Spielberg reveals how 'E.T.' was the divorce movie that turned him into a dad

Speaking about his film 'E.T.' on its 40th anniversary at the TCM Classic Film Festival, renowned filmmaker Steven Spielberg explored how the split in his own family growing up informed his original story.

The director explained how making the film was the actual trigger that made him suddenly flip a switch from eschewing the prospect of ever being a father to putting parenthood on his vision board, reports 'Variety'.

"What happened was, I had been working on an actual literal script about my parents' separation and divorce", in the late 1970s, Spielberg told host Ben Mankiewicz.

"I was shooting the (climactic) scene and I suddenly thought, 'Wait a second. What if that little creature never went back to the ship? What if the creature was part of a foreign exchange program? (Richard) Dreyfuss goes and he stays? Or she stays?'"

It struck him that he could turn his family drama "into a story about children and a family trying to fill a great need and great responsibility? Divorce creates great responsibility. If you have siblings, we all take care of each other (in the wake of divorce). And what if Elliott, or the kid, I hadn't quite dreamed up his name yet, for the first time in his life becomes responsible for a life form, to fill the gap in his heart?"