerit
Meet with your dietitian online and message.
- [27:59]
Dana Schwartz
Them anytime through the Nourish app. Nourish accepts hundreds of insurance plans. 94% of patients pay $0 out of pocket. Find your personal dietitian@usenourish.com that's usenourish.com youm'd think a kid going off to shoot a Steven Spielberg movie would be the talk of the playground, but Matt left to film the movie with relatively few people knowing what he was up to.
- [28:30]
Matt Demerit
I didn't have a lot of friends at the time. I think I told my best friend that I was doing it. And he also didn't know that much about movies and about Spielberg. He came from a really religious background, so his parents wouldn't even let him see any kind of movies. So I think I only told him.
- [28:47]
Dana Schwartz
This was probably something Spielberg preferred. The details surrounding the character of ET Were highly classified. In the pre Internet age it was easier to plug leaks to the media. Spielberg wanted his young actors left in the dark, making their first impression of the creature a genuine one. Matt, of course, had already gotten a preview, and by the time he showed up on location in Tujunga, California, a custom rubber latex suit had been crafted just for him. It weighed 30 pounds and yes, it made him sweat a lot.
- [29:28]
Matt Demerit
One interesting thing is though that the recipe for latex was much worse back then because latex shrank and latex doesn't have a lot of pores in it, but if it shrinks, the pores are going to get smaller. So long story short, the costume would get smaller and hotter every time I got into it because the latex strength. So thankfully that didn't show on camera. I definitely felt it.
- [29:54]
Dana Schwartz
Originally, Matt was hired for just one scene where ET Needed to take a tumble, but it turned out ET Would be doing that a lot. So Matt's responsibilities kept growing on set. He quickly became known as stunt ET Prat falls.
- [30:13]
Matt Demerit
Yeah, pratfalls, agility, falling down, all that stuff.
- [30:17]
Dana Schwartz
Matt, of course, was no practiced stunt person, but this was the 80s, and film producers sometimes pushed the edges of what was appropriate.
- [30:28]
Matt Demerit
That's one of the kind of dangerous aspects of filmmaking, especially back then, is this like a lot of fly by the seat of your pants kind of attitude. You know, it's like they got to make budgets. They can't go over budget. Just fussing with something and make sure that someone's not going to get hurt. They put a lot of padding in the costume. So even when I fell flat on my face, there was like lots of Styrofoam protecting my face.
- [30:52]
Dana Schwartz
One of Matt's bigger scenes as ET Was when the alien falls over drunk, which we remind you is not something an 11 year old can portray with any conviction. But Matt was up for it.
- [31:05]
Matt Demerit
And I remember being so excited. Excited because I was walking very easily in the costume and I felt like I could do everything that they were directing me to. I could hear all the directions very clearly. I saw all the marks they wanted me to hit. And whenever they wanted me to kind of play up the fall a little bit, they wanted me to not fall immediately, which is what I did. They wanted me to extend it a little bit and, like, add some expression to it. I remember when I did that, and I do that, the kind of final fall on my face. Everybody laughed and it sounded like what it would sound like in the audience, you know, when the movie was playing. So I thought, okay, I think this is gonna go over well.
- [31:49]
Dana Schwartz
In contrast to his problems at school, Matt found fast friends in Henry Thomas, who played Elliot, and Robert McNaughton, who played Elliot's older brother, Michael. There were no cliques, no social hierarchy, no grade school pettiness or cruelty. Just three kids on the set of a movie.
- [32:09]
Matt Demerit
We completely bonded as soon as we met because we were like. Well, I was going to say we're of the same age group, but actually Rob was the same age as the older kids, but he had more like a youth mentality. And he also knew that it would benefit all of us to kind of, like, bond together. So we were our own group on that set. And that was fantastic because it rescued me from that situation. It was like just an escape from being bullied in school. And also, you know, who likes doing schoolwork, right? And it got me away from the situation at home, too, where my mom and my dad were fighting a lot and going through that drama, the drama.
