In this heartwarming and soul-stirring episode of Still Here Hollywood, iconic actress Dee Wallace—forever beloved as the mom from Steven Spielberg’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial—opens up to host Steve Kmetko in one of her most emotional and revealing interviews yet. From tearful stories of miracles sparked by E.T. to the raw pain of personal loss and the power of self-healing, Dee shares an extraordinary life filled with resilience, transformation, and truth. Known for her unforgettable roles in Cujo, The Howling, and The Frighteners, Wallace offers a powerful masterclass in surviving Hollywood, channeling energy into creativity, and finding purpose through pain. Whether you're a fan of 80s blockbusters, horror icons, or spiritual empowerment, this episode will move you, inspire you—and quite possibly change how you see the power of storytelling.
Steve Kmetko:
Yes, I'm Still Here Hollywood coming up on today's episode. I never do this, but I'm going to challenge you to think back on film blockbusters and how many times you've seen them. Of course, there was Jaws, Titanic, Star Wars, I can't even remember how many times I've seen these films. And there was one movie Powerhouse from 1982 that you've probably seen at least five times that film made you laugh and cry and feel so strongly for a wrinkled little alien who just wanted to go home.
This is Still Here Hollywood. I'm Steve Kmetko. Join me with today's guest, Mary, the mom from et d Wallace. If you'd like to be more involved with us at Still Here Hollywood, you definitely can just visit patreon.com/StillHereHollywood. You can support us for as little as $3 a month. You can get our episodes a day before they post anywhere else. You can see what guests will be coming up and submit questions for them. You can even tell us what stars you want us to have on as guests. You'll see what goes on before and after the episode. Plus, exclusive behind the scenes info picks video and more. Again, that's patreon.com/StillHereHollywood.
Dee, thanks for coming by.
Dee Wallace:
You're welcome.
Steve Kmetko:
I really appreciate it. I do.
Dee Wallace:
I'm happy to be here.
Steve Kmetko:
Tell me, we're going to go back to the movie that most people remember you from or recognize you from. Do you know which one I'm talking about?
Dee Wallace:
What one would-- there's a finger in it. I know that.
Steve Kmetko:
Yes, there is. There is. I can remember the first time I saw it, I was living in and working in Louisville, Kentucky.
Dee Wallace:
Really?
Steve Kmetko:
Yes. And I wanted to do a story on it. And back then they didn't send out tapes to little reporters in Kentucky. So, I had a, a photographer come in and stand in the back of the theater and shoot some of the screen so we could use little bits and pieces.
Dee Wallace:
Oh, how smart--
Steve Kmetko:
But that's neither here nor there. Do you remember when it came out? Do you remember the first time you saw it?
Dee Wallace:
I did. I stood in line with everybody else over at the Cinerama Dome.
Steve Kmetko:
Intentionally or because they weren't having screenings or…
Dee Wallace:
Well, we hadn't had screenings, and so I was also teaching at the time. And so, a bunch of my acting students and I went over and stood in line. And of course, some photographer saw me there. And then of course when that aired, I got calls from Universal. Dee, why didn't you tell us? We would've, you know, so then I went over and watched it with the studio suits. I'm telling you; it was like an entirely different experience. Well, when you see it with a lot of the executives, everybody's kind of afraid to react in any particular way, because what if their boss doesn't agree. So, everybody sat there. There wasn't a lot of reaction. Light applause at the end. You at the Cinerama Dome, screaming and crying and standing up and applauding. And I mean, it was like a totally different experience.
I'm really glad I saw it at the Dome before I had that other experience because I think in my very naive beginning, actress way, I would've thought my career was over, you know, because there was just no reaction.
Steve Kmetko:
What did you think of it the first time you saw it?
Dee Wallace:
Oh, you know, that's a two-sided question.
Steve Kmetko:
Okay.
Dee Wallace:
Because I don't know about most actors, but when the first time I watched something, everything that happened goes, you know, you go, oh my God. That's when I had that horrible stomach ache and barely get to the set. And oh my gosh, that's when the camera broke, you know? So, it takes you a couple of times to watch it. And that being said, I knew it was a hit. I could tell just from the way the audience responded, that film reaches into your soul, it into your heart. It surpasses some block that we have and wakes us up. You know, I had this beautiful woman come up to me when I was doing private signing, and she said, Ms. Wallace, you're a part of a miracle. Here come the tears. You're a part of a miracle in my life. And I went, really? How so? And her son was autistic and she had never heard him speak a word. He was 10 years old, and she took him to see the re-release of E.T. and on the Way home, he said, every line that E.T. said in the movie. I mean, to me, that's miraculous. Can you imagine Never hearing your child?
Steve Kmetko:
No.
Dee Wallace:
And that's the kind of-- I have so many stories like that about how that movie has affected our lives.
Steve Kmetko:
Yes, I remember I had to take; I went the next day again. I wanted to take a bunch of friends. You got to see this movie. It touched me a lot.
