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DREW BARRYMORE’S ARTICLES & INTERVIEWS
ENGLISH VERSION
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Betting on Barrymore
Publication: Caesars Player
Date: 2006
Author: Shep Morgan
Bluffing may be key to the game of poker, but in real life, Drew Barrymore prefers to lay her cards on the
table.
And she was only half-kidding, even though the seven-year-old kid who stole our hearts in E.T. has grown
up to become a take-charge woman. Barrymore is not just bankable at the box office; she also heads her own
production company, Flower Films, which delivered the smash hits Never Been Kissed and Charlie's Angels,
both of which she starred in.
Despite all her successes, ask Barrymore what she's really like and she'll confess with a grin, "Anyone who
thinks I'm cool is fooling themselves. I love being a geek. There's something liberating about not pretending.
It makes me feel a lot freer."
Maybe that's why Barrymore can so effortlessly captivate a room with her bubbly charm and joie de vivre—
she's still laid-back about life. But there's another side to this major Hollywood player. "I don't think it's luck
that you need; it's talent and thick skin," she said. "When you go through stuff, you leave the bitterness
behind and take the lessons you learned and run with them."
UPPING THE ANTE
In Vegas, though, luck always helps, and Barrymore scored a noteworthy role in a film that explores that
kind of chance. She costars with Eric Bana in Lucky You, a movie set against the backdrop of the World
Series of Poker. Barrymore plays Billie Offer, a struggling lounge singer who tries to get Bana to place a bet
on love. He's Huck Cheever, a hard-driving pro card player out to win.
Give the guy a little sympathy. He's trying to come to terms with his estranged father, played by Academy
Award-winner Robert Duvall, right in the midst of competing against the best poker players in the world—
including real-life champs Johnny Chan, Phil Hellmuth and Barry Green-stein, who appear in the movie as
themselves.
The opportunity to work with director Curtis Hanson—who helped Kim Basinger to an Oscar win in L.A.
Confidential and made Eminem look like a pro in 8 Mile—was the big attraction for Barrymore. She saw this
as a prime time to prove she's a serious actress. "I was like a panting dog working with him," she explained
with a smile/just so eager to learn from him."
Although she's made her mark in comedies in recent years, especially with Adam Sandler in 50 First Dates
and The Wedding Singer, Barrymore relishes the kind of emotional scenes she faced in Lucky You," I just
totally sort of shut down and become really internal," she revealed. "But when they call cut,' you have to let
it go."
Barrymore said it was her godfather, Steven Spielberg, who taught her how to let her emotions go. "He
taught me to always cry when you're done with a crying scene. He would just say, Get it all out, or else you'll
carry that emotion with you the whole day,' and he's so right."
THE REEL DEAL
While there's plenty of romance in Lucky You, thanks to the on-screen chemistry between Drew Barrymore
and Eric Bana, poker gets equal billing. The film is set during the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.
Producer Carol Fenelon revealed that she and director Curtis Hanson got the idea for the film after taking in
the WSOP at Binion's three years ago. Hanson's biggest concern was to make the card playing look
authentic.
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"A lot of people see poker on TV, and they understand the game," he said. "I didn't want a bunch of actors
pretending, so I recruited some top-flight professionals."
In fact, there's a who's who of poker players making cameo appearances, including Johnny Chan, Jennifer
Harman, Phil Hellmuth, Ted Forrest, Erick Lindgren and Barry Greenstein. For Bana, who plays poker
champ Huck Cheever, the pressure was on.
"I trained for months, and I got pretty good," Bana bragged, "but I discovered you have to keep your hand in.
I sort of stopped playing after we filmed, and when I sat in on a game again, I had forgotten a lot of what the
real champs taught me."
Jason Lester, fourth-place finisher in the 2003 WSOP, also appears in Lucky You. Lester said, "I can't recall
any movie set in Vegas showing high-stakes gambling so authentically."
As for poker's influence on the relationship between Bana's and Barrymore's characters in the film, Hanson
says with a laugh,"All I can tell you is what you need in love is the opposite of what you draw on in poker,
which is lying and hiding your emotions."
The director's own affection for card playing is revealed in the name of his production company—Deuce
Three. "It's the worst hand you can get," he said, "but it's a reminder that it's not the cards you're dealt, but
what you do with them that makes you a winner."
So did Hanson sharpen his own poker skills on the set? "I learned some things," he said. "I learned more
about poker [when working on Lucky You] than I did about rapping when I did 8 Mile with Eminem."
WILD CARD
Barrymore is no stranger to emotion in her own life. It's common knowledge that the granddaughter of
revered actor John Barrymore had a turbulent childhood. Her father, John Drew Barrymore, never achieved
the success of his famous dad, and her Hungarian-born mother, Jaid, struggled as an actress before
immersing herself in her daughter's early career. Drew Barrymore wrote frankly about her own struggle with
fame, drugs and alcohol—and the bitter estrangement from her parents—in the autobiographical Little Girl
Lost.
Now she can look back on her wild-child days and put them into the proper perspective. "I'm young in
numbers, but I don't feel young in my soul," she said. "It's been quite a ride, and I've learned a lot about what
I want out of life. I feel like I'm at the best and most mature place in my life."
A lot of that has to do with Flower Films, which she started and co-owns with Nancy Juvonen. Barrymore
said that starting the company was about establishing who they were, not only to Hollywood but also for
themselves. "Growing up is about figuring all that out," said Barrymore. "But while you're doing it, you have
to keep a balance. I never want to play so hard that I'm not being responsible, and I never want to be so
mature that I become stoic and staunchy,"
It's hard to imagine Barrymore as stoic. Her unabashed enthusiasm for life and unstoppable optimism can
seem overzealous, until you realize that it's totally genuine.
"I would imagine that it must take a lot more energy to not be yourself and to hide who you are," she said
with a shrug. "I just think that the more you are yourself, the better you'll feel at the end of the day. I don't
mind if you don't like me or you do like me, but the truth of the matter is at least you know what you're
dealing with."
WHEN TO HOLD 'EM, WHEN TO FOLD 'EM
The sometime chinks in her upfront positivity have come from her strained relationship with her parents and
her search for the right man, which has sometimes led her in the wrong direction.
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She reconciled with her father before his death two years ago. Before he died, he told her to patch things up
with her mom, from whom she legally separated herself when she was 15. "I praise her for listening to me
and risking looking like a massive cretin to other people by putting me in this business when I was eleven
months old," Barrymore said of Jaid."I wouldn't have the opportunities I have today had she not done that.
Without her, I would never be where I am now. But my mother and I are pretty much yin and yang. It's
complete admiration and complete disagreement."
The men in Barrymore's life, in addition to hunky boyfriends like actor Luke Wilson and Hole guitarist Eric
Erlandson, have included two husbands. She first tied the knot with a much-older bartender, Jeremy Thomas.
They separated weeks later. Her second marriage, to comedian Tom Green, lasted a little more than a year. "I
think relationships take an incredible amount of work," she said. As for her current love life, Barrymore said,
"I'm really trying to stop publicly talking about my relationships."
Talking about friendship is another story, though. Barrymore counts Juvonen and actresses Cameron Diaz
and Lucy Liu, with whom she starred in Charlie's Angels, among her buddies. "I like female empowerment
that comes through loving your girlfriends and getting to help one another do your occupational or artistic
dreams together," she said. Barrymore isn't the type to sit around male-bashing with her friends. "I like
women who embrace each other and who embrace men and embrace what it is that they set out to
accomplish in their lives."
ACE IN THE HOLE
Ultimately, how does one sum up this actress and producer who's lived more in her 31 years than some
people have in a lifetime? A mix of mature and impulsive, self-assured and geeky? How does Barrymore
describe herself and her outlook on life?
"I'm trying to be honest, to not live lies," Barrymore said. "When you're a kid, you want to figure out what
kind of person you want to be. I remember a pony park in L.A., which I loved before they turned it into the
Beverly Center mall. I would go to the pony park and just ride and ride. I broke down when they closed it. I
was crying, "The pony park. The pony park!' And some woman came up to me and said something I'll never
forger: 'Don't worry, they're going to build a shopping mall.' And I was like, "That's supposed to make me
feel better? You're going to trade ponies for a mall?' And she goes 'By the time it's built, you'll be older and
you'll want the mall instead.' You know what? I would still prefer the pony park any day and I don't think
that will ever change."
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The Tao of Drew
Publication: Elle
Date: October 2006
Author: Alexandra Jacobs
The always benignly divine Miss Barrymore on living the rockstar life with Fabby, getting her fashion game
on (and off), finding a new voice for Lucky You, and how she learned to fall in public.
Two days after abruptly canceling a brunch date in Los Angeles, Drew Barrymore is calling from Lisbon.
She's visiting her inamorato of four years, drummer Fabrizio Moretti, who is touring with his band, the
Strokes. "I hope you aren't cross with me," she says primly, sounding like a six-year-old trying to avert a
spanking rather than the veteran actress, two-time divorcee, and producing potentate she has become at age
31.
As best as one can assess over a crackly transcontinental phone line, the couple is the very picture of rock 'n'
roll domesticity. Barrymore packed plenty of frocks and high heels for their rendezvous. "Fabby inspires me
to dress up like a lady," she says.
"That's the more fun stuff to take off—rrrowl," puts in Moretti, 26, from the background.
Barrymore attempts to describe the apartment they have decorated together in downtown Manhattan: the
eggplant-color shag carpet, the flea market tchotchkes, the collection of family portraits she tried to tack up
herself—"I'm a bit of a control freak"—until the walls looked like Swiss cheese.
"Too personal," comes a muffled, reproving hiss.
"Oops," she says with a giggle.
Moments later, talking about her late grandfather, the master thespian John Barrymore, she seems on the
verge of tears. "I wish I could build a time machine and be with him," she says. "I would love to do a scene
with him. So cheesy, but it almost makes me cry."
And there you have the Tao of Drew: bubbling, blurting, and blubbering all the way to billion-dollar box
office. Under the aegis of her company, Flower Films, founded with Nancy Juvonen in 1994, Barrymore
produced and starred in the hugely successful Charlie's Angels franchise. Then mere was that string of hits
with words like "wedding," "kissed," and "dates" in their titles. She has nothing against the effervescent
romantic comedy that has become her calling card. "I want to be a human machine that just makes people
f—king laugh hysterically," she says. "Like the orgasmatron in Sleeper."
But though she's happy with her success of the past decade, Barrymore is far from content. "I still feel like I
have a lot to prove," she says. "My biggest burning question is 'How much more are you capable of?' "
Audiences will get a chance to find out this month, when Barrymore appears as a low-rent Las Vegas lounge
singer named Billie Offer in the drama Lucky You, directed by Curtis Hanson, the man who transformed
Kim Basinger from fading sex symbol to Oscar winner with L.A. Confidential. "This is more textured and
layered than anything she's done before," says Eric Bana, who costars as a troubled professional poker
player. "She's got this element that she can come across as really strong, and a tough chick, but at the same
time you want to protect her."
A connoisseur of vintage Hollywood, Hanson declares himself "absolutely crazy about" his pedigreed
leading lady. "The movie, thematically, relates to overcoming fear, and she specifically relates to that in that
everyone always told her, all her life, that she couldn't sing," he says. "I think because of that she had to do it
in a very public way, not just in the shower. Not to prove them wrong by being a great singer, because she's
much more self-aware than that, but to overcome her fear. To not have her life defined by what she is afraid
to do."
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Though thoroughly charming in Woody Allen's 1996 musical Everyone Says I Love You, Barrymore was
the only member of that A-list cast whose numbers were dubbed. "It was a really unfortunate moment in my
life," she says. "Ever since then I believed that I couldn't do it, and that I was a bit of a failure and a bit of a
person who didn't try hard enough, and I've always had this sort of sick feeling about it." To psych herself up
for the role of Billie, she made a compilation tape of actresses' amateur crooning in movies throughout the
ages (Rita Hayworth in Gilda, Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Diane Keaton in Annie Hall,
Meryl Streep in Postcards From the Edge), then spent five months working diligently with a voice coach. "It
was like Sisyphus up the mountain, times 20," she says. "I know when people hear my singing they'll say
'What? She f—king sucks!' But if they have any idea just what it took to get to the f—king sucking place—
awesome!"
Maybe it's Moretti's influence, but Barrymore's career is having a melodic moment; she'll portray a lyricist in
December's Music and Lyrics. Okay, it's another romantic comedy—indeed, her fellow headliner is Hugh
Grant (as a singer), the ne plus ultra of romantic comedy. But "the lows are a little bit lower than we have
seen in some of her other films," says the director, Marc Lawrence. "Drew is being asked to hold up half the
movie. She's not just 'the girl.' "
He affectionately remembers her "huge mess" of a trailer, where Barrymore and her loyal entourage enacted
a makeshift Project Runway competition during downtime, complete with sewing machine. "Twelve people
and a dog, playing music, clothes everywhere. And yet there's this acting royalty coursing through her veins,
and you can see it. I think, like a lot of people who've been through a lot of things, she's a complex person.
She's an interesting combination of very laid-back and neurotic— almost hypochondriac."
Two days later, Barrymore is sitting in the trippy retro Encounter restaurant at Los Angeles International
Airport, discussing a recent and seemingly random spate of panic attacks. "Every single medical expert says
they're not real," she says, a chic ragamuffin in flip-flops, striped leggings from Urban Outfitters, a blackand-white flowered Stella McCartney tunic, and a ponytail. "So you're like, 'But how come when my throat
is closing up, I'm blind with dizziness, I can't catch my breath, and I am hot and faint and want to rip my skin
off and am convinced I'm going to die, that's so real to me?'
"I had some specialist recommend a daily drug," she continues, "but I don't want to do it because I don't want
to suppress my emotions. I would never take a pill. I did see that it worked on my own father." John Drew
Barrymore died in 2004 of cancer, his medical bills paid by his daughter, who reconciled with him toward
the end after a long period of estrangement. "He was on Zoloft, and he went from acting like an absolute
insane maniac to a semi-insane maniac, and it was a great improvement for him, so I really believe in that
stuff, but...."
Mom Jaid, meanwhile, was notoriously the mother of all stage mothers, though she seemed to prefer
gallivanting in nightclubs with little Drew as escort-mascot to knitting quietly in the wings. "My mother used
to dress rather risque when I was a kid, and that sort of shocked me," Barrymore says, considering the
always-fraught issue of maternal style influence. "I always thought moms were supposed to wear cardigans
and flats, but she was in leather bracelets and minidresses. In hindsight, it was pretty cool, but I'm probably
more conservative because of it."
On the table is a BlackBerry—"in case my boyfriend texts me," Barrymore says—a black Smythson of Bond
Street travel wallet, and a glimmering glass of pinot gri-gio brought by a waitress whose name tag reads
Fabiola.
"I'm Fabby, and I'll be taking care of you tonight," she says.
"Your name is Fabby?" squeals her famous customer. "My boyfriend's name is Fabby. That's weird, that's a
sign. A little message from him through the universe!"