- [32:47]
Dana Schwartz
Matt's referring to is a pretty seismic event in the life of a kid. In between Matt being fitted for his suit and the start of shooting, his parents made a big decision.
- [33:01]
Matt Demerit
There was a few weeks before we started when he was living at home. And so when I went out to get fitted and when I went to Carlo Ramballi's studio to practice in the costume and meet with the crew and just. And prepare before shooting, that's when my dad lived at home. But then when we were actually shooting, my dad was actually living apart from us.
- [33:23]
Dana Schwartz
Matt's ET family was, @ least for a time, more stable than his actual family. In addition to making friends with Henry and Robert, Matt also met E.T. s other half. This E.T. was a 34 year old adult named Pat Bailon, who was roughly 2ft 9 inches tall and weighed 45 pounds. Pat was born with cartilage hair hypoplasia, a bone growth disorder that can lead to dwarfism. Pat was used for E.T. scenes that didn't require E.T. tipping over. For example, the one in which E.T. is being stashed away in a bicycle basket and wrapped in a blanket. Plus other walking scenes.
- [34:13]
Matt Demerit
I remember he was a really nice guy. He didn't have any ego about him. We kind of filmed the ET in sequence, or that's the way the story's been told anyway. So I came on about two weeks into filming, two or three weeks into filming, and Pat never made me feel like I was on the outside looking in.
- [34:32]
Dana Schwartz
Pat's background was fascinating. He had only recently broken into films working on a Chevy Chase movie titled under the Rainbow, a fictitious retelling of the filming of the wizard of Oz and the rumors surrounding its little people. Performers getting wild after filming. Before acting, Pat had been a bouncer at a bar in Ohio. It was a publicity stunt for the business, but it worked. He later became a dispatcher for a sheriff's office. By the time ET Rolled around, Pat was having some back problem. He might start a scene, then realize he needed to rest or the action might be too dangerous for Pat, whose condition didn't allow for him to fall down much. That's where Matt came in.
- [35:23]
Matt Demerit
I did a lot of the same scenes that Pat did and Pat was tired. They'd bring me in and I'd do like a just the same thing, but it'd be a different actor in the costume.
- [35:33]
Dana Schwartz
Despite Matt doing most of the stunts, it was Pat who probably came closest to having an ET Related emergency room visit. Pat was in the costume and sporting a battery pack when the power Source caught fire, setting the adorable alien ablaze for a brief moment before a crew member stepped in.
- [35:56]
Matt Demerit
It could have gone another way, it could have gone really bad. But they were just lucky and they got him out of the costume in time or whatever, however they've resolved their situation. But it's like, yeah, you can't foresee all these things because like you said, it's nothing like this has ever been done before.
- [36:12]
Dana Schwartz
At one point, there was a third et, a woman named Tamara Detrow, who stepped in for Pat when needed. ET also had a different set of hands. For many scenes, they belonged to Caprice Roth, a mime hired by the production who wound up becoming the connective tissue of ET's performance. She managed to make a cohesive team out of the many puppeteers controlling his facial movements, synchronizing them with her gestures. Of course, anyone controlling a puppet will give in to the temptation of satisfying on set boredom. And with up to 15 puppeteers, there were plenty of opportunities. There are scenes you'll never see of ET picking his nose, puffing on a cigar, or pinching the rear end of a passing production crew member. Mostly, though, people believed in ET deeply and wholeheartedly. And they believed in Matt, who was coming through in a big way. To despite acting in a vacuum owing to the secrecy surrounding et, Matt didn't get a script or see dailies of the footage. He was just living in the moment. But Matt's best memory on set didn't come from a scene. It came when his father paid him a visit. His parents didn't normally come to filming having their own jobs and trusting a Steven Spielberg set would be a safe place for their child. The production sent a car to pick Matt up every morning and drive him back at night. So Matt's dad showing up was a big deal.
