Melissa Matheson was cut from the film because...

Posted by Brett (Maverick) Lambert from Port5.westworld.ca on May 30, 2000 at 17:32:47:

In Reply to: Well,... posted by Indy's Girl on May 30, 2000 at 15:25:16:

: :
: : Does somebody on this forum not like ET? Cause I've read a few posts that seem to be against it--If so, what exactly is so bad about it? I've seen it before, and I thought it was pretty good if I remember right.

: For those of you who don't know, Harrison Ford's wife, Melissa Mathison, wrote E.T., and she and Harrison both had cameos in the film: she was the school nurse, and he was the school principal. But the scenes with them were deleted, for some unknown reason....
: BTW, I haven't actually seen the movie in years, so i don't remember it that well. But I do know that I did love it when I was a kid.

She was going to have a cameo appearance as the school nurse who was going to talk to Elliott's mom about Elliott's drunken nature (E.T. drank some booze and sine E.T. and Elliott are telepathically connected, Elliott got drunk and freed a bunch of frogs from being disected, a scene I've always wanted to re-enact! (grins)). She was taken out because she was so nervous about being onscreen (it was going to be her film debut and had no previous acting experience) she came off as quite wooden. So Spielberg cut her out, and also it did little to the plot I understand. And Harrison was cut out because... well read Abner's post below (and I think Spielberg did the right decision, nobody disses E.T. and gets away with it!! However, you can still see Harrison's back on a couple shots as the school teacher, I'm pretty sure it is him, if you look at the far away shot of the teacher taking away Elliott to the principals office, it very much seems like the stature of Harrison).

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Actually... mlif 02:58:35 5/31/2000 (0)

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: : : 
: : :    Does somebody on this forum not like ET? Cause I've read a few posts that seem to be against it--If so, what exactly is so bad about it? I've seen it before, and I thought it was pretty good if I remember right.

: : For those of you who don't know, Harrison Ford's wife, Melissa Mathison, wrote E.T., and she and Harrison both had cameos in the film: she was the school nurse, and he was the school principal.  But the scenes with them were deleted, for some unknown reason....
: : BTW, I haven't actually seen the movie in years, so i don't remember it that well.  But I do know that I did love it when I was a kid.

: She was going to have a cameo appearance as the school nurse who was going to talk to Elliott's mom about Elliott's drunken nature (E.T. drank some booze and sine E.T. and Elliott are telepathically connected, Elliott got drunk and freed a bunch of frogs from being disected, a scene I've always wanted to re-enact! (grins)).  She was taken out because she was so nervous about being onscreen (it was going to be her film debut and had no previous acting experience) she came off as quite wooden.  So Spielberg cut her out, and also it did little to the plot I understand.  And Harrison was cut out because... well read Abner's post below (and I think Spielberg did the right decision, nobody disses E.T. and gets away with it!!  However, you can still see Harrison's back on a couple shots as the school teacher, I'm pretty sure it is him, if you look at the far away shot of the teacher taking away Elliott to the principals office, it very much seems like the stature of Harrison).

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