MovieChat Forums > E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) Discussion > How come Henry Thomas never became a maj...

How come Henry Thomas never became a major A-list star like Drew Barrymore?

posted 3 years ago by TMC-4 (19417)
6 replies | jump to latest

Before I continue, this isn't in any way, meant as a slight or an attack on Drew Barrymore. I'm just wondering why Henry Thomas could never transcend himself beyond his role in ET like Drew was able to do. Looking at his filmography, Henry still works, but he seems to be what can be considered a working, character type of performer:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Thomas

In fairness, Drew Barrymore didn't exactly have it easy herself. She claims that she was essentially blacklisted by the time that she was 14 due to her struggles with substance abuse. When she landed the movie Poison Ivy, she was if I have my facts straight, literally working a 9 to 5 job in a coffee chop.

[–] [deleted] 2 years ago

I'm surprised you never mentioned Robert MacNaughton, or for that matter any of the other actors in this movie. Their careers never exactly took off either.
Many of the actors in this movie, especially the child actors never really worked after this. Robert MacNaughton had once mentioned that he was never really handed any good scripts after ET, so he pretty much left acting. Thomas Howell has worked steadily since ET, thought he once said working on Soul Man may have hurt his career.
Henry Thomas has said that the sudden fame he got after being in ET was quite hard on him, personally.

[–] TMC-4 (19417) 2 years ago

I was looking at Robert MacNaughton's IMDb page, and I was a bit shocked to see that he really didn't have a big prolific career after ET.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0534085/

He's most noteworthy acting role beyond ET was probably in the 1983 film I Am Cheese:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_the_Cheese_(film)

But after that, a few made for TV movies or walk on roles on TV shows for the rest the '80s, but nothing truly remarkable. You would think that starring in something as monumental as ET, would've in theory, opened doors but it turned out that it was something of a dead end.

I don't know if Robert simply didn't network very well, was typecast (i.e. it was hard to see him as anybody other than Elliott's big brother), didn't like what he was being offered, or he simply didn't "want it enough".

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-07-10-ca-7820-story.html

[–] overseas7 (3524) 2 years ago

I watched a couple of years ago the bonus features of ET. Henry was a very quiet kid ( this is not a criticism), on the other side Drew was very communicative. May be that was the reason.
I had a short talk with Henry Thomas (he was there with Robert MacNaughton) at the Comic-con in Dortmund and he was very polite.

[–] PaladinNJ (20310) 2 years ago

He didn't have Drew's connections. Drew is part of "Hollywood Royalty" and Steven Spielberg is her godfather.

[–] The_Rev (206) a year ago

Henry Thomas probably wasn't Spielberg's "type," if you know what I mean... *shudders*
What? Yall know Hollyweird is overrun with sexual predators hiding in plain sight...

[–] BOandBarbecue (2264) a year ago

common misconcept with movie fan is they think if actor is not starring in latest nolan shitburgers then he not worth as actor.

if you are not philistine then you know henry thomas is good actor and in many good film.

actor should not be judge by a-list or popular. that is for shit actor like leo di crapio, geoge looney, brad pitts, jizz face jlaw etc etc. actor is judge by talents and quality of film they act in, not money success.