Henry Thomas: As ET actor celebrates birthday, watch his tearful audition with Steven Spielberg

‘Jurassic Park’ filmmaker described the child as a ‘once-in-a-lifetime kid’

In the pantheon of Hollywood audition tapes, few have ever made quite as much of a mark as that of Henry Thomas.

The actor, who celebrates his 49th birthday on 9 September, auditioned for the role of Elliott in Steven Spielberg’s ET the Extra-terrestrial when he was just nine years old.

Footage of the audition, which was made available on the blu-ray release of ET has been viewed by more than 10 million people on YouTube.

For the audition, Thomas was told to improvise after being given a bare outline of the scene’s context: that a Nasa representative had arrived at his house to take away his alien best friend. 

As Elliott starts telling the man, “you can’t take him”, he begins to break into tears.

By the end of the audition, Thomas is practically sobbing, offering a display of raw emotion made all the more impressive by the actor’s age.

At the end of the clip, Spielberg can be heard saying: “Ok kid, you got the job.”

The Jaws director was full of praise for the young actor at the time, telling Premiere magazine in 1982: “The improvisation was so heartfelt and honest that I gave him the part right there.” 

“I was blown away by this nine-year-old. Then I came to realize he’s an adult actor, not a nine-year-old. He’s a very controlled, methodical performer who measures what he does and feels what he does and yet broadcasts it in a totally subtle way.” 

Thomas as Elliott in the final version of 'ET', riding a bike with his alien companion in one of the film's most famous scenes (Universal)

He continued: “His performance is so controlled, unlike most kid performers, who seem to be giving you 150 percent on every shot. Henry’s performance is just a bread crumb at a time, but he takes you in a wonderful direction to a very, very rousing catharsis. He’s just a once-in-a-lifetime kid.”

Since finding fame with his early role in ET, Thomas has continued to act, appearing in films such as Gangs of New York and Ouija: Origin of Evil.

Last year, he featured in the film adaptation of Stephen King’s Shining sequel Doctor Sleep as Jack Torrance, the character first played by Jack Nicholson in the 1980 horror classic.