Moretti is en route to the Strokes' next tour stop, in South Korea. "We're like two firecrackers shooting in
different directions," Barrymore says a little forlornly. An aubergine-color teddy bear, a gift from a hotel in
Paris, is peeking out from her soft suede Foley + Corinna satchel. "I love him sooo much," says the star,
meaning the toy, as she reverts to a six-year-old. "Feel him!" she urges, fondling it, then rolls her eyes
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ceilingward. "Clearly, I'm a little girl. I used to have a blankie and when my mom had to wash it, I would sit
outside the dryer and watch it go round and round, and cry." (Perhaps this laundry trauma is why she keeps
Moretti's unwashed T-shirts in her bed. "It makes me happy to smell them.")
Even when Barrymore was emerging from pre-adolescent rehab, taking parts in trashy TV movies and
flashing poor, stunned David Letterman, she has always retained something of a teddy-bearish quality
herself. "The funny thing about Drew is this combination of innocence and worldliness," Hanson says.
"Since the first time we saw her in E.T., she was like a little adult, and now that she's an adult, there's still an
innocence about her that's so endearing, and so appealing."
"You just want to squeeze her," says Jimmy Fallon, Barrymore’s costar in the baseball movie Fever Pitch,
who is cur-rently dating Juvonen. "She's the Charmin of movie stars."
But ever since she started working out and hanging with a gaunt indie-rock crowd, losing 20 pounds soon
before her thirtieth birthday, there has been a lot less of Barrymore to squeeze. Fashion-wise, this weight loss
"has made me more confident and adventurous," she says, sawing into an order of flatiron steak and mashed
potatoes ("Thank you, Fabby"). For a long time the actress favored schlumpy casualwear, as if trying to mute
her majestic bone structure. Even at premieres and formal events, she was often found in a droopy pantsuit.
Then— ta-da!—there she was in the front row of the Christian Dior fall haute couture show in Paris last July,
vamping it up in a positively Ava Gardner—esque single-strap black gown. "I was working it like I was on a
catwalk," says Barrymore with satisfaction. "Total La Dolce Vita getup. Two, three years ago, I wouldn't
have had that freedom."
Of course, there have been times when she has arguably exercised a little too much freedom, as with that
Kermit-green, flutter-sleeved Gucci dress that she wore sans brassiere to the most recent Golden Globes
ceremony in January. The actress swiftly redeemed—one might even say capitalized on—the gaffe by
donning a pair of large prosthetic breasts for a self-spoofing sketch on Saturday Night Live. "I've gotten
ripped plenty, and I just say 'Oh well,'" Barrymore says. "I don't regret those moments, because they're kind
of what define you. I mean, I wore daisies in my hair to the Academy Awards once and people were
vomiting on the floors, but that won't ever stop me. I love rolling with it."
Sartorially she has long idolized Jane Fonda, Debbie Harry, and Bianca Jagger, but a "fashion agent," Anne
Nelson, and stylist, Lee Harris, have helped Barrymore develop a taste for Galliano and Rochas, as well. ("I
simply view myself as her helper in suggesting clothing options and collecting pieces for her approval,"
Harris kowtows in an e-mail. "I am in no way the creator of any look of hers; she was a famously stylish lady
before we met.")
But the fancy feathers are only for public appearances. "Then it all comes off and I turn into a pumpkin,"
Barrymore says. "Real life is pretty much jeans and T-shirts. I don't feel I have to be 'on' all the time, or
something I'm not. Fabby and I do have some friends that have that kind of life. Very few, but we always
think how lucky we are that we're not like that."
Nor does she let the presence of paparazzi constrict her "flighty bird" orbit in the world, as she puts it. "If
someone pops out of the bushes, I'm shocked, I get stunned— my soul hurts," Barrymore says, "but I never
walk around suspicious or anticipating. Grocery shopping and everything. Normalcy is sooo wonderful."
Of course, with such a burnished lineage, normalcy is always going to be a relative term. "She has the
stardom of John Barrymore," Hanson says, "but the ambition and the tenacity and strength of character to be
in the game for the long haul, which he didn't. I have no doubt that she'll be directing one day."
Not that Barrymore is in any rush to direct. She's busy preparing for another assignation with Moretti, and to
play Jackie Kennedy's eccentric cousin Edie in a feature based on the 1975 documentary Grey Gardens, with
Jessica Lange as her mother, Edith—and no, Adam Sandler is not also attached. A hot cultural property (a
musical using the same material arrives on Broadway next month), it has the potential to put a much-craved
stamp of gravitas on her acting career.
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"The best thing I can do is not talk about it and just do the work, and if it's presentable then that'll be another
story, because I'm f—king scared!" Barrymore says. "And that's what I want. I want to be terrified. I really
want to do what I think I'm going to f—king fail at miserably. Go down in flames like a fighter pilot, totally
screw everything up, be an incompetent, sabotaging asshole. I want full-tilt, 80-miles-an-hour heading into a
brick wall. That's what I want.”
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Angel Talk
Publication: Elle (UK)
Date: October 2006
Author: Lorraine Candy, Cameron Diaz, Sarra Manning
Businesswoman, superstar and everyone’s favourite funny girl, Drew Barrymore celebrates 21 years of Elle
with best friend Cameron Diaz. Here’s what happened…
Meeting Drew and Cameron
ELLE editor Lorraine Candy chats with Drew in Paris, and gives Cameron some interviewing tips!
The first time I see Drew Barrymore, she is in the front row of John Galliano's Dior couture show, wearing
an elegant black Dior creation, her blonde curly hair in a sexy updo. Her skin is translucent and her eyes
sparkle as she unselfconsciously taps her foot and sings along to Somebody Told Me by The Killers. She is
watching the show intently -her gaze soaking up the models in seven-inch heels and medieval-style body
armour. I often see A-list stars in the front row, but it's rare to witness one taking in a designer's collection
with such gusto.
A few hours later, in the heat of the Paris sunshine, I am at the super-modern hotel she is staying in, waiting
to meet her and one of her best friends, Cameron Diaz. Having invited Cameron to interview Drew for
ELLE, I know they are about to arrive as I hear giggling and girlish whispering in the corridor. Then, like a
couple of errant teenagers, they burst in and very politely introduce themselves, shaking hands formally. A
bronzed, make-up free Cameron is wearing a white tee with a yellow bra underneath and tight white jeans.
Her hair is scraped back with a thin headband. Drew is in a graffiti-covered grey sweatshirt and skinny blue
jeans - both are in flat shoes. Her hair is down and ruffled, her eyes are smudged and smoky.
With her huge smile and model height, Cameron is stunning in a fresh-faced, healthy, all-American girl kind
of way. Drew's looks are more unusual. If I were a man, I'd call her cute in a sexy way and I'd flirt with her,
too. But as I am a 38-year-old pregnant woman, I focus on her face! No doubt about it, she has old-fashioned
Hollywood movie-star beauty. "We've been shopping,' they say together, clutching their small Chloe
shoulder bags.
'She is so not a bag girl but, hey, look, I converted her,' says Cameron. 'Yeah,' says Drew, 'all we've done is
shop; it's a new thing for me!'The pair are in Paris for the wedding of Gucci Westman, the make-up artist to
the A-list. Drew's friendship with John Galliano's partner, Alexis Roche, means she always tries to see the
Dior shows; Cameron is not a show fan. They are both refreshingly unstyled - women from a time before
LA's troupe of star stylists began dressing Hollywood's twentysomethings in the same uniform. The pair met
six years ago filming Charlie's Angels, which Drew also produced. Since then they've been holidaying (most
recently with a group of girlfriends in the Bahamas), partying and starring together in the sequel. They seem
to have similar personalities - outgoing but grounded. They're polite, agreeable ('we're very good with
instructions, just tell us what we need to do') and fun. They scoff cherries and chocolates and open a bottle of
champagne. 'I'll eat all this food now if you don't share it,' mutters Cameron.
Then follows a surreal 20 minutes while I brief the stars on how to conduct an interview. They go quiet and
look serious -Drew takes charge and begins to write notes for Cameron. Then I leave - with them urging me
to take my champagne - and they turn the tape on. I hear giggling as I walk down the corridor.
Cameron Interviews Drew
The tape is rolling and Drew Barrymore, who stars in upcoming film Lucky You, is ready to answer
questions from her best friend and Charlie's Angels co-star, Cameron Diaz
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Cameron Diaz: I'm sitting here with the beautiful Drew Barrymore. We're looking out over the skyline of
Paris, at the Grand Palais.
Drew Barrymore: [laughing]Yes,we love the Grand Palais. We saw a lot of it the other day.
CD: I love Topshop!
DB: So today you're wearing gorgeous white pants, with a cap-sleeve white T-shirt and your nice little lacy
yellow bra showing underneath.
CD: And you're wearing...
DB: Urban Outfitters sweater with little pockets and jeans by my favourite designers, Rag & Bone.
CD: Those jeans look hot on you.
DB: I look like two sausages stuffed into...
CD: No you don't! No, dude, OK, let me just tell you what those jeans do for you: they raise your boot-ay
and make your legs look super-skinny and long.
DB: Thank you. They're very tight... I have, like, a major tush now.
CD: Looks good. I'm waiting to have a bigger tush. I work on it every day...
DB: But you have such a tiny little thing.
CD: It's little, but I want it to be bigger. We want what we don't have. Ooh, do you want to talk about
[director] Curtis Hanson and your new film, Lucky You?
DB: Curtis is the best. I loved In Her Shoes [directed by Hanson]. I thought you were so good in that movie.
CD: You were really kind. You sent me such a lovely e-mail that I saved because it meant so much to me.
DB: I remember when I was 26 and you were 28 - my big sister; you love being my big sister. And we were
making the Charlie's Angels movies and you said, 'In two years you'll change.' And [you were right], a
couple of years later I wanted to make a film with Curtis Hanson, a quiet film with a brilliant film-maker.
Turning 30 made me just want to try different things. I want to be scared shitless, I want to face my fears.
CD: And you did the spring/summer 2006 Missoni campaign.
DB: I got to go to Ibiza and it was so much fun.
CD: What's so impressive to me, knowing you, is how relaxed you look [in the pictures]. You look like you
belong.
DB: Well, thank you! You know, when I'm sitting on the bed, Indian style, watching BBC, porking out on
Chinese food? That's the same girl who gets to go to Ibiza and shoot Missoni. It really is the photographers
who bring out the best in you. They make you feel so beautiful, like you're doing a good job.
CD: It was the 4th of July. We were celebrating Independence Day, trapped on a boat we had no control
over...
DB: It was like National Lampoon's European Vacation when they're stuck on that roundabout in London,
going 'Look, kids, Big Ben...'
CD: 'Look, kids; Grand Palais, Concorde...'
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DB: [laughing hard] Four hours later we're like, 'Grand Palais, Concorde...'
CD: Anyway... it's Fashion Week in Paris and tonight you're having dinner with John Galliano.
DB: Yes, I'm friends with Alexis, John's partner. I love the Dior show because it's always theatrical. It's like
these genius works of art. But I like that I'm friends with them, so there's something personal about it.
CD: You're going to support them.
DB: Yes, because, actually, I'm totally uncomfortable in the fashion world. My stomach rolls over my jeans
when I'm sitting there. I can't be fabulous. I have to just be me.
CD: But it's like, why not experience it? You always teach me that. You're an inspiration that way.
DB: Well, you inspire me. We went shopping and you made me buy a bag! I went in carrying a fanny-pack
from Urban Outfitters and I walked out with a leather Chloe bag. You have pink and I have brown.
CD: And you've carried it every day.
DB: I love it so much. And this touches on something I have to say. When I was younger, I never knew that I
could play with fashion and still be myself. I thought you had to be 6ft tall, with minus-A breasts and long
legs. I thought you couldn't stand for the values you cared about - like I care about animals, you care about
the environment. And now I know you can have personal causes and still have fun with fashion. I'm not a
model but I'm out there wearing fun clothes from fun designers - even though when I'm having a fitting, I'm
like, 'Sorry, I know you have to hem this up eight feet!' But then I also still shop at Urban Outfitters and
Topshop, my favourite store in the world.
Elle Interviews Drew
One week later, ELLE's Sarra Manning catches up with our cover star...
In a Hollywood full of skinny blonde starlets, Drew Barrymore is fabulously different. The former child star
headed off to rehab for drink and drug addictions while she was still in her teens, but has since shaken off her
bad-girl rep to become a major industry player. Her talent as an actress is best showcased in films like 50
First Dates with Adam Sandler, the ugly-duckling-turned-fox story Never Been Kissed, and new movie
Lucky You, set among the high-rolling poker tables of Vegas. All are romantic-comedies about girls on
journeys of self-discovery, which allow Drew to show the trademark quirkiness that makes her seem more
real than most movie queens.
And Drew's production company, Flower Films, co-founded with friend Nancy Juvonen, makes serious
money with box-office smashes such as Charlie's Angels and more arthouse fare such as Confessions of a
Dangerous Mind. But Drew has also found time to bag the Strokes' drummer Fabrizio Moretti, become a
spokesmodel for Lancome and front Missoni's spring/summer 2006 campaign.
Right now, Drew, who divides her time between LA and NYC, is in a car being driven to LAX airport. She's
just finished wrapping Music and Lyrics By with Hugh Grant. That famous breathless voice whispers down
the phone line as she talks about how excited she was to be interviewed by her best buddy, Cameron Diaz, in
Paris a week earlier for ELLE.
'We knew each other for years from around Los Angeles,' she explains, when asked how they met. 'We'd see
each other out and wave and say hi, but we didn't even have each other's phone numbers. It was really when I
asked her to do Charlie's Angels, even though we didn't even have a script at that point. Doing those two
movies changed our lives because we spent every waking moment together for months and months - and
years!'
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Girl love is something Drew is totally into and she consciously seeks ways to work with her friends. 'It's the
ultimate, f**king coolest thing ever,' she enthuses. 'Because you can be each other's outlets for your dreams
and creative aspirations to [make them] come true.'
Friends with grade-one existential crises are something of a Drew speciality and she has a patented remedy
for dealing with them that doesn't involve ice cream or hand-holding. 'The other night, I had a girlfriend who
had just experienced a trauma and I was on the verge of tears with her. But then I made some funny jokes
and got her laughing. You can be the best shoulder to cry on, but someone who can break the heaviness with
a few giggles every now and then, that's the kind of friend I really like to be.'
When it comes to matters of the heart, Drew hasn't always been so in control. There have been a series of
high-profile relationships, including one with actor Luke Wilson and another with Hole guitarist Eric
Erlandson, who was smitten when Drew threw up on his shoes at their first meeting. There have been failed
marriages, too: one to bartender Jeremy Thomas, which only lasted a handful of months, and a second to a
long-term boyfriend, comedian Tom Green. Drew's currently blissing out with the curly-headed, kittenhipped Moretti. They met backstage at a Strokes concert in 2002 and, despite having time out at the halfway
stage, they're still together and going strong.
'Fabrizio is my best friend and we're each other's strength and support system,' she says so fervently that it's
heart-melting. 'We have our fun and the things we do creatively together are such a blessing, but you have to
remain two different people. You can't place every onus of your happiness on some other person. I think
that's very dangerous.'
Drew is actually en route to catch a flight to Portugal where the Strokes are touring. The couple's hectic
schedules might keep them apart, but Drew believes it's one of the secrets to a successful relationship. 'It's
hard because you crave routine, but at the same time it really keeps it fresh and exciting.'