Dee
Well, thank you.
Steve Kmetko:
It touched me a great deal. And E. T’s. going to be a star.
Dee Wallace:
Yeah. E.T. really is the star of the movie. And that's okay.
Steve Kmetko:
So, you have good feelings about it, good memories, fond memories of the movie.
Dee Wallace:
Let me tell you, I had to go over to, I think it was 20th at the time, and read the script behind Closed Doors. Back then, everybody was stealing ideas from everybody else. So, the working title for E.T. was a Boy's Life, so that nobody would know it was about science fiction or aliens or any of that stuff. We went over there and I read it, and I remember calling my agent, and this is exactly what I said. I don't know how much this is going to do for me, but I think it's going to do a lot for the world, and I want to be a part of it. You know, I think any actor will tell you have good ones and bad ones.
Making movies are hard. It's hard work, long hours, you know? And we were a family. I love those kids. I'm still in contact, well, really with all of them. Not so much Drew, but you know, we all went in and did her show a year ago, which was available on YouTube. It's just really a nice interview and a nice was a nice reunion, you know, loved the kids. We shot at the old studios were Gone with The Wind was shot. I walked into my dressing room, which did not have a bathroom. And I think it was the original from when they did with the Wind...
Steve Kmetko:
Had they vacuumed?
Dee Wallace:
Maybe a little. So, I redecorated I made it my own, you know, but I always now, always make them right in. I will have my own personal bathroom.
Steve Kmetko:
Why not?
Dee Wallace:
Well, I contracted things that you don't want because I had to use the bathroom everybody else was using, so I don't want to do that anymore.
Steve Kmetko:
Okay. People still must come up to you and talk to you about E.T.
Dee Wallace:
E.T., Cujo, the Howling. Those are always the top three.
Steve Kmetko:
Yeah. You were known for a while as a scream queen.
Dee Wallace:
Oh, I'm still a scream queen. I'm proud of it.
Steve Kmetko:
Really?
Dee Wallace:
Oh, you bet. Look in that genre. I'm a scream queen in the E.T. genre. I'm the best mom in the world, and I'm lucky that I get to cross all those boundaries. You know, I do Hallmark, I do Lifetime. I do have two beautiful family films that I did last year coming out. And then I go right into war. And I also have a whole other business. I'm a clear Ian channel, and I teach people self-creation. So, I jokingly say I spend half of my life doing horror films and the other half of my life healing people from Fear. And somehow it works out really well for me.
Steve Kmetko:
How did you get into that line of work?
Dee Wallace:
I was born, you know, from the time I was a little girl. I just always got messages. I woke up I was really, really close to my grandma, and I woke up in the middle of the night, and my poor mom, we were very poor when I was little, and my mom had to take a bus at 7:00 AM and I woke up at 2:00 AM in the morning, and I went in and I said, mommy, something's wrong at grandma's house. God love her. She got up and we called grandma and nobody answered. And grandma had a phone right by her bed.
So, my mom looked at me and she said, all right, Didi, we'll drive over. So, we drove over there. The cat had gotten up on the stove and turned all the burners on, but they hadn't lit. So, it was just gas coming out. Grandma was okay. Would she be okay in the morning? Who knew? But, you know, I used to hear this voice. We lived in a duplex with my grandma, ultimately, and my star, the stairs went up to a, what was my bedroom? And I would sit on those stairs to talk to my boyfriends, right? And I would hear all the time, help me. Can you help me? And I finally said, look, you don't need my help if you just want to leave, leave.
Never heard the voice again. Never heard it again. But things like that would happen to me all the time. And then I met my husband, Christopher Stone, who we acted together a lot, and he was involved in a philosophy called ology. So, I would study that with Chris. And then I found Science of Mind Church, which is your thoughts, create your life. And then I found Charles Conrad. And Charles Conrad was the acting mentor that literally changed my life, changed my life in acting, and taught me how to channel. He didn't call it that, we didn't call it that, I didn't even know I was doing it. But he taught a method where you get your energy really, really high and you throw it to the werewolf or the dog, or the person that you're working with. And what that does is it opens up a channel.
So, you just know what to do. You literally become the character. So, when I did E.T. for example, I never planned anything out, ever, which is why you got the great laugh of no penis breath chalk in my house right now. If I had mentally planned that out, I would, well, mothers, and, you know, they shouldn't swear in the house. And, but it was so real and so much more fun the way Mary the whole scene at the dinner table when he says he's in Mexico with Sally, I felt all these tears coming up and I thought, oh, I don't want the kids to see me cry. So, I got up and left, which was not in the script. Steven came over to me and said, Dee, why did you get up and leave? Not in the script. And I explained to him what happened, and he looked at me and turned around to the crew and said, you got a half an hour. Build me a wall here with a sink with running water, 30 minutes. So of course, boom, boom, boom, it happened. So, he could take me over to the sink and bring me back into that big closeup where I say he hates Mexico. All because Charles Conrad had taught me a method of trusting who I was, not Dee, but who I was. So, Mary told me what to do, and I worked that way ever since.
