Close Encounters actor talks on 40th anniversary of Spielberg film (2025)

When sci-fi film Close Encounters of the Third Kind was released on November 16, 1977 it became an instant global sensation, raking in more than $337 million at the box office worldwide and bagging an Oscar for best movie.

Stephen Spielberg's groundbreaking flick about an alien race visiting Earth was considered so realistic that it prompted millions of people to believe extra-terrestrial life could visit soon.

Now to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the classic movie DailyMail.com has spoken to one of the film's young stars.

Former child actor Cary Guffey was just three-years-old when Spielberg cast him as Barry Guiler, the curious young boy abducted by aliens.

In an exclusive interview Cary, who made his acting debut in the movie, recalls how filming felt like 'play time' with Spielberg keeping him close, showing him how all the special effects were done, even letting him detonate an explosion on set.

He has particularly vivid memories of the alien spaceship, one of Spielberg's most memorable cinematic creations.

'Forget about suspension of disbelief, that mothership actually flew,' says Cary.

'The film has carried through all these years, it's remarkable.

'I was so lucky to have been a part of all that, and to be a part of something that has that much longevity.

'I feel so fortunate because people are still interested after all these years.'

In the movie young Barry, the small boy with intrepid curiosity for an alien spaceship that visits Earth, is abducted by the aliens for a short time, only to return to Earth intact and sad to say goodbye to his new extraterrestrial friends.

For Cary, Spielberg's youngest ever leading actor, the filming was a non stop lark.

Cary, now 44, a financial adviser living in Atlanta, Georgia, can't help laughing at the extraordinary memories he has.

'I turned four on set, so I was still a baby,' he said. 'I don't have a clear memory of the whole experience - it's more like flashes of memories, but I think that there was so much attention on me that it really had a lasting impression.

'I distinctively remember being carried around set and being doted on by all these people. The set was really muddy and I couldn't walk around because I would get mud all over me.

'Steven Spielberg always treated me like an equal. He would get down to my eye level and get eye to eye with me, he'd take me aside and show me how something was going to blow up and then let me blow it up so that I was not scared by it.

'My time on set felt like playtime. It wasn't work. It wasn't a job. It was like, "Let's play!" It felt like one big party.

'I think Spielberg is just a big kid and when you boil it down to the bare bones, he's a big kid who loves telling stories and can connect with folks in a special way,' he said.

Cary had never acted before, so Spielberg set up ways to coax a performance out of the toddler.

To get a shot of Cary reacting to the aliens first approaching the Guiler house, Spielberg slowly unwrapped a present for the young actor just off camera, making him smile.

Cary even exclaims: 'Toys! Toys!' in the final take.

To get the boy to react to the aliens offscreen, Spielberg had Cary walk up to his mark where -unbeknownst to the tiny actor - two crew members were dressed as a gorilla and a clown standing behind cardboard blinds.

When Cary entered the kitchen, Spielberg dropped the first blind revealing the clown to scare him, and then dropped the other blind to reveal the gorilla, which scared him even more. The gorilla then took off his mask, revealing the film's makeup man, Bob Westmoreland, who Cary recognized, causing him to laugh and smile in the final take.

He also remembers seeing Spielberg blow up the kitchen.

He recalls: 'I have a really clear memory of the control module for blowing up the kitchen.

'Steven took me aside and explained to me what was going to happen.

'I think getting to blow-up the kitchen and operate the controls was such a unique experience that it's always stayed with me.

'The scene where I come into the kitchen and see the refrigerator has exploded and I smile, that was very memorable.

'Steven purposely got me to react by getting the guy who often carried me around set to wear a gorilla suit.

'So when I walked around the corner I saw this gorilla with his arm around Steven Spielberg. He then pulled the gorilla head off and I saw it was my friend, and that's what made me smile that way.

'There's a picture out there somewhere of me wearing that gorilla head.'

Close Encounters was set in Indiana, but was actually shot in Mobile, Alabama, where Cary was attending school.

And it was the young boy's facial expressions that caught Spielberg's eye while scouting for a filming location in the state.

'The casting director's niece was in my preschool class and came in one day.

'She walked in, saw me and said, "That's the kid."

'I had never seen a movie and had never taken an acting class.