Even after five minutes of talking to Drew on the phone, it's clear that, despite her crazy Hollywood
childhood and out-of-control teen years, she's incredibly grounded - even spiritual. But not in a psychobabble, Road Less Travelled style. She's a woman who takes the time to learn from every new experience
and is not prepared to put up with any bullshit along the way.
Nowhere is this more apparent then when talking about the pressure Hollywood puts on its actresses to
whittle their frames down to zero body fat. 'I'm never going to fall prey for that,' she exclaims, a note of
sharpness edging into her voice for the first time. 'I don't have enough room in my life for the neurosis of
other people's expectations. If you're too thin, they kill you and if you're too fat, they kill you. There's no
such thing as perfection and someone else's definition of it is not good enough for me.'
Although she likes to run in the Hollywood Hills because 'exercise always makes me feel good mentally as
well as physically', Drew is adamant she doesn't angst over every pound gained or lost. 'My goal is just to
feel really good about myself. It's not about what the scales say. It's about being a normal human being and
not living in fear or starvation all the time. I love food too much -there's just no way I could give it up. If I
could eat macaroni cheese every day, then I'd be very happy. I live for crispy tacos!'
One thing Drew doesn't live for is fashion; although, as she told Cameron, she's learning. She's a big fan of
Donatella Versace, ELLE's guest editor for this special issue. 'Versace is an incredible company,' she says,
launching into fevered praise for the queen of high-octane couture. 'Donatella has been kind enough to make
some personal dresses for me. There aren't a lot of companies that will hear what your creative vision is and
then carry it out so you're wearing this gorgeous creation that came from your mind and her mind. I'm very
honoured that she wanted to work with me because I want to have a long relationship with Versace. They're
so personal as well as incredibly stylish.'
By now, Drew's car has pulled up at the airport and she has to go. There's time for one last question and, as
it's ELLE's 21st birthday, I ask what does 31-year-old Drew wishes she'd known at that age?
'I wish I'd known how to enjoy things more, rather than stress out about them so much,' she says without
even having to think about it. 'I'm not that calm now, but I enjoy things more.'
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And, in a flurry of apologies and thank yous, the ultimate girl's girl drives away to catch her flight.
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Drew's Guide to Life
Publication: For Me
Date: July 2006
Author: Susannah Gora
What you can learn from the girl who's been through it all
Remember Little Girl Lost—the heartbreaking autobiography Drew Barrymore wrote as a 15-year-old
recently out of rehab? Well, the new Drew's all grown up: She's part businesswoman, part sexy siren, part
ass-kicker.
It's been a big year for the 31-year-old. "This is a very important time in my life," she said recently. Is it ever.
Drew has a full-time gig running the powerful production company she created, a rocking relationship with
drummer Fabrizio Moretti of The Strokes, great friends like her Charlie's Angels costars Cameron Diaz and
Lucy Liu and, oh yeah, a slew of upcoming complex roles to sink her teeth into. In the gambling drama
Lucky You, she plays a lounge singer who falls for a professional poker player (the hunky Eric Bana). Then
there's Grey Gardens, a much-buzzed-about film based on a true story (Drew will play Little Edith Bouvier
Beale, the socialite who slowly lost her grip on reality until she was saved by her cousin, Jackie Kennedy
Onassis). As if that wasn't enough, Drew will also be starring opposite Hugh Grant in Music and Lyrics By, a
romantic comedy about a lyricist and a singer working together. After nearly 30 years in the biz (yes, she
started as a baby), she's definitely a pro.
But somehow, Drew finds time for the people who mean the most to her, like her boyfriend Fabrizio (or
"Fabby," as she likes to call him). After two failed marriages, ya gotta be thrilled that Drew has found
romantic happiness. "I love this person," Drew recently said of Fab, "and he knows I love him." (Awwww!)
Drew has also spent a lifetime learning how to love herself, and her newfound commitment to health
definitely shows (she's been looking pretty toned lately). Never a fan of trendy diets, Drew owes her svelte
new physique to hard work. "I didn't exercise before, but ever since I started, my body has really, really
changed," she has said. But she hasn't let her hot new look change her on the inside, because Drew's all about
keeping it real. "Knowing the business in which 1 work is so obsessed with image frightens me to the core,"
she has revealed. "I find myself wanting to spend more time focusing on places and people where luxuries
are never taken for granted." Drew recently traveled to Kenya to learn all about the United Nations World
Food Programme, and she plans to make a documentary about her profound experiences there. (She also
wants to learn how to paint, write a children's book and publish a book of her own photography!)
Between her white-hot career, her rewarding relationships and the projects she's passionate about, Drew has
become an expert multitasker. Is it too much for her? Never. No matter what life throws her way, Drew
keeps smiling. She's at the top of her form (inside and out), learns from her mistakes, surrounds herself with
people who are good to her—and is loving every minute of it. "1 wake up," she has said, "and want to do
things." Read on to see how you can bring this Drew-tastic attitude to your life.
GET DREW'S LOOK
"She's as sexy in a concert tee as in an evening gown," her Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle costar Justin
Theroux once said about Drew's laid-back cool style. How to get the star's boho-chic look: 1) Pair a loose-fit
tunic top with of-the-moment jeans. 2) Keep it casual by layering tees under a blazer. 3) Choose a hairstyle
that's close to your natural color and texture—Drew's auburn curls are looking so cute!
Girl-Power Movie Guide
Some of Drew's best movies are about women who rise above difficult situations and make their dreams
come true.
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Boys on the Side - An uplifting film about the incredible power of female friendships, where we learn life's
all about self-discovery, strength and sisterhood.
Charlie's Angels - Drew, Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu look totally hot (and have the time of their lives)
kicking bad-guy butt and celebrating their girliness.
Riding in Cars with Boys - Drew plays writer Beverly Donofrio, who became a mom at 15 and got through
the tough times with love and support from her best friend, Fay.
The Wedding Singer - Drew shines as a sweet gal about to marry the wrong guy back in the totally awesome
'80s. Fate intervenes in the form of a lovable wedding singer.
Overcome Your Past
We've all been through stuff we'd like to put behind us, and Drew is no exception. But she did manage to get
over her difficult past (which included drug addiction and family problems), and so can you. Take three tips
from Drew on how to move on from previous dramas:
Parent Issues - Drew once said, "If you look up 'dysfunctional' in the dictionary, there's our family portrait."
Even though she's the granddaughter of a famous actor, she and her mom had to work to pay the rent and her
dad was never around. "I sort of had that 40-year-old male mentality of, I need to provide for my family'—
when I was 3 or 4 or 5 years old." As an adult, she's worked to reconcile with them. "You've got to let
bygones be bygones," she's said.
Moments you'd like to take back - Drew kicked her drug addiction, but it isn't always easy to escape a
troubled past. "When I was younger, everyone was aware of a certain darkness in my life, whether it be the
experimenting with drugs and alcohol, or what my family life was like," she has said. "I've learned that there
really is a difference between people who make you feel good about being yourself and the people you only
wish that were true of."
Bad relationships - Drew's had her share of heartbreak—she's been divorced twice. You can move on from a
painful breakup by bonding with other single people, or simply by being brave enough to try new activities
sob. There's a great joy to be found in doing things on your own. "I've learned to like being alone," Drew
once said, "if I wanted to go somewhere and do something, I would wait until someone else wanted to do it,
too. Now, I just go do it."
GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS
Drew created her production company, Flower Films, in her laundry room. Nearly 12 years later, it's one of
the most influential in Hollywood. Here, some of the secrets to Drew's success you can use to make the most
of your own career.
1. Let Your Passions Guide You - When creating her production company, Drew made lists of the writers
and directors she hoped to work with one day. Now, she's working with many of them on a regular basis. She
was onto something. "Start by making a list of all the things you like to do, regardless of whether they're
related to your areas of expertise," says Karen E. Spaeder on entrepreneur.com. "From that list, you'll
hopefully be able to discover how to capitalize on your favorite activities."
2. Work with People Who Share Your Vision - Drew wanted an unknown director named McG to helm the
first Charlie's Angels flick. Even though the movie studio wasn't too jazzed about it, Drew fought for McG.
He was hired, and his high-energy visual style gave the Charlie's films their sleek look. Follow Drew's
example: Work with people who share your goals and dreams. Does your sister-in-law love cooking as much
as you do? She could be the perfect person to start your catering company with.
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3. Learn from Your Missteps - Not all of Drew's projects are successes. She produced and starred in Duplex,
a dark comedy that bombed at the box office. Instead of letting this setback defeat her, Drew learned from it,
realizing that a romantic comedy might be a good idea for her next film. (Fever Pitch, anyone?) "Be open to
clues and messages around you. Listen to what others are saying," says business coach Wendy Hearn on
business-personal-coaching.com. "Then, look for ways of improving."
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PLAY DATE WITH DREW
Časopis: Glamour
Datum: Duben 2007
Autor: Carrie Fisher
Who hasn't wanted to be a kid again? Drew Barrymore acts out for the camera—and then gets serious with
writer-actress Carrie Fisher about her very grown-up career, love life and the man she wants to date next.
Drew Barrymore and I have met here and there along the way. First in a bar when she was quite young, then
at parties and openings as she grew older, and again a few years ago, when she hired me to play a nun in
Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, which she produced. She has always struck me as beautiful, excited, funloving, grave, willing and positive—in short, one of the truly unique people I have run across in Hollywood.
Unique in the sense that there is something very healthy about this girl/woman who grew up in an
environment that, if one had to guess, doesn’t usually produce the healthiest of people.
Raised by a single mother and working in commercials at 11 months, Drew became a star at the age of seven
when she played the role of Gertie in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. After that she worked steadily, spending her
days on film sets and often her nights in bars and clubs with her mom, Jaid Barrymore. By her early teens,
she was in rehab, recovering from cocaine and alcohol abuse.
Hardly an auspicious beginning, but wild living has always been a part of the Barrymore family tradition:
Her paternal grandfather, the legendary stage and film actor John Barrymore, drank himself to death at the
age of 60. Her father, the late John Drew Barrymore, also became an actor, but his drinking and drugging
destroyed his career.
So Drew truly is a success story, in so many ways. She’s starred in more than 35 films, including 1999’s
Never Been Kissed, 2000’s Charlie’s Angels, 2003’s Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle and the recent Music
and Lyrics, all of which were produced by her own successful production company, Flower Films. Next
month she stars in Lucky You with Eric Bana. And despite two early divorces, she recently had a long
relationship with the Strokes’ drummer, Fabrizio Moretti. (Though their split has been widely reported, Drew
did not want to say she and Moretti were done for good.)
I say to Drew somewhere in this interview that she and I are alike. I was kidding her, and myself. Yes, we
both grew up in fishbowls, had absentee druggie fathers and acted from an early age. But our childhoods are
similar only to the extent that they were far from typical. Mine was more stable than Drew’s and yet I would
give anything to be like her: sweet, seemingly untroubled, lovable and adventurous. Perhaps the reason I find
Drew to be so different from her contemporaries—different in the sense that she is so unaffected by her job
description—is because she never became a star. It was never aspired to, so there was no before and after.
Celebrity for her is the norm. It’s not special or glamorous; it’s the way things are, the way they’ve always
been.
CARRIE FISHER: Here we are, together again.
DREW BARRYMORE: Yeah, on Carrie’s comfy, lounge-y couch.
CF: That’s right. We’ve got the fire going because it’s freezing outside.
DB: And our candle.
CF: We’ve got a very romantic loveship. [Laughs.]
DB: Uh-huh. It’s very cozy. I love this house.
CF: So you have been one busy woman: You have two movies out. Let’s talk about Lucky You, a drama
costarring Eric Bana and Robert Duvall.
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DB: I love Robert Duvall; it’s so dynamic watching him. And Eric has no Hollywood bullshit about him. But
I did the film because I wanted to work with Curtis Hanson [director of L.A. Confidential]. On Halloween
last year, he took me to see the 1920 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde movie. It starred my grandfather John
Barrymore and we both got really emotional. That’s why I love Curtis—he’s a real movie buff, and I feel
like he’s a creative soulmate.
CF: You just turned 32—what have you learned about yourself in the past few years?
DB: My twenties were about exploring love and being a wildflower and trying to figure everything out. Now
I’m not comfortable being that happy wildflower anymore, but I still don’t feel like a woman. I wonder when
that moment’s going to hit. Am I going to be making eggs in my kitchen and all of a sudden it’s going to
dawn on me that I’m a woman?
CF: Well, you’re more one now than when I saw you before. You seem more settled.
DB: I feel it. People who know me are noticing it too, which is excellent, because that makes it even more
real for me.
CF: You had a pretty wild childhood; as a kid, you did a whole bunch of adult things. Do the photos you shot
for this story reflect the childhood you wished you’d had?
DB: It was nice to do such youthful pictures, to go back to such an innocent time for a day—or a time that
was supposed to be innocent. But I wouldn’t want to go back to that age. It’s been such a struggle to learn all
that I have; I wouldn’t want to give any of that knowledge up. That’s why I’ve always loved acting; as a kid,
I didn’t necessarily like my real life, so I could escape into these other characters and experience a life
completely different from my own.
CF: Now, you didn’t decide to go into show business yourself, did you?
DB: Well, I was 11 months old.
CF: Oh, you did decide. Sorry.
DB: By the time I was three I had done five or 10 commercials and three TV movies.
CF: Was it your mom's doing?
DB: Yes. She wanted to be an actress too.
CF: You had a pretty unusual relationship, didn't you?
DB: We were never mother and daughter—we were like two friends. She was in her late twenties when she
had me and didn’t have a lot of money. So from a very young age, I was aware that if I didn’t bring money
in, we were going to go broke. By three or four I was thinking, my God, I have to keep working or we’re not
going to be able to pay rent.
CF: Did you have friends your own age?
DB: No. I hung out with my mother’s friends from [the L.A. clubs] The Comedy Store and Troubadour,
which in the seventies and eighties were really interesting places, full of nightlife and culture and hip people.
Then E.T. came out and the whole world opened up to us: My mother took me out to clubs all the time,
because it was the perfect way for her to get in. And I loved it: Kids my age were going to school and I was
at Studio 54, witnessing the end of the disco era.
CF: But some of that contributed to your ending up in rehab at an early age, right? And over the years, you
and your mom haven’t always stayed in touch. So do you speak to her now?
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DB: Occasionally. It’s tough, because I love and respect her so much. But we haven’t been as close as I’m
sure both of us would like to be. We’re very different people: our mechanics, the way we work, our senses,
everything.
CF: When did your dad leave?
DB: My parents separated before I was born, and I saw my father only rarely. He was absolutely nuts,
dangerous and abusive, so the meetings were never pleasant. My feeling was, OK, I’ve only got one parent,
and my mom is a little nutty, so I’ve got to survive on my own.
CF: I rarely saw my father—maybe once a year—which, from what I gather, is more than you saw yours. Do
you think that affected your ability to trust men?
DB: To be honest, I don’t have data in my brain of how a relationship with a man is supposed to function.
For years I’ve said that when it comes to business, I am a woman, and when it comes to relationships, I am a
child. I just haven’t figured out how to bring the same confidence and conviction I have in the boardroom to
my romantic relationships.
CF: Are you ever afraid that you might intimidate the man you're dating?