Steve Kmetko:
This other thing you mentioned concept ology.
Dee Wallace:
Uhhuh!
Steve Kmetko:
I'm not familiar with that.
Dee Wallace:
Most people aren't. It's--
Steve Kmetko:
It sounds a little hocus pocus to some people.
Dee Wallace:
Well, healing and channeling and Claire audience sounds hocus pocus in actuality. Religion, spirituality, and brain science are all saying the same thing. All of them. The first concept that has to be in place around self-creation is, you must know what you want. I created et this way. I made a whole list of everything I wanted and I went to love. And I just put a love, lot of love into that. And in less than three months, they just called and offered me E.T. I had auditioned for used cars, but Steven worked very, very, very far ahead. And he knew he wanted someone vulnerable and naive childlike because he wanted everybody in the film to be childlike. Well, that's kind of sums me up to tell you the truth. So, I had six specialists tell me I would never have a child. She's now 36, and my grandson is 18 months. So, you know, my message to everybody is don't listen to anybody else's limitations. If you have a dream, if there's something you want, commit to it and ask the universe to create it with you. And it will, it does. I'm watching your face and all the questions behind your eyes.
Steve Kmetko:
Yeah, there's a lot. And I'm also aware of the fact that I've, you've made 300 and whatever movies or productions I got, I have other things to get to.
Dee Wallace:
Okay.
Steve Kmetko:
Tell me about Cujo. Oh, that was a big hit too.
Dee Wallace:
You got an hour. Cujo is my favorite movie.
Steve Kmetko:
Really?
Dee Wallace:
Of mine. Yeah. You know, I just--
Steve Kmetko:
A rabid, was it St. Bernard? Is that what it is?
Dee Wallace:
Yeah. The sweetest dog there. And he did that on purpose. You know, the movie's very different from the book. In the movie the dogs possess by a demon and the kid dies. And when they brought me aboard, I said, guys, the kid can't die. Come on. It's 1980s. And you can't put everybody through what we're going to put them through. Half the people aren't going to have read the book that come to see the movie. And, and the producer agreed with me and Stephen King wrote us after Cujo.
Steve Kmetko:
Oh, did he? I was going to ask.
Dee Wallace:
And said, thank God you didn't kill the kid at the end. I've never gotten more hate mail for anything else I've done, so.
Steve Kmetko:
and he's pretty notorious for not liking movies that are made from his material.
Dee Wallace:
He's very, very genuine in his beautiful comments about Cujo.
Steve Kmetko:
Good. How did you feel about dogs after making that movie?
Dee Wallace:
Oh my God. There were 13 dogs that played Cujo because, and this was one of my great concerns that I asked about before I took the movie. Because I'm an animal activist. You can't overwork an animal. You can overwork me, which they did but those dogs were so well to Carl Miller even slept in the barn with them, you know. And they were wagging their tail all the time because they were taught to go after toys for their tricks. And so, we had to tie their tails down because they were wagging them all the time. So, no, Danny, who was six years old, thank God I got that kid. Unbelievable. neither one of us were ever afraid of the, the, the dogs. The hardest thing for me was I couldn't love on them. You can't interact with them because they bond with you then. And don't watch the trainer. Oh, that was so hard for me because I'm a big doggy lover.
Steve Kmetko:
Me too.
Dee Wallace:
But it was the hardest thing ever that I've done in my career.
Steve Kmetko:
Well, is it harder to do horror or drama?
Dee Wallace:
What's the difference?
Steve Kmetko:
Okay. Just--
Dee Wallace:
For me, there's no difference. For me, the ultimate goal is to be real in the moment. And whatever that reality asks of you, that's where you have to go.
Steve Kmetko:
We'll be back for more in a moment.
Do you remember what it was like working with Steven Spielberg? I mean, he was still pretty, still fairly new compared to what he's done by now. Was it hard working with him or easy?
Dee Wallace:
No, no, no. It was, he's a kid.
Steve Kmetko:
I've interviewed him and he seems,
Dee Wallace:
Well, he's a kid on the set with the kids. And we were all, yeah, my hardest thing about E.T. was how much we had to wait because Steven wanted you on the set whether you worked or not, in case, you know, amuse hit him, like, build a wall, you've got 30 minutes, you know. So, it was challenging for me. And I remember Steven asked me one time if I could explain that to him, and I said, actors are like race horses, Steven. You pick them up from the stall and they go, oh, I'm going to run. I'm going to run. And you take us and you groom us, and you put our saddle on us, and you take us to the line. And pretty soon, if we don't get to run, we just want to break the place down. It just builds up because people don't understand that your body and your brain go through all the chemical reactions that you do if you are truly in fight or flight. So, the minute, at least the way I work, the minute you get to the set, you're pumped and you are in fight or flight, you got to act. You got to act.