'I guess I was just in the right place at the right time. It was just dumb luck.'

Spielberg struck gold when he found the three-year-old however, as the youngster was able to deliver lines in one take earning him the nickname,'One Take Cary'.

Spielberg even had a t-shirt printed out with the nickname on it.

'I also have a trophy from Steven,' says Cary. 'It's a loving cup and it says "Cary Guffey, Best Actor, Close Encounters of the Third Kind."

'The most distinct last memory I have of filming is at the very end, when we're saying goodbye (to the aliens) and I'm crying.

'Steven got down on his knees to my level, like he always did, and told me I wasn't going to see my friends again. 'Well in my child mind what I thought he was telling me was that I wasn't going to get to see my childhood friends again, so I started to cry.

'In actual fact, Steven was trying to tell me I wouldn't be seeing the aliens again because they are leaving and he was telling me that he needed me to say goodbye to them.'

At the time Cary was praised for his performance, but he says that it was Spielberg's manner that made him relaxed.

'Steven gave me a confidence and feeling that we were just goofing around,' he recalls.

'It maybe explains why I acted so normal, as everything was a game and just like having fun. The notion of it being work was not even on my mind.

'They had deadlines on the project and an urgency, but none of that pressure was ever conveyed to me.

'It was like having a trusted uncle around. I had no concept of him being this important filmmaker then, he made you feel part of his gang.'

Cary even fondly recalls Spielberg perching him on the front of his motorcycle and riding around the set with him.

'Another time I remember he even wanted to take me on an helicopter, but I turned him down on that one,' he said.

'I think the noise or being up in the air was a real concern for me.'

While Cary concedes the special effects Spielberg used might not hold up in comparison to today's blockbuster movies, he said it was a lot better than what was being shown in the cinemas back then.

But while he is still constantly quizzed over what it was like inside the alien mothership, his answer may disappoint.

'My whole life I've been asked what's it like in the mothership, and I always disappoint people when I tell them it was a lot of plywood and lights,' he said.

'There wasn't a whole lot else there.

'I remember the hangar floor being very slick and concentrating on not busting my tail.

'I remember the aliens at the end of the movie were actually a dance troupe of little girls.

'The big finale was shot during the summer in an aircraft hangar and there was this incredible humidity, so they couldn't have left all those little girls in those suits for very long – they would have died.'

After the success of the movie Cary could have become one of the biggest child stars of the 80s as major roles flooded in for him.

But with his parents worried about his education and taking a dim view over some of the roles offered, he turned down the lure of Hollywood.

Against his talent agent's advice Cary was forced to snub Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, with his parent's deeming a horror movie inappropriate for their son and his education of utmost importance.

Cary jokes that his parents 'killed' his career, but says ultimately they made the 'right decision'.

Today Cary is a financial adviser and lives in Atlanta with his wife and children.

He says he's still called 'the little kid from Close Encounters' but isn't one for broadcasting his role in the movie to everyone he meets.

'For me, it's more fun when people find out after they've known me for a few years,' he said.

'Then they're like: 'Why didn't you say something?'.'

Cary made his last on screen appearance in the TV miniseries, North and South in 1985, spent almost a decade of his young life acting.

'I've been paying into Social Security since I was four, it's fabulous,' he said.

'I worked with Burt Reynolds, Charlton Heston and Patrick Swayze.

'I'd do one project a year, usually in the summer. So when the other kids went off to camp, I would go make a movie.

'I grew up around famous people, but it never occurred to me what fame or being famous was.'

Cary says amazingly Spielberg has kept in touch over the years.

He sent him a note when he graduated and a gift when he got married.

In 2012, the pair reunited when Cary flew to LA for a 35th anniversary event for the movie.

'We had a great catch up and he was as interested in my life and family as he was back then,' he says, adding: 'I like that I was in a Steven Spielberg movie, and it was one of the biggest movies of all time, yet nobody knows who I am - that's a beautiful thing.

'I am married and have a wonderful life in Atlanta which centers around my children.'

Steven Spielberg recently released a 40th Anniversary 4K Blu-ray version of Close Encounters.

The package includes three restored versions of the film, including the 1977 theatrical version, the 1980 Special Edition and the 1997 Director's Cut.