DB: Yes, in a way. You can’t treat a romantic relationship the same way you do a business one, by being
bossy. It takes tender, compromising, loving tactics. And that’s such a different approach.
CF: Yes, your “adorable girl” demeanor belies your type-A business capabilities. In a way, you’re
apologizing for being this incredibly accomplished woman by transforming into a flower child.
DB: Yes, an absolute flower-loving…
CF: You seem like someone who would not dominate, yet I know that this is a wolf in very nice designer
sheep’s clothing. So that’s the big lie in your personal life.
DB: You've got my number.
CF: Well, because it’s similar to mine. Except you’re better at the relationship thing.
DB: I don’t know about that, but I’m trying.
CF: You lasted with Fabrizio for many years.
DB: When the going gets tough, I don’t run. But sometimes you come to a point where there’s nothing more
you can do. You love and respect each other, but it’s not working. So you amicably decide to part. I don’t
know what the future holds: a lot of people get back together after they break up. We could go our separate
ways and work out some of our problems and come back together with a fresh perspective. But first you
have to break the patterns you’re in, that aren’t letting the relationship function properly. I always leave a
relationship with a sense of hope.
CF: So you’re not one of those people who go through a breakup and never speak to the other person again?
DB: I think a breakup can be the beginning of a friendship. That’s not me trying to make everything OK—
it’s me saying, “No, we love each other. Let’s not pretend we don’t.”
CF: What type of man do you envision yourself with?
DB: Someone who is smart, well-read and funny and has enough business sense to know what to do with his
dreams. Someone who could lead with me—not just take care of me, because if you wait around for that type
of thing, you might never find it. I want to be with the man who wants to open a movie studio with me and
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make films for new, fresh filmmakers who aren’t getting a chance somewhere else. I haven’t yet had that
type of partnership in a romantic relationship.
CF: How do you share your life with someone and not have him end up being Mr. Drew Barrymore?
DB: I wouldn’t want the guy who liked being Mr. Drew Barrymore!
CF: Maybe you’ve got to go to Europe to find someone.
DB: Or find someone who’s confident enough—or old enough—to handle it. I’ve never dated anybody
older, actually. There are so many things I’m curious about, and I’d love to be able to say, “Teach me.” I
want to learn from the people around me. For instance, you do the thing I would love to do the most, which
is writing.
CF: We’ve had this conversation before—I think you could write something very funny about your
childhood.
DB: Oh, God, I would love to. I’ve been producing for 13 years. I’ve made a string of joyful movies with
positive messages about comedy, love and romance. Now I’m ready for the next stage of my life. I love
writing, directing and photography; if I could figure out a way to put the three things together, that’s what I
would love to do.
CF: You need to be moved three inches to a slant where your childhood is funny. I always say, if my life
weren’t funny, it would just be true—and that’s unacceptable. [Laughs.] So as you get older, do you
fantasize about having children?
DB: I always thought I desperately wanted a husband and a big family, because I didn’t have it growing up.
But now that I’m 32 and in a prime position to welcome that into my life, it’s not what I want. Eventually I
would love to be the Griswolds, and go to amusement parks and drive a wood-paneled station wagon and eat
dinner at the kitchen table. But right now, I have this big family made up of my friends. My house is always
full of people!
CF: OK, should we wrap it up so we can plan that party we’ve always talked about throwing together?
DB: [Laughs.] Sure. This was not only my funnest interview in so long, but it was like therapy! You totally
called me out on things.
CF: Well, in some ways, you remind me of myself.
DB: I love that we're alike.
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Drew Takes Manhattan
Publication: InStyle
Date: September 2006
Author: Sia Michel
DREW BARRYMORE—former LA woman and onetime Hollywood wild child—has settled down and into
her latest (real-life) role: New Yorker. But that doesn't mean she's not still up for a good pub crawl
DREW BARRYMORE NEEDS HELP. SHE'S PRIMPING FOR a party to celebrate the wrap of Music and
Lyrics, an upcoming romantic comedy with Hugh Grant, and she can't find shoes to match her dress. "What
do you think?" she asks, teetering in a mismatched pair—a red patent-leather stiletto on one foot and a black
velvet platform on the other. The problem is, her gown isn't exactly easy to accessorize: Long and strapless,
with a big ruffle swerving down the back, it's fashioned from a bold plaid that looks like it was cut from a
pair of 1950s curtains. "I sewed this with my own two hands!" she says. "We had a Project Runway contest
on the set."
Her first creation using a sewing machine, the dress took three days to produce, but Barrymore loved every
minute of it. "Making it was so much fun that I'm going to start stealing the sewing kits from hotels," she
says with a huge laugh. In fact the newish New Yorker and self-described "night bird"—who with her
boyfriend, drummer Fabrizio Moretti of the Strokes, is occasionally seen at local bars at 3 a.m.—insists this
is only one way in which she has become increasingly domestic. Most actresses would have been tempted to
borrow a beautiful dress from today's photo session, or perhaps from a designer friend (Barrymore is pals
with Dior's John Galliano). But Barrymore, who arrived at the shoot looking like a cute N.Y.U. undergrad in
baggy T-shirt, gray yoga pants and Uggs, manages to look red-carpet ready in her own creation, its tight lines
hugging her well-toned curves. Whipping on and off six more shoes in front of a full-length mirror, she
finally settles on the black platforms, kicks back on a leather sofa with her blond mutt, Flossy, curled up at
her feet, and takes a moment to relax before heading out for a night on the town.
It's a town Barrymore has embraced fully. Having bought a Manhattan apartment in 2005, Barrymore finally
considers herself a real New Yorker, with a full-fledged sense of adventure—and her own Metrocard. "All I
need is my backpack and my dog, and I'm good to go," she says. Though she still spends a lot of time in
L.A., she and Moretti, who live together, have embraced the Big Apple lifestyle—often spotted smooching
in the VIP sections at rock concerts or walking around the Lower East Side holding hands—and she is about
to start filming another movie, Grey Gardens, on Long Island. "I'm new here, but I'm so proud because I love
it so much," she says. The city that never sleeps is perfect for a workaholic rock chick like Drew. "I like
eating dinner at 10:30 p.m., going for a drink at midnight, and rolling home at 4 a.m. And when I get off
from a night shoot at 6 in the morning, there's still life around. I don't feel like some isolated weirdo. This
city lives 24 hours a day."
During the daylight hours she's often in domestic overdrive. "I get into household chores—doing laundry and
scrubbing the bathroom," she says, though she's not as talented in the kitchen as she is with a needle and
thread. "I can't cook. Fab makes a few good things, but we mostly order in." And when she ventures out of
the house, fellow New Yorkers respect her efforts to live a normal life; for the most part, she can eat and
shop—and even ride the F train—without getting mobbed. Yes, she does take the subway. ("It's economical,"
says the star, who commands a reported $15 million per film.)
"Drew's relaxed attitude allows her to do things in a way that other celebrities can't," says Curtis Hanson, the
Oscar winner who directed her film Lucky You, due out this month. In this Sin City drama, Barrymore
shows some serious acting chops as a troubled Vegas lounge singer recovering from her mother's death. She
and her showgirl sister (Debra Messing) are after the same man, a poker champ played by Eric Bana. The
role is a departure from the bubbly girlfriends Barrymore has played in hits like The Wedding Singer and 50
First Dates. "I need to try different things now. I'm growing up, so I want to grow in my work. I'm ready to
tap into the darkness," says the actress, who charmingly describes herself as "31 and a half."
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The former child star enjoys being in her 30s, relishing the self-knowledge she has gained rather than fretting
over the idea of aging. "You learn to love your own body," she says. "You can't look at models and feel bad
about yourself. I'm not the kind of girl who can stuff her face with pasta all the time and not gain weight. I've
been running and doing yoga and Pilates, and I love the way it makes my mind and body feel. But I really
don't obsess about it. When I finish a film I often just let it all go and indulge myself. Enjoying food is such
an important part of life."
And Barrymore has always enjoyed life to the fullest. The reformed Hollywood party girl, who by her mid20s was already one of the industry's top-paid actresses as well as a producer (thanks, Charlie's Angels), has
set even more goals to achieve before she hits 40. Photography is her favorite hobby and she hopes to get
behind a much bigger camera. "I've said I want to direct my whole life, so I better shut up and do it," she
says with a self-deprecating laugh. And she envisions another major production at some point in the future: a
baby. "I definitely feel the beginnings of a ticktock," she says. "Whether I have children or adopt—whatever
form a family comes in, I would absolutely love to have it." Co-star Messing, who describes Barrymore as
the sister she never had, vouches for her friend's maternal instincts. "Drew makes you feel like she doesn't
want to be talking to anyone else in the world when she's with you, and a child would love that," she says.
It's a tricky balancing act: Though Barrymore has matured into a Hollywood player, she hasn't lost the
earthy, eccentric innocence that made fans love her in the first place. Nor has she lost her sense of humor.
("She jokes around like a 24-year-old rugby player," says Hugh Grant. "Frankly, she makes me feel like a
demure spinster.")
With Barrymore, there's still a lot of kid lurking inside. "Am I going to walk home from work one day and
open a bottle of wine and realize that I'm a homeowner? That I run a production company and have
responsibilities and a long-term relationship?" she says. "All of these things are so adult. I keep wondering
when it's going to hit me. Maybe it never will. And that's OK."
Drews N.Y.C. Hangouts
"Whenever I have a day off," Barrymore says, "I walk my dog, Flossy, around the city. We don't know what
we're going to find, but we always find something." Some of Drew's favorite discoveries?
Breakfast Joint Shopsin's, 54 Carmine St. "This is my favorite place to eat breakfast. There are a million
things on the menu, the food is excellent, and it's run by a really nice family."
Dinner Place Supper, 156 E. 2nd St. "Supper is a yummy Italian restaurant in the East Village. It's all wood
and great lighting. You feel like you're in some awesome friend's cozy kitchen."
Sushi Restaurant Bond Street, 6 Bond St. "It feels like New York in the eighties: high-style, glossy black
lacquer and really groovy."
Indie Shop Foley & Corinna, 114 Stanton St. "This is such an eclectic store, with a combination of their own
unique designs and beautiful vintage. Something that's getting lost in America is the single-owner store, the
family business. But in New York that's really embraced, and I love supporting it."
Art Gallery & Cafe Neue Galerie, 1048 Fifth Ave. "For a great afternoon, eat Viennese food at Cafe
Sabarsky overlooking Central Park and then go through the old mansion [that houses it], with an amazing
collection of Kirchner, Klimt and Schiele."
Bar Mona's, 224 Avenue B "For dive bars, you can't beat Mona's in the East Village, because it's open late. I
love doing pub crawls: Start out on Houston Street and just make your way down Avenue B—you can hit so
many great bars."
HOLLYWOOD MAY BE ABUZZ about conservation, but Drew Barrymore had energy to burn at our
N.Y.C. cover shoot. Despite filming scenes for her upcoming movie Music and Lyrics (in theaters this
23
December) until almost dawn, the blond-again beauty stayed upbeat all day while playfully dancing for the
camera in sky-high heels and long black gloves. But the most lusted-after accessory on set? Her iPod, which
played pop tunes such as "Hollaback Girl" by Gwen Stefani through speakers. When our shoot wrapped
around 9:30 p.m., DJ Drew headed out to party at an Eastside bar, bringing the good times with her, no
doubt.
SHOES - Barrymore borrowed these velvet Sigerson Morrison shoes for a party later.
THE BACKDROP - We commissioned artist Peter McGough (above, in his studio) to create a New York
stat of mind with this thirties-inspired mural in honor of the actress's love of Manhattan.
BEHIND THE SCENES - "Drew played with the camera," says stylist Freddie Leiba. "The clothes were
sexy and had a sense of humor."
PUPPY LOVE - Barrymore checked out test Polaroids with the photo crew while her dog, Flossy, took a
snooze.
CLOTHES - Our team of stylists chose dresses to match the girl, from vibrant, romantic gowns to sparkly,
eye-catching minis.
DRINK - Barrymore's must-have photo-shoot fuel? Unsweetened black iced tea from Starbucks
24
“I was such a sexual, free nudist”
Publication: Jane
Date: March 2007
Author: Stephanie Trong
Drew Barrymore may talk like an out-there hippie, but when she tells Stephanie Trong about her racy past
and why she wishes she'd waited to get married, she's pretty damn sharp.
“'Oh God, they warned me about you—your fucking optimism.'" Drew Barrymore, 32, is sitting in one of the
Tudor-style chairs in her Los Angeles office telling me what Hugh Grant, her costar in the romantic comedy
Music and Lyrics, jokingly said to her while they were filming a troublesome scene. She laughs at the quote,
completely aware that people often perceive her as hippie-dippy with a coat of patchouli dust on top.
But earlier, when Drew first arrived to meet me at her production company, Flower Films — which is
shabby-chic and not at all hipster-she seemed far from bohemian. Here's the scene: Drew, dressed in a black
vest with a white tee, black pants, black flip-flops and pink sunglasses, rushes in, plops down her heavylooking totes, hurriedly pours herself a huge glass of iced tea from a container, calls out to a Flower
employee to ask if they have any black-and-white film in the office and then finally sits down. A few
minutes later, another Floweree comes in and says Drew has to be at so-and-sos in such-and-such minutes. I
shouldn't be surprised, considering she's put out movies ranging from the cult darling Donnie Darko to the
box-office hit 50 First Dates, but her schedule and motivation completely freak me out.
"I'm such a workaholic and so fucking on fire all the time, it bewilders the shit out of me," Drew says,
perhaps noticing that my jaw has dropped, I think a lot of us just take out the trash and are like, "All right,
my day was pro-duc-tiiive." Not Drew.
"There are people who have a fabulous metabolism and can eat cheeseburgers all day long and never gain
weight," she continues, trying to explain how she's like that with work, in that she can take on more and
more without having a stress breakdown. "If you're interested in something, you have to act on it. When you
get ideas, don't just let them be fleeting thoughts that flow into the universe, so that later you look back and
think, 'God, I wish I had done something about that.' Just go for it and never be afraid."
Drew's childhood story is Hollywood legend—not to mention the subject of her ultra-candid 1991 memoir,
Little Girl Lost. Born into a family of renowned actors known for their self-destructive behavior, she was
mostly raised by her wild German-born actress mom, Jaid, while her father, John Barrymore Jr., was pretty
much like, "Laters." There was E.T., the subsequent fame and partying, rehab stints for cocaine and alcohol
at 13 and legal emancipation from Jaid when she was 15.
"I've got one wacky family," she says. "I understood early that we were not going to have stability. You just
have to find your own way and not sit in shit and cry about what you think you don't have. Get over it." Even
though Drew and her mom talk only "occasionally," she says, "I think my mom is a good person. Maybe we
haven't had a traditional relationship, but as I get older, I'm able to enjoy her more, because I'm not looking
at her as a mom but more as a friend."
One of Drew's early female role models was actress Sophia Loren. "She was dear friends with my
godmother, so I used to spend time in the summer with her two sons at her ranch outside of L.A.—that was
from when I was around 8 years old until I was 12," Drew remembers. "My godmother had two sons, too, so
I grew up around these rough-and-tumble boys. I think it was vital to my upbringing. I felt much more like a
fun tomboy than a girly girl—I didn't collect dolls, I collected Match Box cars."