Steve Kmetko:
Ready to go.
Dee Wallace:
Yeah. Because you literally do always have to be ready to go. You never know when you're going to be called, ever.
Steve Kmetko:
What are some of the other films you did that you have fond memories of?
Dee Wallace:
Oh, well, we had a very good time on The Howling. You know, I was engaged to Christopher, who played my husband. There's a great story. Do have time?
Steve Kmetko:
Yeah.
Dee Wallace:
Okay. So, Dan Blatt, our beloved producer called me and he said, Dee, we've got a great cast for you. We're just still looking for your husband. I said, well, what are you looking for? He said, well, he is got to be real veal, but with a real sensitive side to him. And I went, oh my God, I'm engaged to him, and he's a well-known actor. And in the same thought, Steve, I said, if I say that, they'll never hire him. So, I said, you know, there's this guy I did chips with Christopher Smith, or Stone, some word. So, they went out, they found him on his own, they called him in, he got the part. The next day Dan calls and I pick up and he goes, Dee, oh, you, you know that guy that you recommended? Well, we loved him and we hired him. I thought I was calling his number. And I said, yeah, Dan, you are. And there's this long pause. And he goes, oh.
Ultimately, they were extremely happy that Christopher was there, and Chris breaks everything down, you know, he was by the book, me. Totally, in the moment, whatever comes, whatever happens. So, we get to the set to do this big scene, fight scene where he has to slap me and Joe, Dante, our, our director said, well, I'm sure you guys rehearse this last night. Show me what you got. And Chris looked at him and said, I'm sorry, my leading lady doesn't rehearse and Joe looked at me and I went, I know how to take a stage slap. I know he knows how to give a stage slap. Let's just shoot. And we got it on the first date.
Steve Kmetko:
How nice.
Dee Wallace:
Yeah. But I mean, we had a lot of fun, obviously, on and off screen. Shooting that movie.
Steve Kmetko:
What could she mean by that?
Dee Wallace:
Yeah. What could you possibly mean? I only play mothers. Okay.
Steve Kmetko:
You lost Christopher while you were filming.
Dee Wallace:
I did. Yeah.
Steve Kmetko:
What was that circumstance like you were in New Zealand, right?
Dee Wallace:
Yeah. Shooting the Frighteners
Steve Kmetko:
With Peter Jackson.
Dee Wallace:
Peter Jackson, yeah. Love, love, love Peter Jackson. Well, it was very hard. I had had my little girl who was not seven yet, and my nanny with me. And they had just gone back to LA to home. Christopher had a heart attack. I flew back and I'll, sorry. I will all always love Peter Jackson deeply for how he helped me through all that. And he said, Dee, it's family. You have to go. So, I went back, they did the angioplasty, he was fine. He was an actor. He said, he called me Pepper, Papa, go back. They're holding, filming for you. Go back. I'm fine. And I looked at the doctor and he said, he's fine. He's going home tomorrow. So, I called him and flew back without my daughter. And four days later, a blood clot hit his heart and he was gone.
Steve Kmetko:
How old was he?
Dee Wallace:
And my baby found him. He--
Steve Kmetko:
Your daughter found him.
Dee Wallace:
My daughter found him. And thank God my nanny was there because she was. Thank you. It was right before he turned 55.
Steve Kmetko:
So young.
Dee Wallace:
Now, before I had met him, he had a blood clot, head aneurysm. So, I guess he had a propensity for this, although the doctor cleared him, said he was okay. So that was four days I'd been back. And, you know, it's like 14-hour flight. It takes you days to find out where you're at. So, I flew back again. I put on his celebration of life, grabbed my nanny, grabbed Gabby, and we flew back again so I could finish shooting. And Peter looked at me and he said, Dee, we thought you would never be back. And I said, well, I'm from Kansas and my mom taught me, you start a job, you finish a job no matter what. And it served me really well. I watched her live with and take care of all of us through a severely alcoholic father who ended up committing suicide. And I learned a lot of strength from my mom.
Steve Kmetko:
It doesn't sound as though your life at times has not been a bowl of cherries.
Dee Wallace:
Not at all. But, you know, that's my story. We all have our story. It's what you do with your story that matters. And I said, okay. I got a 7-year-old kid to raise. I have to go on to, you know, three years ago, my little brother committed suicide, who was also an alcoholic. And my sister-in-law called Gabrielle first, she said, oh my God, don't call mom. Let me go over there. We were doing a film together. And I thought, oh, how nice. Gabs coming to pick me up, you know? And she came in and told me, and we cried together. We called the family, and I looked at her and I said, I think we need to go to work. What do you think? She said, let's go, mom. So, we went and shot the rest of the day. I think it's important to teach our kids and ourselves not to use our past challenges as our present limitations.
Steve Kmetko:
I have a good friend who watches this podcast recently, recently he told me, you know, every time I watch, I feel like you're using it as a therapy. So, please take my platform today. You're more than welcome to it.