- [38:03]
Matt Demerit
On one of the days that he was on a manic high, he decided to come down to the set and surprise me. Which is great because my mom hadn't been there, my dad hadn't been there, and for him to share a day on the set with me was awesome. I remember him putting me on his shoulders and walking me around the set and he was introducing himself as my dad. And he's met Spielberg and Carlo and a lot of the cast and crew. You know, he was with me, he was happy, he experienced it, and I came away with one great memory of him being there with me on the set.
- [38:43]
Dana Schwartz
As with most movies, there was a few month gap between ET rapping filming and its release after returning to school. But before the film had come out, Matt noticed something a little strange. He wasn't being bullied as often. It wasn't because the kids knew he had played et. They didn't know anything about et. It was because Matt had a secret, one that gave him a sense of confidence and self worth.
- [39:15]
Matt Demerit
They didn't know why I was gone, but there was like an intangible security and confidence that I got from it because as soon as I got back to school, the bullying did not resume. It stopped completely. And it wasn't because the movie came out. It was just, you know.
- [39:31]
Dana Schwartz
Matt had never intended for his work to be some big secret. But in order for audiences to believe in et, et, Steven Spielberg was reluctant to admit the alien was the work of Hollywood. ET's success hinged in part on Matt and everyone else involved with the creature being invisible. In the weeks leading up to the premiere of et, the movie gained more and more momentum. Test screenings weren't just successful. Audiences were enraptured. Laughing, crying and falling for an alien who didn't meet what you would consider conventional standards of attractiveness. The reception ET received even took Spielberg by surprise. The film made its entire $10 million budget back in a single weekend. It was the number one film in America for six weeks and kept returning to that position throughout the rest of the year. It just kept playing and playing. By the next year, it had outgrowth Star wars to become the most successful film in history. It was a modern wizard of Oz, the rare family film that didn't pander to kids or bore adults. The movie that became must see viewing. Here's Simon Brew again. Everyone at my school saw E.T. at the cinema. Pretty much everyone. I mean, it was Star Wars, E.T. and Superman 3. Those were the three things that were most important in your life to watch. Why did people respond to et? For children, it was that the movie understood them and took their problems seriously. For adults, it was the ability to see through younger eyes and recall the excitement and fears of an unknown world. The next time you watch the film, try to notice how Spielberg shot it. The camera is often just a few feet off the ground, as though the audience is experiencing it from the perspective of a kid or a short alien. For Simon and millions of other kids, ET was a controlled catharsis. With his team of craftspeople, actors and Melissa Matheson, Spielberg had somehow made people believe in ET and in ET's bond with Elliot, which made their separation at the climax all the more wrenching. We just went in to see it, and I mean, all I remember as that 7 year old was just being traumatized, just being absolutely inconsolable on the way out. And I still get that as well. And every time I watch it, I still get it. But it was a thing. I mean, all we were told going in is, you're gonna see it and you're gonna come out crying. And we still all just went in. Our parents still all took us. Sadists. Matt went to see the movie, of course, with his parents, and kept looking for scenes in which he appeared under pounds of rubber as et. There was the scene with ET inebriated and the one where a Polaroid flash causes him to topple over.
- [43:04]
Matt Demerit
The other scene, so it was all the kitchen scenes. Anytime ET is in a bathrobe, that's me. So the scene where she, where Dee Wallace comes home, the mother, and she's putting everything in the refrigerator, she's completely distracted and she doesn't see me walking around her and then she opens the refrigerator door and it hits me in the face and I fall over. That was me.
- [43:25]
Dana Schwartz
In the midst of all this, the media always kept going back to a central how. How had ET been cobbled together to make for one of the few truly convincing creatures in movie history? Time and time again, Spielberg would dodge the question. ET was mysterious. Even the first trailer for the movie avoided showing what he looked like. He told the press at the Cannes film festival where ET premiered that ET was made out of love and that it took 12 hearts to make ET's heart beat. Asked what materials were used, he said that you will not hear the answer to that question from my lips. It seemed like Spielberg and Universal wanted ET to remain an illusion. They had never expressly told Matt not to discuss his work in the movie. But Spielberg's reluctance to explain the techniques used was something of a hint. Plus, think about it. What if a kid in your school said he was in the biggest movie of all time? You couldn't see him, but he was there. It's kind of like the kid who kept insisting his uncle worked for Nintendo. It just smelled like baloney.