Sadly, Drew's dad passed away from cancer in 2004. But of course, when I ask Drew about him, her face
breaks into a mellow smile. "My dad was a free bird and didn't want to be a dad—he was gone from the
start," she says. "Somehow I grasped that as a kid and didn't hate him for it. I still don't." Drew even helped
with her dad's medical bills before he passed away.
25
"I loved the way he was such a lover of things," she says. "I would visit him, and he'd talk about how when
he went on his 4 a.m. walk, he could feel the blades of grass under his feet and could tell which ones were
broken. When he said that, it brought up an emotion of, I'm just glad there's someone in the world like this—
a real free spirit.'" Hmm, it's obvious whom she inherited the rainbow-child gene from.
"Even though he was a hippie, he was a fuckin' rascal," she says with a glint in her eyes, the kind of look that
women get when they talk about that ex-boyfriend—-the one who was bad for them in so many ways but
who opened up their world by taking them on a motorcycle ride across the Brooklyn Bridge at dawn or
something.
"I like that combination," Drew says of her dad's personality, "because I can only take peace and meditation
for so long. I want a little bit of mischievousness." Makes sense—remember the 21-year-old who would
wear innocent daisies in her hair one day and then flash her boobs to David Letterman on national TV the
next?
"I'm thrilled I did that, but no way would I do it now," she says, laughing. "Man, I was such a sexual, free,
fucking nudist little bird running around. I love it." Drew has since calmed down, at least when it comes to
her exhibitionist side. "I'm still sensual, but I'm much more modest now," she says. "But I think I'll always be
a bit of a wood nymph when it comes to sexuality. It's like, 'Fuck it, be free and have the most fun you can.'"
Indeed. Her boyfriend for the past five years (though at press time the gossip rags were reporting that their
relationship was over), the Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti, told this magazine a year ago that he'd been
busted having sex in the bathroom during a performance of the opera La Boheme in New York.
"That was with you, right?" I ask.
"You'll never know," Drew replies, laughing.
In the past, she's had serious relationships with actors Jaime Walters and Luke Wilson, and Hole's Eric
Erlandson. She's also been married and divorced twice (from bartender Jeremy Thomas in 1994 and
comedian Tom Green in 2001).
I ask about her views on marriage now, and if she'll ever do it again. "If I had known what I know now, I
would say to myself, 'Do not get married before you're 30, and be together a minimum of five years first,'"
she says. "That's just for me—not my love advice for the world. I feel like I'm the least authoritative person
to talk about marriage, because I sorta screwed that whole thing up." Drew laughs. "As they say, I 'screwed
the pooch' on marriage. But I never put rules or guidelines on my life. It's certainly not something I desire
one bit right now, but I would like to in the future."
Drew says she considers her friends her family. "Beyond any [romantic] relationship I've ever had, my
friends are the ones who have been consistent rocks in my life," she says. "They make me feel like
everything will be okay."
One of those buds is Cameron Diaz, her costar in the Charlie's Angels films. "Drew's enthusiasm, drive and
passion are infectious," Cameron says. In fact, when Drew called Cam (each known as "Poo" to the other)
about doing the first Angels movie, Cameron was so excited that she pulled over her car and swapped ideas
with Drew until her phone battery died.
"She deals with everything that comes at her with optimism and this deep understanding that she has to make
it work for herself," Poo says about why she admires the Poo I'm profiling, "That's a huge inner strength.
And she is one of the better advice-givers." I wonder who fulfills which stereotypical role in the friendship,
like, "She's the crazy one and I'm the stable one." Cameron clears it up: "We have this dynamic where I'm
always telling her, 'Don't do that' or 'Don't do this,'" she says, giggling. "And she's just like, 'I know, believe
me, I'll learn my lesson.'"
"Every day, I have daydreams: Today I'm going to move to Hawaii, write a book.' The next day I'm like,
'Fuck Hollywood, I'm going to become a travel writer.' Some days I'm like, 'Man, I'm gonna rent an RV,
26
drive across America, take photos and make a coffee-table book,'" Drew says of her fantasy projects. "As
much as I've done, I still feel like there's so much more."
Even Drew's downtime involves some sort of self-betterment. When I ask what she did the night before, she
replies, "I stayed home, had a glass of wine, painted. I also sang and played guitar—I can't do either, but it
was fun." Whatever, her good friend Sean Tillmann, aka exhibitionist musician Har Mar Superstar, totally
outs Drew on the phone later.
"Yeah, Adam [Green, as in the endearing folk musician] bought her a pink kid-sized acoustic Harmony
guitar," he tells me. "We've been teaching her how to play 'La Bamba' and 'Heroin' by the Velvet
Underground. Seeing her get all geared-up like a total apt student, with her tiny pink guitar, is really cute."
Sean also mentions that he and Drew are known to have impromptu dance parties at her place, usually set to
Spank Rocks's "Bump." Sweet.
Back in 2004, Drew directed MTV's voting special Choose or Lose Presents: The Best Place to Start,
because she didn't exactly know how the voting process worked. "I wasn't raised in a household that talked
about politics," says Drew, who adds that she religiously reads The New York Times and The International
Herald Tribune.
You might think you know which party Drew would favor in the voting booth. "I'm a Democrat and a
liberal," she says, "but I will vote Republican if I think it's for the better candidate. There are Republicans out
there I really respect."
Looking around, I've noticed that most of Drew's employees at Flower are women, including her business
partner, Nancy Juvonen. I ask if she thinks men and women are different in leadership roles. "Men and
women are extremely different creatures, period. The older I get, the more I giggle about it," Drew says. "But
I would like, as an experiment, to let women run things for a while. What could it hurt? Just try it! If it's as
bad or worse than it is now, we could go right back to the system we've got."
All this talk about making the world a better place makes me wonder what Drew would teach her kids, if she
decides to have them. "I would love for them to become adults who have a positive effect," she says,
"whether that's through kindness or if they are scientists or humanitarians or entertainers... if they give
something back. The last thing I want is a selfish child."
I ask Drew if she's been able to impart her knowledge to her godchild, Frances Bean Cobain, daughter of
Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain, "Courtney and I have not seen each other in awhile, so I haven't had the
pleasure of being in Frances' life for a few years," she says. "That's a great loss for me, and I hope to
reconnect with her."
Drew continues, "I would definitely like to have a family one day. I don't know when or with who, but I
don't picture myself alone and bitter." Drew says she would ask Nancy Juvonen to be the godmother of her
child. "She's an unbelievable source of inspiration, strength and stability for me," Drew gushes. "God, I
almost started crying just talking about it—I'm either premenstrual or, you know... I do love my friends."
Well, it sounds like she's got time to prepare for the big mom-jeans switch anyway. "I wonder how that
happens," she says. "When I get old, I am not going to be wearing polyester pants. I'm going to wear old
Levi's and Birkenstocks. And hopefully I'll have enough hair to wear braids."
Drew downplays her fashion sense ("I wish I were cool, but I wear Uggs because I'm all about comfort").
However, Dior designer John Galliano, who recently dressed Drew for the Golden Globes, sees her
differently. I ask him what makes her fun to work with. "Everything," he says. "Drew is not precious. She is
savvy and knows her mind. She mixes her spirit into everything, even the most sophisticated gown. What
makes Drew 'Drew' is the way she puts things together—-she'll wear a dress with biker boots. She's the
hippie chick, the biker babe, the red-carpet icon.... I just watch and learn!"
There's that hippie thing again. The flower-child image is an easy joke, like that faux Inside the Actor's
Studio sketch on SNL a few years ago in which Kate Hudson did an impersonation of Drew, saying
27
everything was "sooo magical." But the label can also be an easy way to write her off—like a guy I know
who said, "Drew Barrymore seems like Jane's idea of someone who's really smart, but she's actually not."
Okay, but how is someone lacking smarts commanding multimillion-dollar paychecks, running a successful
production company and maintaining a now-golden reputation in an industry not exactly known for nurturing
nice girls? And all this after falling into Hollywood's "do not touch with a 10-foot-pole" category in the early
'90s. Maybe Drew's positivity—-combined with her relentless motivation—-is a fucking smart way to get the
most out of life.
28
How to be Happy All the Time
Publication: Parade
Date: January 21, 2007
Author: James Kaplan
DREW BARRYMORE'S NICENESS PRECEDES her. Ten minutes before the actress is due to meet me at a
Japanese restaurant in downtown Manhattan, I get a call saying she's stopping at Starbucks: Do I want
anything?
When Barrymore appears, looking unexpectedly tiny in a hooded sweatshirt and jeans, she's carrying a giant
iced tea. Is it OK, she asks the waiter, almost timidly, to bring in the outside beverage? After the starstruck
young man—who probably wouldn't bat an eye if Barrymore set up a camp stove on the table and cooked her
own meal —assures her it's fine, she asks, "Could I trouble you for a miso soup?"
It's hard to know if she's naturally this pleasant or working at it. In a way, it doesn't matter: It makes you
wish more people were like this. What's clear is that Drew Barrymore has a kind of genius for positivity. She
beams through talk shows. She doesn't apologize for making a lot of romantic comedies. "I like happy
endings," she says.
And, at 31, Barrymore has plenty to be happy about: She has a long-term boyfriend, drummer Fabrizio
Moretti of The Strokes. She runs a successful film production company. She is the love interest in her latest
movie, Music and Lyrics, a (yes) romantic comedy co-starring Hugh Grant. And in March she'll star in
Lucky You, a "dramedy" directed by Curtis Hanson of LA. Confidential fame.
Consider too that most former child actors are lucky to make it to adulthood alive and in one piece. You don't
have to look too hard at Drew Barrymore's face to see the angelic 6-year-old who played little Gertie—the
screamer of the most memorable screen scream of all time—in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Barrymore's happy
endings are built on some very unhappy beginnings. "My childhood lacked such structure and stability and
consistency," she says.
She is the bearer of two legacies: theatrical royalty and substance abuse. Her paternal grandfather, the
legendary actor John Barrymore, was a handsome, swashbuckling alcoholic who died at 60 of cirrhosis of
the liver. Her father, John Drew Barrymore, had a sporadic acting career in the '50s and '60s, in between
incarcerations on drug charges. His third wife, a Hungarian who called herself Jaid, is the mother of Drew
Blythe Barrymore.
Drew's father—when he was around—was a chaotic, physically abusive presence. "You know," Drew says,
"my dad's gone now. Two years ago. So I can't argue with him anymore. And my mom is someone I've had a
very tumultuous relationship with, but I love and respect her tremendously."
Jaid was present for her daughter on a very peculiar basis. As an inveterate partygoer in the '80s, she took
Drew everywhere—and shielded her from nothing. By the time Drew was 12, she was drinking and using
cocaine. At 13, she was in rehab. And at 15, the little girl who had stolen America's heart—and half the
scenes in E.T.—was working in a Hollywood coffee shop.
"I felt really upset when people felt sad for me," she tells me. "Like, 'Oh, wow, washed-up child actor having
to work in a coffeehouse. It must be really, really awful.' But I'm really glad for that time in my life—having
to ride the bus, struggling to pay my rent, getting heckled by people."
One of those people was her boss. "You know how they have the pastry cases, the plastic things that go on
top of the dish?" Barrymore asks. "I was washing them one morning, and he walked in and goes, 'Not with
the abrasive side of the sponge! You're scratching them!' I was like, 'Oh, I'm so sorry, Robert. I really suck at
this job, don't I?' He was like, 'Yes, you do. You suck.' But his parting words changed my whole life. He
said, Just go find your dreams.'"
29
Barrymore spent her mid-teens trying to break back into show business. "I got grief from a lot of casting
directors," she recalls. "They were rude and patronizing. They would say, 'Do you know how lucky you are
to be this room?' I would just say, 'Yes, I do.' It was humbling and humiliating."
After finally being cast as a teen temptress in Poison Ivy, Drew found herself pigeonholed as a vixen. "I
played lost and confused and angry people, be-cause that was what was true to me at the time," she says. "I
thought, 'At least I'm not considered a kid anymore!' But I still loved flowers and took photographs of trees. I
still hadn't lost touch with my hippieness."
Indeed. At 19, she married a Welsh-born bartender named Jeremy Thomas in a ceremony performed in a Los
Angeles bar by a clairvoyant from a psychic hotline. The marriage lasted just five weeks. (Her second
marriage, to Tom Green, lasted six months.) But Barrymore also started a lasting professional relationship
that year—with her producing partner, Nancy Juvonen. The two women formed Flower Films and began
looking for properties that could put the actress in charge of her own professional destiny. In 1999, Flower's
first movie, Never Been Kissed, was enough of a success that when Drew heard about a problematic project
at Sony Pictures, she was able to convince the studio to let her take it over. The film was Charlie's Angels.
Seven years later, thanks largely to Angels and its sequel, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (the two totaled
more than $523 million worldwide), Barrymore is—I can't help pointing out to her—a very successful
producer. She smiles her crooked smile, then looks serious for a moment. "To balance the heart that I wear
on my sleeve, to be ready to perform in a scene and to have people going, 'We have to cut that scene because
they're not giving us the budget for it that day,' makes me feel so schizophrenic sometimes that I think my
head is going to blow up!" she admits.
I wonder aloud if Drew misses her flaky days— the days when, as a 20-year-old, she unforgettably leaped
onto Dave Letterman's desk and flashed him right in the middle of a broadcast.
"How fun was that?" Barrymore says. "I'm so glad I was so free at one point in my life."
But she isn't anymore?
"I think I am," she replies. "And I think it alarms people, because I'm so responsible now that when I do do
it, it's almost surprising rather than, 'Oh, that's just her doing her thing again.' But I'll drive in Ireland and
park my car and run out into the field and rip all my clothes off and just run in the wheat fields naked. That's
for no one to see. That's to have that freedom of feeling, like, at one with nature. So I am completely
unguarded still."
She shakes her head. "I can't handle actors who are guarded," she adds. "I just think that it's a tragedy when
people are self-pro-tective and angry about it. You have to know what the job entails." It's a job Drew is very
good at—and one at which she has worked very hard. Was it equally difficult, I ask, to exorcise her
childhood?
"It was hard," says Barrymore. "You want to place blame on people, but I don't think it's fair. You're dealt
the cards that you're dealt. You can let that be your downfall or a springboard to become something better.
For me, I just thought, 'What a waste of time to be angry at my parents. What a waste of time to feel sorry for
myself The best thing I can do is learn all the things I've learned from them, good and bad, have my own
family someday and just keep on going. So many things are thrown at us as human beings, but you can't let
any of them get you down, or you're just going to be defeated."
And with that, Drew Barrymore gives a smile that's unbeatable.
30
Drew Barrymore and Hugh Garnt
Publication: People Weekly
Date: February 19, 2007
Author: Natasha Stoynoff
In Music and Lyrics, Hugh Grant bops around like a Wham! reject as a washed-up '80s pop star who woos a
ditsy poet played by Drew Barrymore, 31. Can a sarcastic Brit and a sunny California girl click in real life?
People's Natasha Stoynoff found out that the duo are so close they've got pet names: America, meet Hubert
and Druella!
Hugh, this movie proves you can shake your booty.