Dee Wallace:
Well, I just, you know, when we're in the public eye, I think it's important for us to teach the positive things that, that we've learned in life. You know, I haven't done 350, 400 films and, you know, the biggest lesson I learned this year, what is, I realized it was, and it always is by the way, I realized it was my perspective on a lot of films that I was not being respected. And when I traced it back, it started at four years old with my dad, and I watched him, my dad was an amazing entrepreneur, created the first discount house in America, created the, those of you that fish out there, the bobber that you use to tell when a fish is on the hook. Everything he created was taken away or stolen from him by people who he trusted. And do you know that our brain is locked into most of our belief systems by eight years old?
So, whatever we're verbally taught or modeled in front of us, that's the way we think the world works. And then, like the Good Books says, as you believe it's delivered to you, whatever your belief systems are, the universe has to match that. And that shows up as your life. So, if you want to see the walls you're hitting as an adult, go back and go, all right, what did I hear about this? What was I taught from conception to eight years old? You'll see the belief you need to change. It's crazy to watch. I teach it every day. I just talked to a, one of my clients who three years ago, he didn't know what, what to do with his life. He hated his job, blah, blah. Anyway, cut to the chase in three years, getting clear about what he wanted. He has created this amazing business and just bought a whole manufacturing site to produce it. That's a lot in three years,
Steve Kmetko:
And we'll be right back.
You worked with Michael J. Fox?
Dee Wallace:
I did.
Steve Kmetko:
On the Frighteners--
Dee Wallace:
Not as much as I would've liked to. On the Frighteners?
Steve Kmetko:
Yeah, on the Frighteners. At that point, were there any signs of his Parkinson's at that point?
Dee Wallace:
I believe that it was just starting. And I just have faint memories of him flying back and forth, needing to fly back and forth to America to see his doctor. But there were no signs physically in his performance. I only got to do one scene with Michael. Most of mine were with Jake Busey. And, and yeah, well, most of mine were with Jake. What a beautiful cast, beautiful experience. You know, when I took my daughter back, for example, this really sums up Peter, you know, I had to fly through the worms, so I would, they had me in a flying apparatus like Peter Pan, and Gabrielle was on the set and she went, oh, mommy, I want to fly too. Do you know he had them build her a little thing so that she could go up and fly
Steve Kmetko:
A harness?
Dee Wallace:
Yeah. I mean, come on. How many directors, producers would do that not many.
Steve Kmetko:
What I'm noticing with you, correct me if I'm wrong, but despite the tears, which aren't always interpreted for what they really mean you seem like a pretty bright, positive person.
Dee Wallace:
Oh, absolutely.
Steve Kmetko:
Why is that?
Dee Wallace:
You know--
Steve Kmetko:
For all you've been through!
Dee Wallace:
I have a book, one of my books called Bright Light, and my daddy used to say, you are the bright light in the family. I think I came in to hold the balance in my family, watch over my little brother who's seven years younger, and my older brother was seven years older, who was a minister for a while. And I just watched my mother rally so many times, and the Joyful parts, the Christmases and the Easters, and we would always have Sunday dinner with one of my grandparents, and those were better than the painful times. A lot of people use, they use pain to assuage their guilt. So, I feel guilty, so I'm going to make myself sick so I can pay for my guilt. That's why a lot of people are sick because they're angry. Anger, according to what I know, is at the basis of all illness, especially cancer, anger doesn't serve anybody, especially you.
Steve Kmetko:
Back to E.T. for a second on YouTube, I saw the audition for your movie son, Henry Thomas. He was just incredible with the emotion that he brought to that tryout. Was that all him or was Steven coaching him?
Dee Wallace:
Of course, Steven worked with him, and according to Henry, who I see often and do appearances with, that was, they kind of had a planned thing that they tried to get him to do. And then Steven said, okay, kid, do, you know, just, just go with it and your dogs died, I think, I think is this story. And then Steven would do that on the set with the kids. Okay, drew, now take a bite of your hamburger. Now look at Henry. Now look at Dee. Now say the line. You know, he would keep them fresh and in the moment. Well, that's the way I love to work. So, I was right at home with that. I loved. Now you see, I wouldn't have called that improv, I guess in the strictest sense of the word. It is improv, and it's my technique.
Steve Kmetko:
You know, I read something about Margaret O'Brien, who was such a wonderful child actress. Yes. That they frequently did that with her. The movie I'm thinking of is meet Me in St. Louis where she had to cry so much as Judy Garland is singing, have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. And it worked quite well with her. So maybe he got his idea from that.
Dee Wallace:
Well, you can't rehearse and overwork kids, you know, because kids live in the moment, and if you keep trying to get them to do the same thing over and over again, it gets old. And you can tell they're acting. I mean, I can tell the first time a kid says a line in a scene if their mother rehearsed it with them. I'm not kidding, because mothers say it very different than kids say it. A lot of the toys in the boys' rooms were their actual toys that they brought so that they could relate to them in a personal way.