- [44:47]
Matt Demerit
I mean, I might have started telling them and then I think maybe I initially did. And then they'd say they'd seen a TV segment or read Starlog magazine or, or something how it was a robot or how maybe it was just this one actor or whatever and they disbelieved me. And I think after that I didn't, like, try and convince them. I just figured eventually they'd figure it out.
- [45:15]
Dana Schwartz
Almost everyone involved with ET experienced The shadow of it. Henry Thomas remembers getting mobbed after the movie came out. Even Pat Bailon got plenty of prestige, attention. But Matt was different. He was famous, in plain sight, an anonymous celebrity. But notoriety wasn't really the point. It was about an experience that had come along at a good time. The highs of ET Were in sharp contrast to Matt's home life. His parents had separated. His father's bipolar disorder going untreated and slowly getting worse. Then later, in 1982, Matt heard the news. No child should ever have to endure. Tragically, his father died by suicide.
- [46:09]
Matt Demerit
So, yeah, just lucky happenstance. Something came along at that time that would bring all this residual stuff that would help me absorb the impact of my father dying.
- [46:21]
Dana Schwartz
There's a curious thread that weaves through ET from the beginning, Spielberg had envisioned it as a way into his feelings about his own family. The divorce of his mother and father in the film Elliot mirrors that same struggle. And in Matt's world, the film had come at a time his family suffered an incredible loss.
- [46:44]
Matt Demerit
I was crazy. I mean, who knows, you know, if I didn't have the cushion of ET to counterbalance the bitterness of that experience, I don't know what would happen or what kind of person that I be today. You know, like, making all those new friends and having them as my support system after my dad died was huge. Like, Robert found out. Robert McNaughton, the guy who played the Michael, the older brother in ET he was really supportive after that. Like, he'd heard about my father. Like, we got together a couple times after ET Came out and really had a good time. But after he heard my father killed himself, he'd make an effort to come by my house and we go do stuff on the weekends, like go watch movies or go play tag and water balloons and all that stuff and just do the stuff would distract me. The horror of that time, that was really great. So ET Came along at a great time.
- [47:50]
Dana Schwartz
ET Never really lost that power for Matt or for anyone. It was re released in theaters periodically through the 1980s. Spielberg refused, refused to allow it to be available on VHS until six years later in 1988. There was a magic to it that he largely kept preserved. There would never be a sequel or even much talk of one. Henry Thomas, who portrayed Elliot, appeared with ET in a 2019 commercial for Comcast that Spielberg approved of, but not much else. And while it might seem easy to conjure up ET As a CGI creation or even another latex costume, it's not. Comcast used a hybrid option.
- [48:40]
Matt Demerit
There's a reason for that, because latex, you just can't do a one to one copy of the original puppet. There's something's going to be off the paint, the wrinkles, the eyes, I don't know. Well, in the movie itself, you kind of see where ET almost has like a lazy eye because they just couldn't get the one of the eyes to quite be symmetrical with the other one. You know, they did a photo session with Michael Jackson. You see, there was something about ET's eye that was degenerating. So yeah, so I mean, going back to what we're saying about the sequel, even if you got everything right, but you just couldn't nail et. You couldn't get that ET look could match it from the first movie.
- [49:21]
Dana Schwartz
Matt wasn't completely done with the film business, though ET would be a tough act to follow. A few years later. In 1985, he appeared in The Fourth Wise Man, a biblical tale playing a leper. He also appeared in Cyborg 2, a sequel to a 1989 Jean Claude Van Damme film that couldn't even manage to re enlist. Jean Claude Van Damme.
