Dee Wallace admitted her E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial success left her struggling to understand why she "wanted to get smaller".

The 77-year-old actress became a household name after playing Mary Taylor, Elliott Taylor's (Henry Thomas') mom, in Steven Spielberg's 1982 sci-fi blockbuster, but she said the fame left her feeling less confident instead of happier.

Dee told People that she, her castmates, and the film's crew "were all pleasantly surprised" by the success of the movie and added: "We knew when we were shooting it, that we were making some kind of magic. We did know that, but to make a hit like E.T., it's so much about timing."

But instead of embracing her success, the entertainer struggled with it.

Dee explained: "After E.T. came out and I shot into everybody's awareness and started making a lot of money, I started withdrawing into myself, and I went, 'What is going on here? I'm getting everything I want, so I think. And why am I wanting to get smaller?'"

The experience made Dee want to explore channeled healing work.

She said: "I remember my grandmother saying, 'They are the rich people. We are the good people because we come from a very poor family,' which is what a lot of religions teach: that money is the source of all evil.

"And I went, 'Well, there's a belief system that does not serve me anymore,' because I know that I am in charge of my own consciousness.

"I choose to direct my consciousness to know that I do great things with my money, that I help a lot of people with my money, that I do good things for my family, and I do great things for the world and help a lot of people.

"So the more money I make, the more good I do for this world."

Alongside acting, Dee is passionate about her healing work, which has helped others to find freedom and happiness, as well as improve their lives.

She said: "I teach people about energy. We all learned in fifth grade that everything's energy, and yet very few of us work with energy. Energy needs to be directed, and very few of us know how to do that.

"And when you do direct energy consciously, energy begins to work with you to your advantage.

"And so I teach people how to do that. I also teach people the power of, 'As you believe, it is delivered to you.' So your belief systems are incredibly powerful in how your life shows up for you."

Dee added: "I just see so many of the people that are in my healing community walk into their freedom, into their happiness. Their health improves, their finances improve, their relationships improve. And most of all, their relationships with themselves improve.

"The most important relationship we have is the relationship with ourself. And unfortunately, we're taught that loving ourselves is kind of not cool, that we're full of ourselves.

"If we love ourselves, that we're stuck-up, we're all those silly things that we're taught. And the best thing you can do is to love yourself, and then go take that love and give it to everybody else. But the first person we need to love is ourselves."