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I don't think my parents ever figured movies would be something I'd succeed at. But they were both very accommodating. My dad would tolerate my movies if I kept my grades up. My mom let me off school at least once a week. I would fake being sick on Mondays so I could cut the movies I'd shot over the weekend. I'd put the thermometer up to the light bulb -- young Elliot does the same thing in E.T. -- and call her in and moan and groan. She'd play along and say, "My God, you're burning up. You're staying home today." When I was shooting a war movie and needed our family Jeep for production value, I said, "Mom, could you put on this tin helmet and this army surplus uniform and drive the Jeep through my shot?" And she'd drop everything, climb into the Jeep, race out behind Camelback Mountain and helter-skelter barrel through the shot, hitting the potholes, her blond hair sticking out from under the pith helmet. And I would have my "production value." My $7 film suddenly looked like a $24 film.
I was about 16 when our family moved from Phoenix to Northern California, and soon after, our parents separated. They hung in there to protect us until we were old enough. But I don't think they were aware of how acutely we were aware of their unhappiness -- not violence, just a pervading unhappiness you could cut with a fork or a spoon at dinner every night. For years I thought the word "divorce" was the ugliest in the English language. Sound traveled from bedroom to bedroom, and the word came seeping through the heating ducts. My sisters and I would stay up at night, listening to our parents argue, hiding from that word. And when it traveled into our room, absolute abject panic set in. My sisters would burst into tears, and we would all hold one another. And when the separation finally came, we were no better off for having waited six years for it to occur. I have two wonderful parents; they raised me really well. Sometimes parents can work together to raise a wonderful family and not have anything in common with each other. That happens a lot in America.
I have always felt like Peter Pan. I still feel like Peter Pan. It has been very hard for me to grow up. If my kids take me seriously as a father, they're going to have a tough time growing up too.