- [49:47]
Matt Demerit
I had a speaking part in that. I'm not in costume. Well, I'm not in like a latex costume. So that was like a futuristic dystopian picture. Angelina Jolie's in it. Jack Pallance, Elias Coteus of a lot of great stars in that. Billy Drago from the Untouchables. And so, yeah, so I had a speaking part in that one. That was probably my most memorable experience after ET was actually doing a legit speaking scene, dialogue scene with those actors. I played a character named Manhole Man. He was like a doorman to the Overworld.
- [50:26]
Dana Schwartz
But for all of his immediate success, Matt didn't fall in love with acting.
- [50:31]
Matt Demerit
It never felt natural to me. And then the number of roles that come to, you know, handicapped people, especially someone who doesn't have any legs, few and far between.
- [50:43]
Dana Schwartz
Matt went on to teach English and then got into writing and podcasting. He makes convention appearances, a way for fans of ET to put a human face to the character. Matt Demerit, the creature kid, didn't know it at the time, but he became part of a legacy. People who breathed life into fantastic creations. Once, not long ago, Matt found himself at a convention and sitting alongside Rico Browning, the man who played the creature from the Black Lagoon, a 1954 classic. Matt grew up watching with his dad.
- [51:21]
Matt Demerit
I was very flattered because he gave me his autograph and told me how much he loved ET and we struck up a conversation, and I realized as I was talking to him that, hey, you know, this is the company I'm in. You know, I'm part of this company. I was a man in a very famous creature suit.
- [51:39]
Dana Schwartz
This is ET For Matt, a time in his life that was a mixture of happiness and loss. The movie is something audiences have treasured, but it was the making of ET that allowed Matt to believe in himself.
- [51:56]
Matt Demerit
There's a great word, bittersweet, you know, and I think life is just bittersweet. It's not always bitter. It's not always sweet. You know, it's. Sometimes it just. It converges into an experience like that, you know, where these two concurrent things happen. Both positive, one positive, one incredibly negative. It gave me the confidence to discourse with people and interact with people, you know, because I did have this hook. It wasn't just my disability. It wasn't just the subject of the conversation, but this glorious movie that people cried during and laughed at, you know, so it's really hard for me to get my mind around that. So there's always going to be a bit of a detachment from that, like pinching myself. Is it still real? You know, like when I do convention with with Robert and Henry today, it's like, I can't believe 40 years later, we're still talking, you know, and we're still having the same laughs that we had back then. And we're still celebrating this movie 40 years later. Hi, everyone.
- [53:05]
Dana Schwartz
It's Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb from the Today show. We love this time of year. There's so much to celebrate. That's right. Nobody does the holidays quite like today all season long. Join us for special performances with the brightest stars, plus festive recipes to whip up the perfect holiday feast. And great deals on the hottest toys and gifts for everyone on your list. So join us every morning on NBC to make today your home for the holidays. Did you know that parents rank financial literacy as the number one most difficult.
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Matt Demerit
Life skill to teach? Meet Greenlight, the debit card and money app for families. With greenlight, you can send money to kids instantly. Set up chores automate allowance, and keep an eye on your kids spending with.
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Dana Schwartz
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Matt Demerit
Kids are learning about money with guardrails in place. Sign up for Greenlight today@Greenlight.com iHeart.