Steve Kmetko:
There was that wonderful scene in the closet with all those toys. When E.T. is made up, they put a hat on him or something. And his, his head goes up and is that where Drew Screams?
Dee Wallace:
Yeah, I think so. I think so. Yeah. Boy, did she have a scream too. You know, that kid we knew from day one she was going to be a producer and director. I'm sitting in a high director's chair first day on set, and she comes up to me and she goes, Heidi, I'm going to sit in your lap down. And I said, okay, drew, come on up. I mean, she just knew what she wanted that one.
Steve Kmetko:
And she got you all together for her talk show?
Dee Wallace:
Yes. It was a beautiful show too.
Steve Kmetko:
Was that the first time you'd all been together since the movie?
Dee Wallace:
Far as I can remember. Yes.
Steve Kmetko:
And it's on YouTube.
Dee Wallace:
Well, now we got together for the 40th anniversary and the screening and all that.
Steve Kmetko:
So, was there any moment during E.T. since that, was E.T. Oh, maybe I shouldn't do this because we're going to give away a secret or--
Dee Wallace:
Oh, my--
Steve Kmetko:
No. Was there a person in that, in E.T. was there?
Dee Wallace:
Well, sure.
Steve Kmetko:
Oh, okay!
Dee Wallace:
Actually, there were two--
Steve Kmetko:
Well, he did make a mechanical shark.
Dee Wallace:
Yes. Well, and there was a mechanical et there was a hydraulic E.T. there was a Mimust that did the closeup fingers and arm work. And there was a little boy Matthew Demerit, who they put in upside down and he walked on his hands. And that's how they got E.T incredible Walk. So, you know, and of course, drew was what, four or six, I think.
Steve Kmetko:
Very Young.
Dee Wallace:
And so, Steven found at one point, drew was over there talking to E.T. who was just standing up in a corner somewhere. And so, from then on Steven made sure he had two guys on E.T. at all times, so that if Drew came over to talk to him, he could do his eyes or blink or raise his head up a little bit or so it would help her continue the belief that E.T. was real.
Steve Kmetko:
What's the last good movie you saw?
Dee Wallace:
Oh my gosh. I loved Wicked and I loved Timothy Ese.
Steve Kmetko:
Where he played Bob Dylan.
Dee Wallace:
Yeah. Thought that was a beautiful film. And I like a lot of the old, we watch a lot of old films.
Steve Kmetko:
Turner Classic movies.
Dee Wallace:
My guy and I. Yeah. I still learn a lot from watching Catherine Hepburn and the older actresses.
Steve Kmetko:
Who did you have the most fun working with? Who did you learn the from?
Dee Wallace:
You mean directorially?
Steve Kmetko:
No, Co-Stars.
Dee Wallace:
Wow. I've never been asked that question. Well--
Steve Kmetko:
I'm an original.
Dee Wallace:
Well, we all know that. Dudley Moore. Oh my God, I so loved working with--
Steve Kmetko:
In 10. No less.
Dee Wallace:
In 10 with Blake Edwards. Yeah.
Steve Kmetko:
And Bo Derek.
Dee Wallace:
And Bo Derek. And I have to honestly say my husband, Christopher Stone, we would have so much fun together, but he was, he was so level, and he was so even, and I think I was a better actor. And he taught me how to take that and not make it so important and have fun, you know when I did 10, my mother years later, she said, I have something to show you, Deedee. And she pulled out these two letters. She said, you wrote those to me when you were doing 10. And I read them and I went, oh my God. Mary Lewis wrote these letters. I didn't write these letters, Mary Lewis, because I was so afraid that if I got out of character, I wouldn't be able to get back in. It was my first, you know, big film. And I learned that from Dudley, too.
Dudley would say, come on, Dee, you're going with us. We're all going into town. We're going to have drinks and dinner. I danced on more tabletops with Dudley Moore than I can care to remember, but we did. He was just a kind, beautiful, talented, you know, again, that scene where he's playing his piano in the bar, and Blake does his huge closeup of me listening. That was all that just happened. They'd already broken the set and were taking the cameras and everything off to the next, and Dudley started playing. And I was just sitting there and he, you know, he was a master pianist. Yes. And I was so moved. And the tears came, and Dudley or Blake walked by and went, everybody bring everything back.
Everything back. Hurry up, get it set up. Because he wanted to cover deadly playing and me reacting. That's, where the magic on this happens when everybody trusts each other enough to go with what's real. And then your director sees it, and then all of a sudden, a moment's created that nobody even knew was there. It's so magical. It's magical. Cujo, you know, and when I hit the glass at the end of the movie and Danny's in there, well, we'd practiced it and walked through it. So, Louis t our director says, all right, Dee, we're going to shoot this in Slowmo. So, you have to really hit the window. You can't break it. It's all treated right, third hits go through the glass. Do I hear cut? Hell no.