HUGH: We had a brilliant choreographer who does Britney and Christina. And then, poor bastard, he gets
this 46-year-old very grumpy, very terrified Englishman. He turned the music up and said, 'Just express
yourself.' And, of course, I have no self to express! Then suddenly, one day, I thought, Yes! Today I'm very
sexy!
DREW: He was just like Tom Jones!
HUGH: Perhaps a little too much like Tom Jones. I looked more like a male stripper than Simon Le Bon.
What's your favorite '80s pop tune?
DREW: "Eye of the Tiger"--that's a cheesy song that gets your engines going. I was on a diet once, and a
friend would play it every time I was about to pig out.
HUGH: I have a soft spot for Wham!'s "Wake Me Up Before You Go, Girl"
DREW: It's go-GO, Hubert!
HUGH: Oh. Is that how it is? I know nothing about music. I sing Gilbert and Sullivan in the shower. Or,
more specifically, in the lavatory.
Do romantic comedy stars believe in happy endings?
HUGH: I think it's bollocks. It's a nonsense I perpetrate purely for financial gain.
DREW: I do, I do! He's a cynic; I'm a romantic.
Hello, Yin and Yang!
DREW: On set, Hubert's trailer was like a cold, dark cell with an angry middle-aged—-as he calls himself—Englishman alone with nothing but a few salads.
HUGH: Hers was filled with sunshine, laughter, people, dogs... and masses of drugs.
DREW: Shut up! I didn't have drugs in my trailer, Hubert!
But seriously, how do you mend a broken heart?
DREW: I talk to myself in the mirror, pretending the other person is there and have conversations with them.
HUGH: I do that--but I end up spitting at myself.
DREW: Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Every minute you are angry is 60 seconds of happiness that you lose."
31
HUGH: That sounds unbearably trite. But then, he was a crashing bore.
DREW: Oh, Hubert!
32
Lucky Drew
Publication: Reader's Digest
Date: September 2006
Author: Sara Davidson
At age three Drew Barrymore knew she would be an actress. After all, this was the family business: Her
grandfather John, her great-aunt Ethel and great-uncle Lionel were all titans of Hollywood. So it was no
surprise that Drew became a child star in Steven Spielberg's E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. But by age 13 she'd
landed in rehab, addicted to alcohol and cocaine.
Her rocky childhood was just the beginning of a series of bad breaks, including two brief marriages and
divorces and a scary house fire. Still, she knew she could overcome her mistakes and her sorrows. Drew
believes that each experience—good or bad— has made her the strong, confident woman she is now. At 31,
she has a hot production company and a happy, stable love life with Fabrizio Moretti, the Brazilian-born
drummer for the sizzling rock band the Strokes. Drew met with RD to discuss her most grown-up role yet in
this month's film Lucky You, a gambling drama set in Las Vegas. And she talked about her belief that she's
been dealt the best hand in the universe.
RD: Have you always been funny?
DB: Well, the people I grew up around who I really liked were quick on the draw. It always just wowed me.
And my mom would make weird funny comments. I can see in myself her self-deprecating, hippie humor. I
can't take myself too seriously.
RD: When inviting actors to work with you, you've been known to say, "Come play with me."
DB: That's how I think it should be. I cannot understand why people would ever be miserable working on a
movie set; it's the most wonderful job.
RD: On some films, you can't just play.
DB: I don't mind a little Sturm und Drang. When I was doing Riding in Cars With Boys, I wouldn't smile at
anybody, because my character, Bev, was angry at the world. I'm the opposite. Inside my head I'd be like,
God, I'll explain to you at the end of shooting that I'm not this person.
RD: But you've seen your share of hardship and been open about it.
DB: It wasn't my choice to be an open book, but when people found out what my life was like when I was 14
or 15, I didn't deny it. I think the more imperfect you are, the more human you are.
RD: Your dad was absent. Your mom was unstable. You were supporting your family. Weren't you unhappy
and angry then?
DB No. In fact, my therapist says I still haven't gotten in touch with my anger. Maybe one day I'm going to
explode. But I'm still really happy. I know it looks like a strange and painful upbringing—all those
experiences led me to the paths that I'm on now.
RD: Do you think your early problems with drugs and alcohol taught you a worthwhile lesson?
DB: Life is a beautiful journey, and I'll never be able to understand what it is from afar. But I don't really
have any destructive behavior anymore, because I've tried that and I don't like it. I like being a functioning
adult.
RD: There's a famous story about Steven Spielberg saying that at six years old you were capable of
producing a major film, but nobody was smart enough to give you the money.
33
DB He always had high hopes for me. I don't know what he saw in me, but I like to orchestrate. I'm a bit of a
control freak. I love what producers do because they're creatively involved in every aspect of filmmaking.
And I love problem-solving. When the crisis hits, I will be there and I will fix it.
RD: So Spielberg has sort of been your godfather.
DB: He's been a major mentor. He was the first stable male figure in my life. The best attribute a parent can
have is consistency. When he said he would be there at three o'clock, he was there. That meant more to me
than anything.
RD: When you were just three, you told your mother that you wanted to be an actress. Do you remember
saying that?
DB: I remember I said I love doing it. She helped me understand who my family was, which made me feel
like I wasn't crazy to feel that magnetic pull.
RD: Do you think you inherited the gift for acting?
DB: This is the thing that I love more than anything in the world, and it's what my entire family has done for
generations. It must be running through my veins. I can see my face in their faces. I'm inspired by them and
really want to make them proud.
RD: But for many today, you're the only Barrymore people know.
DB: I'm sad that as years go by, we lose touch with our history, but happy because the name is still around.
RD: How does a seven-year-old, your age in E.T., act? Is it like playing?
DB: No, I thought of it as acting. At around age two I did a movie in which I played a little boy. I could
understand, Okay, you're not playing a little girl. I had to learn lines and hit marks. I think that developed my
awareness. By six, I felt much older than six.
RD: In Lucky You, you play a character who's very different from the bubbly, youthful roles we've come to
know you in. What attracted you to this part?
DB: When I was considering this film, I wanted to make different choices. I felt like the dark was something
that I hadn't explored in my work enough.
RD: A lot of actors say that comedy is harder to do than drama.
DB: They're both hard. Maybe the drama is newer to me, so I'm more excited by it, and I feel eager to
understand what the process is. But as much as I want to explore darkness, it really is the light that guides
me.
RD: Let's shift gears and talk about eating and weight, because Americans seem obsessed with it. How did
you drop and keep off 20 pounds?
DB: Well, I fluctuate. I can't live the deprived lifestyle. If I want to eat and not exercise, I'm going to
embrace it. But the minute I start to feel bad, I know exactly what to do. Portions are everything.
RD: What about exercise?
DB: I'm a runner and do some yoga, but I can't do a lot of yoga 'cause I'm better bottled up. I have work. I
have a great place to put all the emotions, and I'm better served with them coming out there.
RD: You've said that you feel you have a void to fill and a fear to face. What is the fear?
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DB: The fear is of people thinking that I'm only capable of doing my job to a certain degree, that I cannot
pass that line in skill. I think my other fear is that 1 don't really know what life is all about, because I haven't
become a parent yet. I want to have a family and see the world, but I've always been cautious to not have
kids before I'm ready. I've raced through everything in life. I somehow knew, Don't have kids before you're
ready.
RD: Do you think your hesitation has to do with having had such a challenging childhood?
DB: Sure. I want to be safe and stable for my children.
RD: Tell us about meeting Fabrizio.
DB: I just love the Strokes. They ended up playing a show a couple hours from where I live. I called their
manager, said, "I'm sure everyone's calling, but can I stand by the side of the stage and watch?"
RD: Fabrizio is the drummer. Usually women fall for the guitarist or the lead singer.
DB: I met him, and he was the most lethal combination. He was handsome and kind and smart and funny.
Chemistry is everything, but chemistry can evolve, and I don't think it's the best foundation for a relationship.
I think brains and creativity and intelligence and aspirations and poetic romanticism are far more lasting. So
it was when I got to know him that I realized I really liked him.
RD: Did he feel the same way?
DB: I think I caught him off guard 'cause I'm just a person who knows what she wants. I don't think that life
happens by sitting back and waiting. People hold their cards so tight to their chest. Life is short. Tell people
you love them. What's the worst that's going to happen?
RD: You were estranged from your father for years, and he died recently. Why was it important for you to
reunite before he departed?
DB: I didn't deny him in my life, say, "You can't be in it." He was the person who said, "I can't be a father."
I'm sure there was a little girl in me that was disappointed that he wasn't there. I'd always thought that I'd
want an apology from him for not being a dad. But when he was dying, I found myself saying, "I'm sorry if
your life wasn't everything you wanted it to be, and I love you." I fear going into the next form with bad
energy. We've got to let it go, transform it and make it good.
RD: Did you ever get the apology that you yearned for?
DB: He did apologize. I was like, I don't even need it anymore, but thank you.
RD: How are your relations with your mom these days?
DB: She and I are in really good communication. My dad passing was instrumental in us getting back on
track. You only have so much time. We needed to take a break—time-outs are so healthy—but we have a
functioning relationship that works for us right now.
RD: A few years ago, your house caught fire and burned to the ground as you slept. You said that experience
changed your life. How?
DB: If something like that doesn't change your life, you must be crazy. But what's interesting is that stability
doesn't come from anything material. You're a bird and can fly to the next nest. If your friends are still
circling around it, perfect. I didn't lose anything that really changed my life in a bad way. My dogs, my
friends, the people I love—that's all intact. And you can always rebuild. You can always pick up and start
over.
35
The Girl Can't Help It
Publication: Sunday Now
Date: February 11, 2007
Author: John Clark
Silly and sweet Drew Barrymore gives us something new to sing about in "Music & Lyrics."
Drew Barrymore has just finished an interview and steps into an elevator with some friends. She burps and
excuses herself, laughing and explaining that it was a pickle she ate. A friend covers her nose. It really wasn't
that bad.
One of the unexpected things about Barrymore is that growing up in show business has made her more
comfortable with who she is than someone who grew up like everyone else and then became a star. A lot of
things are no big deal to her. Asked to describe what a character based on herself would do — if, say,
someone like writer-director Marc Lawrence, who recently directed her in "Music and Lyrics," wrote a part
like that — Barrymore says, "I'd chase everyone's food around! I can't even focus on what you're saying. I'm
just staring angrily at your food, like, I want it, I want it, I want it. Much as I am flowery, I'm more serious,
driven and neurotic than I pretend to be. But I burp. I'm a tomboy."
Barrymore says this with an air of amusement, as if she were talking about a good, slightly daffy friend. And
while Lawrence didn't write "Music and Lyrics," opening Wednesday (Valentine's Day), for her — he
actually wrote it for co-star Hugh Grant — the character Barrymore plays is in some ways like the person she
describes.
Sophie, a motormouth and self-described hypochondriac, is employed watering Alex's (Grant) plants when
she artlessly displays a talent for lyrics. Alex, a faded '80s pop star, desperately needs a lyricist for a song
he's writing for a Britney Spears-type diva. So begins a collaboration both professional and personal, in
which, as the saying goes, they make beautiful music together.
It's the latest charm attack from Barrymore, who's really perfected these kinds of performances since
costarring with Adam Sandler in 1998's hit "The Wedding Singer." Lawrence says that when he offered the
role to Barrymore, he knew that she knew who the character was.
"It wouldn't surprise me that the public persona of Drew isn't mirrored in our character," he says. "A little
flighty and hippieish and out there, but if you get to know Drew she's enormously intelligent. She's a huge
e.e. cummings fan."
Like Sophie, Barrymore doesn't throw her brains in your face. What does immediately come across is her
restlessness, drive and cheerfulness. Many of these qualities were played out both onscreen and off between
her and Grant, whom she describes as her polar opposite.
"Hugh sits in his trailer like an angry little Englishman," she says. "His trailer is dank, like a cell, with salad
fixings in the corner, and he's all by himself sending angry text messages. I'm the eternal optimist; he's the
ultimate cynic. I say, 'Good morning, how was your evening?' His first answer is 'Awful.' And of course, I've
got daisies sprouting out of the top of my head."
Barrymore goes on to say that Grant left no evidence of himself in his trailer, whereas hers was "full of
fabric and my friends and my dogs." During downtime when the film was shooting in New York, she and her
pals produced their own little version of "Project Runway," scouring the Garment District and making their
own clothes. When asked if she organized this group activity, Barrymore sheepishly says yes.
"My friends tell me I produce breakfast," Barrymore adds.
She also produces movies, through her Flower Films production arm: "Never Been Kissed," "Charlie's
Angels" and "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle," "Fever Pitch," and this one (though she's not listed as a
producer on it). This is in addition to her roles, which have evolved from hug-gable kid in "E.T. the Extra-
36
Terrestrial" to teenage vamp in "Poison Ivy" and TV's "The Amy Fisher Story" to romantic lead in "Ever
After," "Never Been Kissed" and "50 First Dates," with forays into indie films ("Confessions of a Dangerous
Mind," "Donnie Darko") and big-budget studio projects (like the "Charlie's Angels" franchise).
Her onscreen appeal is her unforced charm and adorableness. That's present offscreen as well. "I'm in a great
business if you have a lot of dreams and want to be a lot of different people," says Barrymore, now 31. "And
there are so many aspects of it you can do: Producing and directing and writing and acting and casting....To
be involved is what makes me very happy. Sometimes acting isn't enough. And sometimes, I want to shut all
of that aside and just focus on a character."
This passion for the business, which lies beneath the daisies sprouting out of her head, steadied Barrymore
when she was spinning out of control early in her career. She became a poster child for Bad Behavior by an
Underage Actress by notoriously doing drugs in her teens.
"When I was 11 months old to when I was 13, I was acting the whole time," says Barrymore, who is, of
course, part of the great Barrymore acting family (grandfather was John, grand-aunt was Ethel, grand-uncle
was Lionel). "And my focus was intact, and I was very professional. Anything that I ever did wrong never
took place in a professional forum. It was always my personal life, and that did get exploited so people
thought, 'Oh, taboo.' I got sort of sidelined for a few years."
Being told she couldn't do something she loved to do because of her personal behavior brought her up short
— and also made her stop doing it. But that hasn't made her a lecturing bore; she's not about to trash today's
lost girls.
"I've always been a little wild, and I always will be, too," she says, charmingly. "I'm never going to be one of
those people in a caftan pointing their finger at somebody because, 'I've learned how the moral code works.' I
like living freely, spontaneously, and full of adventure."
37
The New Drew
Publication: V
Date: 2006
Author: Christopher Bollen
"It was the best time of my life." So reads the first line of Drew Barrymore's 1990 memoir Little Girl Lost,
the best-selling account of the young actress's dive into the nadir of Hollywood excess. In this opening
sequence, the then-15-year-old is describing her time on the set of E.T., floating somewhere between an
extra-terrestrial life-form hugging her between takes and the very terrestrial specter of Steven Spielberg
sitting in the director's chair. That was then. Those were the players. This was a different Hollywood, a
different Drew. If Barrymore were going to write her memoirs today, I believe this first line would apply to
life right now.