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Dana Schwartz
The holidays are coming fast, which means time is even more of a luxury. That's why dime beauty needs to be your one stop destination for clean master esthetician founded skincare that really works. From rejuvenating eye serums and clean retinol alternatives to indulging body oils and non toxic perfumes, Dime has it all. And for a limited time Dime is offering 25% off site wide when you use code HOLIDAY25. Looking to reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles? Try their best selling TBT Cream, a clean gentle retinol alternative that has all of the anti aging benefits of retinol without the harshness. Or in search of a new winter perfume, try Dime's non toxic woodsy fragrance Dawn Labois. Dime has over 2 million happy customers and thousands of amazing five star reviews. Don't wait. Go to dimebeautyco.com for 25% off site wide with code holiday25. That's dimebeautyco.com for25% off with code holiday25. Happy shopping and Happy holidays from Dime. Have you made the switch to nyx? Millions of women have made the switch to the revolutionary period underwear from nyx. That's K N I X Period panties from Nyx are like no other, making them the number one leak proof underwear brand in North America. They're comfy, stylish and absorbent, perfect for period protection from your lightest to your heaviest days. They look feel and machine wash just like regular underwear but feature incognito protection that has you covered. You can shop sizes from extra small to 4 XL. Choose from all kinds of colors, prints and different styles from bikinis to boy shorts, thongs to high rise. You've got to try nyx. See why millions are ditching disposable, wasteful period products and have switched to NYX. Go to knix.com and get 15% off with promo code. Try 15. That's nyx.com promo code try 15 for 15% off. Life changing period underwear. That's K N I X.com the flavor, the tradition and the spirit of Carne Asada lives on at Del Taco. Join the Asada today with Del Taco's new limited time half pound Chipotle carne Asada steak Burrito packed with sweet, spicy and smoky flavor wrapped up and grilled to perfection. The whole Carne Asada steak menu delivers the bold flavors you crave with epic burritos, loaded fries and street tacos starting at just 2.99. Only at Del Taco.
- [56:38]
Matt Demerit
Okay, we usually cast these stories at the end. It's kind of hard to make this one a movie and there's also very against making any ET Sequels all these years, but does anyone want to pitch an ET Sequel on the fly here?
- [56:51]
Dana Schwartz
Jeffrey R. Oh, God. An E.T. sequel. Okay. Elliot goes to his planet. Right? That's the classic sequel. Reversal.
- [56:59]
Matt Demerit
That's good.
- [56:59]
Dana Schwartz
I like that. That's brilliant.
- [57:01]
Matt Demerit
Write that. You have to write that.
- [57:03]
Dana Schwartz
Yes, I'm sure I'll write that. Everyone will be clamoring for it.
- [57:07]
Matt Demerit
I was thinking about a vengeful ET later in life coming back. Less of a heartwarming story than what we're done.
- [57:13]
Dana Schwartz
Oh. Eventually t he comes back to destroy the earth. Or ET Comes back as Elliot is getting a divorce as an adult and he has to work through that. Ah, yes. Midlife crisis.
- [57:28]
Matt Demerit
Elliot.
- [57:28]
Dana Schwartz
Brilliant. These are all good. Dana.
- [57:30]
Matt Demerit
Yeah, For a very special character. So in the cold open, that was my youngest daughter Juliet, who we roped into doing a little voice acting. She gave us multiple takes. Total pro. If nepotism is not allow for these official rankings, but we're cool with looking the other way. Over to some medical ethics. I would pick the doctor who got his former patient his start in Hollywood.
- [57:52]
Dana Schwartz
Oh, yeah, good point. I'm going to actually say the casting director who's like, we should call a hospital. That's the move. I'm going with the crew who went and put the fire out.
- [58:04]
Matt Demerit
I thought that was brilliant because you.
- [58:05]
Dana Schwartz
Got to have those people fast acting, clear headed, no panic.
- [58:09]
Matt Demerit
Also love Simon Brew. Another shout out to Simon to coming on and giving us some Hollywood history.
- [58:14]
Dana Schwartz
I love Simon.
- [58:15]
Matt Demerit
Old friend, great voice, good podcast. Go check out film stories after this. As Dana says.
- [58:21]
Dana Schwartz
Totally. This was a hard one to cast, by the way, because you have the main actor like Matt.
- [58:26]
Matt Demerit
He's got to play himself, right?
- [58:27]
Dana Schwartz
I mean, this is automatically. This is the Jackie Robinson story. You got to play yourself, brother. But other than that, I could cast Steven Spielberg as Jesse Eisenberg. I thought that one worked. I could see that. Melissa Matheson, screenwriter. Emma Stone, but as a brunette. And then Carlo Rambaldi, Adrien Brody. He feels like the outsiders. Outsider in Hollywood. I think he can bring that right.