So, I just keep going and I pick Danny up and I go, I can't drag him out. We're supposed to drag him out. I can't drag him out. There's glass there. So, I do this stupid waddle and get him out of the car, still don't hear cut. Run up to the door. Finally hear Blake runs in. He goes, oh my God, are you okay? And I went, I think so. Why Dee your arm? Well, I'd slip my arm going through the glass, you know, he said, I hate to ask you to do this, but this is our last day on the set. Can we wrap it with gauze before we take you to the, so we did and we did it again, but we used the first one. Everybody was like, holy hell, she broke the, everybody just froze, I think, you know? But it's a great shot. Great shot.
Steve Kmetko:
Dee, what question would you ask you?
Dee Wallace:
Right now, in this moment? What's next?
Steve Kmetko:
That sounds too much like an end. I'm not done.
Dee Wallace:
Well, yeah. Who's done? People ask me all the time, when are you going to retire? I go, what the hell does that mean? I don't even know what that word means. I love my healing work. I love my acting. I, and I love my family. I don't want to not have time for any of those things ever. I want to be, oh gosh, what's her name? Oh, that did Pippen and went back to her room.
Steve Kmetko:
Irene Ryan.
Dee Wallace:
Yes. She did her matinee, took her bow, went back to take a nap and left.
Steve Kmetko:
And that was that.
Dee Wallace:
Yeah. Is there a better way to go for an actor?
Steve Kmetko:
No. Better than dying on stage.
Dee Wallace:
Well, yeah. Wouldn't want to do that but.
Steve Kmetko:
No.
Dee Wallace:
You know, if you don't continue to ask what's next, you just stay here and you're stuck. And you're never stuck unless you believe you choose to be.
Steve Kmetko:
E.T. reportedly made $800 million at the box office, and that was--
Dee Wallace:
I didn't get much of it.
Steve Kmetko:
That's was my next question.
Dee Wallace:
Well, we get residuals and we did get a courteous payment very long time ago. What I am hoping is that we all had merchandising in our contract and have not received any of that for years and years and years. And I think it would be lovely of Universal to honor that for all of us.
Dee Wallace:
Oh, come on. What do you want to say?
Steve Kmetko:
No, no, no, no.
Dee Wallace:
All of us had it in our contract. Yeah.
Steve Kmetko:
Merchandising, payments. And those haven't happened.
Dee Wallace:
Like I said at the very beginning, we got a payment, but that it's been years and years a while and years. And there's a lot of merchandising out there. And at this point in all of our lives, it would financially help be a blessing, you know, for the boys. Henry's raising, I think three kids. And Robert now works for the postal service. So, it would, I'm in the process, and this was my idea of building an ADU onto my house so that--
Steve Kmetko:
ADU?
Dee Wallace:
Additional dwelling unit,
Steve Kmetko:
oh, B&B!
Dee Wallace:
So that I can move in there and my daughter and her family can come over and, and take over the big house and we'll all be together and everybody wins. You know, everybody wins. And it would be lovely to have additional income to help with that. Sure. And I've already got three films booked. I leave next week for one to shoot before the end of June. So again.
Steve Kmetko:
But that's a fast track by the end of June.
Dee Wallace:
Very blessed.
Steve Kmetko:
How did they fake the rabies on Cujo?
Dee Wallace:
Dear God. Well fake blood and egg whites. So, everybody like, had to be ready to shoot. Right. Get ready, get ready, get ready. Because once they put that stuff on the dog, all the dog wanted to do was--
Steve Kmetko:
Lick it off.
Dee Wallace:
Lick it off, right. So yeah. And then the trainer would go, grill, grow for your toy, grill for your, or jump for your toy. Dig for your toy. Dig, dig for your, you know, they were all trained to go after toys. There's a couple of shots that they chose to left leave in when the tails are wagging because they thought it was gleefully ominous, I think.
Steve Kmetko:
Gleefully ominous. Some female actors we've had on, I have a tendency to ask them if aging has,
Dee Wallace:
I have no belief in that.
Steve Kmetko:
Tell me.
Dee Wallace:
I just keep working.
Steve Kmetko:
I noticed!
Dee Wallace:
You know, as you believe, I mean, be it a straight won the Oscar at 80 something, I believe. You know, I just don't have any belief in that.
Steve Kmetko:
Jessica Tandy, I think was even older when she won the Oscar.
Dee Wallace:
Yeah. Like I said, you don't retire when you do stuff you love. And most actors love to act.
Steve Kmetko:
I forget who it was, but somebody famous once said, you know, have a job that you like and you'll never work a day in your life.
Dee Wallace:
That's right. Who was that?
Steve Kmetko:
I don't know!
Dee Wallace:
I don't remember. That's a great quote.
Steve Kmetko:
Back with more in a moment.
Was there ever a moment on E.T. when things didn't go right with the hydraulic or?