Not that the beautiful redhead sitting down on her afternoon lunch break in a movie trailer is all that
interested in looking back. At 31, Barrymore has achieved what few in Hollywood could ever dream of-probably one of the longest film careers of anyone under 50, with credits that include everything from the
reverent (Woody Allen) to the cultishly phenomenal (Donnie Darko). She runs her own production company,
Flower Films. She's in love with the handsome drummer of the Strokes, Fabrizio Moretti, with whom she
lives. Oh yeah, and she's got a wicked sense of humor that makes most people squirm on the floor laughing
hysterically until they don't feel so good. Drew Barrymore is unnerving. She's a movie star who's also real.
Most people grew up knowing exactly who Barrymore was. We followed her face from Firestarter through
the Poison Ivy years, all the way to the romantic comedies (and occasional action blockbusters) that have
come to define much of her adult filmography. But just because we know her face intimately doesn't mean
that Barrymore can't still surprise. She seems to be at a point in her career when she wants to put herself out
on a very long limb. Having wrapped up Lucky You, a poker movie by director Curtis Hanson where she
plays a lost lounge singer, Barrymore is in the midst of shooting Music and Lyrics, where she plays a
songwriter who falls in love with a forgotten pop singer played by Hugh Grant. It is her next role, however,
that may decide the true range of Barrymore's talents. She's set to play Little Edie in the movie adaptation of
the Maysles brothers' brilliant 1975 documentary Grey Gardens. Little Edith Bouvier Beale is one of
documentary filmmaking's most eccentric, fascinating (and delusional) charac-ters, and only one of
Hollywood's true rogues could stand in the same room with her. Barrymore, sitting on the trailer sofa under a
rack of costumes that she and her friends made as a little competition, petting her dog Flossie, seems up for
doing something a little bit shocking and insane-just not in front of the paparazzi.
CHRISTOPHER BOLLEN: One of your hobbies is taking pictures.
DREW BARRYMORE: Photography is a big thing for me. It has been for about ten years. When my house
in L.A. burned down in 2001, I lost all of my negatives. I was devastated.
CB: Do you take portraits of people?
DB: I'm not that sophisticated yet. But I did take portraits when I went with my friend Cameron Diaz to
Chile. Our trip was about going to environmentally hazardous areas outside the cities. The people who lived
there were so cool. I hung up a white sheet and shot them in front of it. Also, when I went to Africa recently,
I took photographs that I got to show at ICP. We auctioned them to raise money for the World Food
Program. That was the first show I ever got to be involved in. I was so excited, because I'm not really a
photographer. It was like winning an Academy Award.
CB: Why did your house burn down?
DB: It was electrical. When that happened it really screwed my head up. You do all this stuff and collect this
body of work and it's gone. That set me back with my momentum, but I'm trying to climb back on the horse.
CB: In any creative field, setbacks can turn into permanent stalls. It's always a constant game of proving
yourself. I'm sure that's true in acting too.
38
DB: Hi, I'm Drew and I totally live with a ticking time bomb up my ass. [Laughs] I feel like everything I do
is a do-or-die situation. It's an anxious way to live.
CB: In the movie you're filming now, Music and Lyrics, you play a songwriter. I've noticed you do a lot of
music movies.
DB: It's ironic. I sing in this movie. I sang in my last movie, and I have to sing a little in the next film I'm
doing. It's strange because I fundamentally have the worst voice ever given to a human being.
CB: Come on. I heard you in Everyone Says I Love You. It's not bad.
DB: You say that, but it's true. I'm not exaggerating. For the last film I did, Lucky You, I trained for five
months, because I sing three songs-all lounge covers of old western songs.
CB: Do you hate hearing yourself?
DB: I made the director, Curtis Hanson, give me a drink before I could even get up in front of the crew. Even
though I sang it in pre-records, I knew my voice was being piped through the speakers, and I was so scared I
was shaking like a leaf. I was almost in tears. Curtis was like, What do you need? I was like, Southern
Comfort! I took a sip and went out there and sang the whole song. The crew heard my voice but no one said
anything. Later in the evening, I finally heard a "sounds pretty good," No one was like, Wow, but I was just
happy no one had blood spurting out of their ears.
CB: At least you're still at a point where you're taking chances with your parts.
DB: The movie I'm filming now is a genre that I've done a lot. All I want to do is the unknown and challenge
myself--like singing. Or doing an accent. Or playing a man. Or playing 80. Hanging upside down and turning
my skin inside out. That's what seems appealing to me.
CB: So you're getting sick of starring in romantic comedies.
DB: I think there are other avenues I need to explore. I don't want to repeat myself. I am a sucker for
romantic comedies. That's what I watch late at night when I come home. I want to pretend I'm highfalutin
and put on...
CB: Fassbinder?
DB: Exactly! I love Fassbinder by the way. Fox and His Friends--so good. But sometimes you just want joy
and entertainment, and that's also art. Cocteau and John Hughes are both filmmakers, but their movies are
not the same. I love them both. But I did opt for Pretty in Pink the other night. I've seen it like five hundred
times. I really don't need to watch it again. But I do because it makes me happy. I'll always work on films I
find personally entertaining. And I'll always do romantic comedies. But I really need something different too.
CB: Your next film is radically different. You're playing Little Edie in Grey Gardens.
DB: I said I had to challenge myself. It's so like me to run right in the lion's mouth and go down in flames for
it.
CB: It's probably the most extreme character I can think of playing. And everyone's obsessed with her.
DB: [Screams] What have I done?! I know! I haven't been thinking about it because I'm concentrating on
Music and Lyrics, and every time I do think about it I want to shit and vomit at the same time. I'm so lucky I
got the opportunity to do this role. The director was really apprehensive about letting me do a reading, let
alone putting me in the movie. He had other people in mind for the part. But I wanted to learn if I could do it
myself. That's what I kept asking him--will you be the one to take the risk on me? I've been doing readings
for the last two years trying to convince filmmakers that I can do more than they think I can. I understand
39
that they don't know that. There are so many things I haven't done. But now is the time. And I can't fuck that
role up.
CB: Jessica Lang plays Big Edie, your mother. Have you worked with her before?
DB: No. She's already prepping for it. I'm excited to work with her. In auditions, I called her up and begged
her, too. "Please, please, I want this role so badly!" I really fought for it. I understand why people don't know
what I'm capable of. But the next few years of my life have to be about exploring those roads I haven't gone
down.
CB: We are both 1975 babies. Growing up, I always had this weird thing, where I almost charted my life
against yours. Clearly you were a little more successful than I was, and it happened when you were a little bit
younger. When you look back on yourself working in Hollywood as a child on films like Firestarter and
Irreconcilable Differences, do you have a vivid memory of acting in them or is it a total childhood blur?
DB: I often wonder why I have such a vivid memory of that time. Everything since age 3, I remember like it
was yesterday. I think it's because I had to remember lines so young, and be sharp and focused. That kept me
really aware of everything going on around me. Of course there are things I don't remember. Someone will
say, "Remember at this party where you were sitting on my lap?" And I'll be like, No, sorry. But for the most
part I have a very good memory.
CB: Have you ever reread that book you wrote as a teenager, Little Girl Lost?
DB: No, I haven't. It's funny, I'm sad that the only literary thing I've ever done is about a time in my life that
I don't really need to look back on. I'm glad I went through it. I wouldn't change it for the world. But I'd
much rather write poetry about a cucumber right now. Not, Oh shit, me and my mom are fighting. I'd never
write that now, but I wouldn't be who I am if I hadn't done that.
CB: When people fall apart in Hollywood, it seems like it's very hard to put yourself back together—
especially to the level that you're at now. But maybe because you went through all of that so young, it made
it easier to have a second chance.
DB: It's so hard to climb back on that horse.
CB: And today's culture loves the breakdown and dissolve. It's a spectator sport. People want to see the
destruction of their stars.
DB: But the dissolve isn't as scandalous today as it was back then. Today, it's a little more funny and
glamorous. There's a satire to it. Back then, in the 70s and '80s, if you fucked up, you were really thought of
as a wasteoid. It's not like, Oh, you're a party girl. You were just a fuckup. I felt so badly that anyone thought
I was a fuckup, because I really take pride in my responsibilities. My private life never affected my
professionalism. But it's also a good thing because it makes me appreciate every job I do. I think every job
will be the last one. I got sick the other day before work and I couldn't come in and I kept thinking, oh, no,
I'll miss work, as I'm vomiting on the floor with food poisoning. I kept calling the studio apologizing. I
always have the paranoia that someone's going to think I'm unprofessional. That's why I demand so much of
myself, I go way overboard now.
CB: You're busy. You act, you run a production company, you did a documentary on politics, you're in love.
DB: I am in love. I go out. I go dancing. I play board games and drink wine until five in the morning, I have
a great social life. And I also like to be by myself. I travel, have dinner, and go to movies alone. I have a nice
balance of that. Work hard, play hard. CB Do you prefer living in New York or L.A.?
DB: I'm more New York right now. It's more my speed. And also in LA, the paparazzi are such a nightmare.
They are in New York too, but in L.A. it's different. It's more piranha-like. I'm always like, Fuck off, to the
paparazzi. I hate them so much. I think they are varmints with karma coming to them that we just can't
measure. Why would you want to do that with your life? Why would you want to do that to other people?
40
When I see a woman paparazzi photographer, I want to go up to her and say, You're a woman. What are you
doing? I feel bad though. I know I get disgruntled, but it's horrifying to walk outside of your house and have
people chasing you around. I have a lot of respect for the press. I just don't like when it's not about promoting
work. When it's a stalker and it's personal it's a problem. I appreciate the press. What would I do without
them? I hate actors who are like, I hate them. But when they have a movie out, they are the first ones there
licking it up.
CB: It must be nice for you to date someone like Fab who is in the entertainment industry, but isn't a movie
star. The ego must be a little different.
DB: It's nice. We can understand each other because we are both like gypsies, constantly traveling with
groups of people. You don't get a lot of time alone. We both travel in packs. Our lives are quite similar that
way. But rock and roll and the movie industry are so different. Rock is all about being wild and fun. I wake
up at 5 a.m. to go to work. In rock and roll, that's when you go to bed. It's confusing. Sometimes I feel like
I'm burning the candle at both ends. At the same time, I can't picture myself in any sort of traditional lifestyle
with any traditional guy. Now we are in really busy times in our lives. We love our jobs and we love each
other. There's nothing worse than being with someone who makes you feel bad about what you do.
CB: Your production company, Flower Films, has produced some pretty amazing films. How did Donnie
Darko happen?
DB: At first no one wanted to make it. We did it for a couple of million. It came out and nothing happened
with it. It didn't make any money. Nobody talked about it, nothing. The whole cult phenomenon followed
way afterward. It's just a shame that we live in this competitive opening-weekend box office world where
that's so important. Some movies need time to breathe. They need time to find people,
CB: But when it comes to running Flower Films, you must feel a tremendous amount of opening-weekend
pressure.
DB: Heck yeah. Every opening weekend of a film, I'm grade-A material for a straightjacket. I'm completely
off my rocker, shit-house, balls out. I cry. I go to the ocean with my dogs and pray. I can't eat. I can't sleep.
Then if the movie works, people are like, God, you must have celebrated your ass off. I'm like, Are you
kidding? I'm relieved. At least I'll get to do this again. I don't measure success with money. It's consistency-that you can keep doing what you love. In a few of those weekends, I've lost years off my life. I probably
looked like the exorcist. It's my ritual that I don't check the returns until Monday morning. All my friends
know that. But for 50 First Dates, I was hosting Saturday Night Live that opening weekend. It was
Valentine's Day and Fab was there. Saturday Night Live is my favorite show. Fab and I always make each
other something for Valentine's Day, so he made me this amazing present. And Adam [Sandler] was there
and friends and my production partners. They were like, We know it's your tradi-tion, we don't want to break
it, but we think you want to know, I said, Really? Okay, what? They told me it was going to be about fortyfive million, which was then the biggest weekend opening for a romantic comedy ever. It was about as
perfect as an evening could get.
CB: Alright, time for a little quiz. You've made something like forty movies. I'm going to say a film and see
if you can remember the name of the character you played.
DB: Oh, God. I think I can do that. Alright, I want to play. Give me one.
CB: We'll start easy. Poison Ivy.
DB: Ivy. [Laughs] I don't think I had a last name.
CB: Firestarter.
DB: Charlie McGee!
CB: Very good. Donnie Darko?
41
DB: Um, dammit...wait. Don't say it. Karen. Oh, no. Karen Pomeroy.
CB: Boys on the Side.
DB: Casey? No that was Mad Love. Who was I in Boys on the Side? God dammit. How can I remember
Charlie McGee, who I played twenty years ago and not this?
CB: Duplex.
DB: Nancy? Nancy. Nancy. Nancy Kendricks! CB Riding in Cars with Boys.
DB: Ohhhhh... That was my favorite character ever. I got into her. I lived and breathed her. She was a real
woman, who I spent actual time with, while studying for the part. And Penny Marshall rode my ass on that
shoot. She strapped a saddle on and kicked me with her spurs. It was a long, arduous, incredible process. The
character was selfish and unlikeable at times. She was fully formed.
CB: I'll give you one more to redeem yourself. Never Been Kissed.
DB: Oh my God, I know this. As soon as I leave here it will come right away. Josie Grossie! Josie Gellar!
Thank God. I would not have been able to go back on set if I hadn't been able to get that.
42
American Idol
Publication: Vogue
Date: February 2006
Author: Jonathan Van Meter
Drew Barrymore is one of today's ten highest paid actresses, a blockbuster producer, and a woman who's
lived her whole life in the limelight. Now, as she sets her sights on serious acting, Jonathan Van Meter finds
out how this Hollywood bad girl turned out so right. Photographed by Mario Testino.
About an hour into what turned into a nearly four-hour marathon dinner, I start to count the thank-yous.
Drew Barrymore, the most grateful person on Earth (or, at the very least, in Hollywood), says it more
sincerely and more frequently than anyone you've ever met. If a busboy tops off her ice water: Thank you! If
the waitress mechanically stops by to see if everything is OK: Thank you! If I pay her a compliment by
telling her, for example, that she's very funny: Thank you so much. After a while, I stop keeping track, but I
counted well over 20 separate and distinct expressions of gratitude. At one point, after the dinner plates are
cleared, our waitress drops off a couple of small laminated cards. "Thank you," says Barrymore. "Is this the
dessert menu?"
"No, that's cocktails," says the waitress.
"Oooh," says Barrymore, her eyes flickering with naughtiness. "Desserts of another color."
We're sitting on the patio at Dominick's, an old Rat Pack haunt in West Hollywood that has recently been
restored to its original swanky splendor. It is one of those places in L.A. where people go if they like to enjoy
a few cigarettes with their dinner, and Barrymore is doing just that. Occasionally her mouth forms an O, and
she sends a perfectly round smoke ring spinning off into the dark above her head. She may as well be in her
pajamas. She's wearing baggy gray sweatpants and a long-sleeved cotton undershirt with dainty little flowers
printed all over it. Over this she has on a giant parka in which she's threatening to disappear, and a pair of
suede shearling boots. Her hair is pulled up into a tangled knot, and she has washed off all the makeup from
her Vogue photo shoot (where she looked every inch the glamorous movie star) just before she came to meet
me. One gets the sense that there's no statement being made. She is neither pretentiously "dressing down" to
try to draw attention away from herself nor is there any particular look she is trying to evince. She was just in
a hurry and this is what she had on when it was time to walk out the door and get in her car, which, by the
way, is a late-model Crown Victoria, the sort of car used by cops and taxi drivers.