- [58:46]
Matt Demerit
Creature feature energy.
- [58:48]
Dana Schwartz
And then finally as Pat, the little person. I thought the actor Danny Woodburn, who played Seinfeld's comic friend on Seinfeld, who's a kind of like a brilliant little person actor. I thought he could give you that Hollywood veteran vibe. That sounds great.
- [59:00]
Matt Demerit
Love it. I would see that version of this. I don't know if it's officially an ET Sequel, but let's talk.
- [59:06]
Dana Schwartz
But I do want to see Dana's 100%. Both of them actually my alien. It's sort of like an Alien 3 situation.
- [59:14]
Matt Demerit
Very Special Episodes is made by some very special people. This show is hosted by Dana Schwartz, Sarah Burnett and Jason English. Today's episode was written by Jake Rossen. Our producer is Josh Fisher. Our story editor is Marissa Brown. Editing and sound design by Jonathan Wallace Washington and Josh Fisher. Mixing and mastering by Behead Frazier. Special thanks to our voice actors Jessica Kreincich and Juliet English. Original Music by Elise McCoy. Research and fact checking by Jake Rawson and Austin Thompson. Show logo by Lucy Quintanilla. Our executive producer is Jason English. You want to email the show, you can reach us at barry special episodesmail.com Very Special Episodes is a production of iHeart Podcasts. Not all holiday presents get delivered by slay. A lot come from shopping online, which means you may be exposing your personal.
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Dana Schwartz
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Matt Demerit
Norton360 provides comprehensive protection for your devices, a VPN for your online privacy and safe web so you can shop more safely online.
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Dana Schwartz
Stay safer this holiday season with Norton 360.
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Matt Demerit
Save up to 58% off your first year@norton.com Secure Game on because ESPN content.
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Dana Schwartz
Is now available on Disney for bundle subscribers, you can watch your favorites on.
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Matt Demerit
Disney the boldest stories from Hulu and.
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Dana Schwartz
The greatest in sports from ESPN together like never before. With ESPN, unwrap a full day of NBA action streaming December 25th. Then with Hulu, watch the terrifying sci fi thriller Alien Romulus, now streaming and.
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Matt Demerit
On Disney, follow a new adventure across.
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Dana Schwartz
The galaxy in Star Wars Skeleton Crew, now streaming terms apply. Visit disneyplus.com for details. There's joy to be had in finding the perfect gifts for the ones You Love, and Saks.com's holiday gift guide can make it easy.
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Matt Demerit
Whether it's surprising your hard to shop.
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Dana Schwartz
For sister with a Chloe bracelet bag or gifting your partner a memorable scent.
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Matt Demerit
From Gucci that matches their personality, Saks.com's.
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Dana Schwartz
Handpicked guide can help take the stress.
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Matt Demerit
Out of the holidays, like adding instant.
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Dana Schwartz
Cheer to your home with bright decor or giving yourself some comfort by bundling up in a scarf coat from Tatem. Find gifts guaranteed to bring joy to.
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Matt Demerit
Everyone this season@saks.com at Amica Insurance, we.
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Dana Schwartz
Know it's more than just a car or a house.
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Matt Demerit
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Dana Schwartz
Where you're going and the four walls.
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Matt Demerit
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Dana Schwartz
When you combine auto and home insurance.
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Matt Demerit
With Amica, we'll help protect it all. And the more you cover, the more.
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Dana Schwartz
You can save Amica. Empathy is our best policy. The flavor, the tradition and the spirit of Carne Asada lives on at Del Taco. Join the Asada today with Del Taco's new limited time pound Chipotle Carne Asada Steak Burrito. Packed with sweet, spicy and smoky flavor, wrapped up and grilled to perfection, the whole Carne Asada steak menu delivers the bold flavors you crave with epic burritos, loaded fries and street tacos starting at just $2.99 only at Del Taco.