Dee Wallace:
No, I'm sure maybe with the boys, but when, when I was working with E.T. I remember the first day on the set, I came into the stage door and I turned and E.T. was standing there with three or four people around him. They were talking about something. I stopped in my tracks. It was so lifelike. You could, you could feel his soul. It's the only way I can describe it. It Carlo ALDI did such and an amazing job and the script was, was so beautiful. The only time Steven and I parted ways creatively was, there was a scene, there's a whole B story in E.T. about et having a love affair with Mary, a love crush on Mary. And there's little bits of it left in there. There was a scene where he came in to put Reese's pieces down on my bedside table as I'm asleep. Well, Mr. Spielberg wanted the sheet a little lower than I was comfortable with. And I argued my point that this was a family film. I could understand the parents smoking pot in Polter, guys, but this film was very pure to me, and it was about love. And so, we ended up calling in Kathleen Kennedy and Melissa are beautiful, amazing writer. And they were kind of agreed with her, Steven. So, we compromised and pulled the sheet up almost to my shoulder plates, which I was okay with.
Steve Kmetko:
That's pretty high.
Dee Wallace:
Not to a girl from Kansas. Who knew her grandmother was going to be watching this. You know, you can take the girl out of Kansas. You can't take Kansas out of the girl.
Steve Kmetko:
They took Dorothy Gay an out of Kansas. You were in Stepford wives, right?
Dee Wallace:
Oh my God. Yeah. It was my first thing.
Steve Kmetko:
Very first?
Dee Wallace:
Very first I was in New York and I had just gotten there from Kansas and, you know, $2,000 in Kansas would last a really long time not so much in New York. So, I went in to interview for a part-time receptionist job. And the director kept walking by and he'd look at me and he'd walk and he'd look at me and finally he came over and he said, are you an actress? I said, I am. You want to be in a movie? I went; I do. This is kind of my life. Things just happen for me. They just, now that's easy to say. And I always knew what I wanted. So that's how I got the part in the S wives. I think I have two lines, one of which is Ya, because I'm the German maid and I am German. My maiden name is Bowers. But I learned so much on that set, watching those three actresses, all three totally different, totally different, worked totally different ways had a lot of different personal needs to be taken care of.
I just, that was the biggest gift from doing Stafford wise. And then when I got out to la my acting teacher, Charles Conrad had a lot of casting directors come in. He was one of the first people that did that. And we would put on a, a showcase. And the, from that, I got the lead in this religious film with Grant Good Eve. Do you remember Grant from made us enough? I used to call him Grant Goodbody. He was hot. He was. And so sweet. And it was about, it was a religious film, Irene. I actually had a line, I can't marry an unsaved boy, which in the audition, I said, I can't marry an Unshaved boy because I had so many tears in my eyes. I couldn't read the, the words and the director. And I became close, close friends. And I asked him if he could, and this was before you had a disc. He had to bring all the cans, the big cans of reels out. And I invited 10 or 11 agents. Everybody said, are you crazy? It's a religious film. They're going to laugh you out of the room.
Only one of the people I invited didn't want me at their agency, because you could see, it may have been religious, but you could see the work. It was very, very, very dramatic. Everybody told me, six specialists told me, can't have a baby Dee, you'll never have a baby. I said, thanks for sharing. Going to have one anyway. And she's 36 and I have my first grandson. Everybody said, don't go to New York. Nobody knows you. You don't know anybody. I was a school teacher at the time. I said, thanks for sharing. I'm going to go anyway. In less than seven years, I start in E.T. So, my message to everyone is don't accept anybody else's limitation, because everybody will try and keep you safe and make you smaller to try and protect You. Just follow your heart and go.
Steve Kmetko:
Did you feel protective of Drew with the struggles she went through early on?
Dee Wallace:
I felt very protective of Drew and every kid I've ever worked with while I'm on the set, every one of them, it's why I guess I play mothers so well, you know, they just become my kid. Drew the, when we had to do the scene where E.T 's dying, she was waiting on the sound stage next to me. And I went and I said, drew, we're going to do the E.T 's the scene where E.T 's dying. But you know, he's not really dying, sweetheart. He's just acting like you, you and Dee act. I know that. Do you think I'm stupid? So, I picked her up, took her into the set, and they're ready to roll. She takes one look at E.T. and goes, he's dying. And Steven's going, roll it. Roll. You know, at that age and its Danny's age. Although Danny was, he was like working with a 20-year-old fantasy and reality go in and out. All the time.
Steve Kmetko:
For me too.
Dee Wallace:
For you too. I knew I liked you right away.
Steve Kmetko:
Dee, this is wonderful. Thank you so much.
Dee Wallace:
Oh, thank you. Great questions.
Steve Kmetko:
Still Here Hollywood is a production of the Still Here network. All things technical run by Justin Zangerle. Theme music by Brian Sanyhyn and executive producer is Jim Lichtenstein.