When I first walked into the restaurant, I was five minutes early, but Barrymore was already there. "I'm not
late this time," she said, referring to the fact that ten years ago, when I interviewed her for another magazine,
she left me sitting in a diner in Manhattan for more than an hour and a half-and then never showed. The
excuse that was given-that her beloved dogs Flossy and Templeton got sick when she was walking them in
Central Park and she had to rush them to the vet-could very well have been true, but it was a bit hard to
swallow at the time. The fact that today she is bragging about being early is her way of letting me know that
she's no longer the flaky 21-year-old I met in 1996. "It's like we're renewing our vows," she says of our
meeting again a decade later. "We should do this every ten years." Then, more seriously: "It's funny; I just
went back and reread our article, and it seemed like I must have spoken at a mile a minute. I was bouncing
off the walls. I was very free and unguarded and spastic. I feel like I was a little firecracker or something. A
Mexican jumping bean."
True enough. But what struck me most about her then was how utterly comfortable she seemed to be in the
world and how relatively undamaged she was by her famously inappropriate childhood. Underneath all the
childlike playfulness (she made me get into bed with her, and we looked at magazines, gossiped about
Madonna, and went through the contents of each other's bags), extravagant exhibitionism (she had recently
flashed Letterman while dancing on his desk), and touchy-feely intimacy (she massaged patchouli and cedarwood oil onto my forearms), there was a seriousness about her, a need to articulate and connect and be
understood. We talked at length about Truman Capote, whose collection Music for Chameleons she was in
the middle of, and e. e. cummings, her favorite poet, whose work she read aloud to me (in the back of a limo)
43
with tears streaming down her cheeks. "I'm still bursting at the seams with emotion, and I still cry all the
time, and I still love e. e. cummings," she says. "In fact, more so because he remains the purest and most
heartfelt. I think heartfelt to me is really important. It's a big theme."
She also spoke very touchingly about laboring under-and living up to-the Barrymore legend. And she shared
her very mixed feelings about her mother, Jaid ("I don't understand her"), who poisoned the idea of
Hollywood for Drew. "It's a shallow, inconsistent, competitive, cruel world," she said. "Whenever I get
really sad that I'm involved in it, I feel that instead of complaining, I should go in there and make it better."
And guess what? That's exactly what she did. Flower Films, the production company she formed with her
partner, Nancy Juvonen, was spanking new when I first interviewed her, and I remember thinking, Good
luck with that. My skepticism couldn't have been more misplaced. Ten years later, Barrymore and Juvonen
have turned their company into a tiny powerhouse (two words: Charlie's Angels), and themselves into minimoguls. "I knew what our intentions were," says Barrymore, "but they had nothing to do with success.
Doesn't matter how far or high I go; if I can keep working, that is the most profound amount of success I in
my personal life can ever find. To us, what filmmaking is all about is keeping promises. That's our work
ethic."
But aside from creating the monstrously successful Angels franchise ("I would give anything to do a third. I
think about it all the time"), the other thing that Barrymore accomplished-the very thing she set out to do, in
fact-is to make Hollywood a slightly less scary place for her to be. "That was a big part of turning 30," she
says. "Nan and I had our ten-year anniversary, and we really reevaluated the films we had made, what made
us happy, and we realized that all of them were, like, perfect experiences. The truth is, we're a small
company, and we like it hardcore family-style. We're very hands-on. It's certainly the family I never had, and
a really good important source of stability for me and an outlet for creativity. It's kind of ideal."
If there has been a downside to her astonishing success as a producer, it is that she unwittingly put the cart
before the horse. For most film actresses, 20 to 30 are prime years, when you're young and pretty and going
after bigger and better parts to grow as a performer. Barrymore was so busy producing films and making
mostly romantic comedies that she neglected that part of herself.
"There's another world I want to explore, which is to find more challenging and different roles as an actor,"
she tells me. "In my life there is darkness and chaos and drama, and I have yet to explore some of that in my
work life. On the other hand, I'm never going to not be who I am, which is a silly goofball who loves to
watch and make romantic comedies. I can't abandon that part of me, but I have to find a balance. I sort of just
want to quietly challenge myself and prove that I'm capable of more."
One morning in early December I go to the old Warner Bros. lot on Santa Monica and LaBrea to sit in an
editing suite and watch a handful of scenes from Lucky You, the new Curtis Hanson film set in the world of
contemporary professional poker in Las Vegas. Robert Duvall and Eric Bana play father and son poker
players who have a strained, distant relationship. Debra Messing plays an aquatic showgirl and sometime
lover of Bana's. Barrymore is Messing's kid sister, an aspiring lounge singer who moves to Vegas to start a
new life after their mother dies. Her relationship with Bana's character eventually eclipses his affair with her
sister. Says Hanson, "It's kind of about how the skills that serve one well at the poker table-the ability to be
deceptive and hide your emotions and have no mercy on your opponents-are the exact opposite of the skills
that one needs to be successful in human relationships."
As the editor cues up the first scene on the computer screen, Barrymore soon appears in the frame, and I am
instantly struck by how different she looks, how adult she seems, and how much better and more natural as
an actor than she has ever been. In so many films, directors have seemed content to let Drew be Drew, all
lopsided smiles and infectious giggles, the Valley-girl accent always in full flower. And she is more often
than not required to be the human stand-in for optimism or joyfulness or decency, qualities that she herself so
effortlessly projects in real life. But here, at last, we get to see something different: a fully fleshed-out
character, a flawed person, a woman you might actually know. In one scene, she comes fairly unhinged, and
it is riveting to watch, our little Drew screaming and crying.
44
She is playing an adult-not a child-woman-for the first time. "What will be arresting for people when they
see this movie," says Hanson, "is this total womanliness that I don't think we've seen before. The complexity
that I think is unique to Drew is that she projects an innocence that is extremely engaging and likable and at
the same time you feel that those eyes see the truth. In an odd way, it is something she even projected when
she was six in E.T."
Hanson, a bit of a film historian, is fascinated by old Hollywood. In the way that he directed Kim Basinger to
an Oscar in LA. Confidential by bringing out her Veronica Lake qualities, he has tapped into Barrymore's
inner Jean Arthur, and the result is surprising. "Drew is somebody who is not only a star now but without
question would have been a star in the fifties or the forties or even the thirties. How appropriate that she is in
fact the torch carrier of what was America's premier acting dynasty and she has these qualities that are a
throwback in some ways to movie stars of another era. How fantastic that she has the temperament and
discipline of a long-distance runner, which her famous grandfather did not."
When I mention to him that Barrymore spoke of being "pushed" further than ever before, he says, "I don't
really feel that I pushed Drew in any way. I just created an environment where she could be free and in a
sense fearless. The fearlessness to appear to be naked-that's what is achieved by actors when they give a
really great movie performance. When the audience feels they're seeing that person for the first time as they
really are."
Working with a director like Hanson was, for Barrymore, "a wonderful experience. The thing about him
that's so cool is that he's completely inexhaustible." The two spent many hours watching old movies and
talking about Barrymore's family before they began filming. "I felt so much of my life like I was either the
wrong age or in the wrong era, and whenever I'm with Curtis I feel like I'm in the right place. He's so special
in that way, and his films reflect that. There really is an old-fashioned gracefulness to his work, a type of
filmmaking that is very hard to find nowadays."
What is perhaps most impressive about the leap Barrymore has taken with Lucky You is that she has learned
to sing. "I can't sing," she says. "I have not ever been allowed to sing in films before, because I have
notoriously been told,' You are the worst singer I've ever heard. We're going to loop your voice. Someone
else will sing your part. You can't sing.' And I have such a fear of it. It's like the Bermuda triangle of fear
when it comes to singing. I'm the worst on the planet. I break glass. I upset people." With Hanson's words of
encouragement-"If you work hard enough at it, you will do it"-Barrymore hired several coaches until she
found the right one and then trained every night, every weekend, every holiday for six months.
"All I had to do was get to a place where I was passable as a girl who would be hired once or twice a week at
a really low-rent bar off the strip," says Barrymore. "Pretty much most people can sing that well in their
sleep. But for me? It was like a marathon I've never run before." Barrymore had to learn a Waylon Jennings
song and two George Jones songs, "old covers of obscure sweet little country songs," she says, and the way
she did it was one excruciating note at a time. "When we recorded the songs, I would record half the session
one way, very diligently and with an ear monitor. And then I would take the monitor out, have a glass of
wine, and totally let loose. And only a phrase or a moment would come out of it, but it was great because
Curtis would love the little laugh or an aside."
A few nights after I see the footage, Debra Messing calls me to talk about Barrymore. The two women
recently spent the day together reshooting some scenes for the as-yet-unfinished film, due out next fall. "I
was just cuddling with her in bed," says Messing. "We were like two little possums." Messing had met
Barrymore only once before she showed up for work on Lucky You, in what she described as "very brief but
potent interaction" backstage at an awards show. "She immediately keyed in and sort of created this little
cocoon for us in the midst of all this noise and chaos. She made me feel as if she didn't want to do anything
else in the world but sit and talk with me. She's just so present and curious and exuberant."
Working together, however, gave Messing newfound respect for Barrymore. "It's so easy to fall in love and
stay fixated on the special creature that she is that is happy and optimistic and playful and childlike. You sort
of want to play in Drewland. But then it's like, 'Oh, wait a minute, I forgot. She's a mogul!'"
Hanson, she says, is a "meticulous director who knows exactly what he wants and can be very painstaking
about getting it. And it was amazing to watch Drew and him work together. Because there is something
45
really beautiful and tragic and complicated and adult about Drew. This is a big role, with some pretty intense
emotional moments. I was thrilled to see her go into a darker and more mysterious place and to really be
courageous with exploring and revealing vulnerability. I think with this movie, the challenges were hourly
for her."
A couple of years ago, Drew Barrymore moved to New York City to live with her boyfriend, Fabrizio
Moretti, the drummer for the rock band the Strokes. The two met backstage at a concert in 2002 and have
been together pretty much ever since; their relationship appears to be the most successful of Barrymore's life.
"You would think that music and film are somewhat interconnected, but they're quite different lifestyles,"
she says. "The one thing they have in common is that you have to go away for a while. We understand that
about each other. It's not easy, but you just do it. Find the positive: It keeps things fresh and fun. It's doable.
It's like, OK, I want this. I can make this work. And four years later, we're almost a testament to that."
Barrymore has had some very public crack-ups, relationship-wise (remember Tom Green?), which is one
reason she tries not to talk too much about Moretti. Has she gained any insight into her past mistakes? "I
guess I would say placing my sense of happiness and security on someone else was my biggest fault. When
you don't put all of that on a relationship, it breathes so differently. I like living with the freedom of 'I will
make myself happy and be my own source of strength.' So part of the reason this relationship is successful is
because I'm different."
She looks different, too: fitter, healthier, tinier. "I must have been so much bigger!" she says. "I keep getting
these comments on how tiny I am, and I'm like, God, I didn't realize it was that dramatic a change." But then
she concedes, "Exercise has changed my life." She's a half-gym, half-yoga girl. "On the average, I exercise
three days a week. Sometimes I go two weeks without it; sometimes I do it almost every day for three
weeks." It started a couple of years ago, after a period of indulgence at the end of a long stretch of work.
After the binge, she felt lethargic and "heavier" than normal. "I started exercising as a way to punch that
feeling in its face," she says, "and then I loved it and got really into it. Once you get on that high, it's hard to
get off it. I still have pockets of flesh overflowing. I have big boobs. I'm five-four. I have cellulite. I have
what I'm given. You just have to embrace that, but it ain't easy. It's a battle all the time."
Though she now splits her time between New York and L. A., getting out of Hollywood for a while seems to
have helped Barrymore become a better version of herself. "I've fallen in love with the city," she says.
"When I was younger, because of my lack of family, I was terrified of being alone. But in New York, my
isolation feels very comforting. I love walking out my door every day in my sneakers and sweater and never
knowing when I'm coming back home. Could be in ten minutes, or I may not get back until twelve hours
later. And it is the most wonderful city for that. I have my local gym, my iced-tea place, my little product
store. I totally live in my neighborhood and walk everywhere and just go about my day with total freedom."
This would explain my hearing about friends who have had chance encounters with Barrymore in
Manhattan, in which she has warmly approached them on the street to say hello. It's not something you could
imagine, say, Cate Blanchett doing. As Curtis Hanson puts it, "Drew doesn't let who she is get in the way of
doing what she wants to do. Even on a day-to-day level. A lot of stars become prisoners of their celebrity,
and Drew is not that. She's not doomed to being famous. It's almost as if she had a talk with herself and said,
'I'm not going to let this change the way I live.'"
When I bring this up with her, she says, "It's such bullshit to think that it's OK to be tortured and to torture
those around you because of an occupation you've chosen. Believe me, I have a dark side. I'm not oblivious
to pain and insecurity and neuroses. They're very comfortable, and I totally put them on like pajamas. But I
just think there's no reason not to be happy. I think that it's such a waste to take anything for granted."
Which brings us back to all those thank-yous during our dinner. I ask her what she thinks that's about. "It's so
on the surface," she says. "I think there was a real point in my life when I saw how shitty my life could turn
out to be or how I could try to create something better not only for myself but for other people around me.
And even though there was a fork in the road-of Life A or Life B-they're still on the same prong. They're
right next to each other, and I can always see what shitty Life B would be like. So every time I know I'm on
the good road, Life A, I'm sooo excited because I know I could jump over at any time. Any day I'm not over
there is a good day."
46
On one of the days of her Vogue shoot, Barrymore and I were sitting at a table outside of a big crazy house
way up on a mountaintop just beyond the outer reaches of Malibu eating lunch by the pool. The other people
at the table struck up a very personal conversation about childhood and family and the idea that having a
supportive one can really build confidence. I studied her face as this conversation went on around her, trying
to detect signs of discomfort. "I almost couldn't relate to what they were talking about," she tells me later.
"But it's interesting. My family and I were never close and we were never there for each other, but I never
felt like they disapproved of me. And that was a huge thing. I would rather have a lack of parenting than
disapproval. I was always free to make my own choices or fall on my face or succeed."
In the end it's impossible, even for Barrymore, to know exactly why she thrived despite such an unseemly
childhood. "Now that I'm an adult I get to be honest with my mother. I'm no longer the wounded child who's
like, 'Goddamn it, why didn't I have that Rockwellian family?' I'm like, 'God, I have been dealt these really
interesting cards, and it's totally up to me how I play them.' "
On some level, it is as if Barrymore has conjured a better life for herself out of sheer willpower. "She has
kind of been cobbling it together on her own all of her life," says Jim Juvonen, the brother of Barrymore's
producing partner, Nancy; the siblings function as a kind of family for her. "She's completely self-created.
Living is like a job to her, and she works really hard at doing it well, in her work, and outside of her work
and in all of her relationships. She has such an honest work ethic. It's a really delicious thing about her."
That said, she is still her parents' daughter. When I ask her what she thinks she inherited from them, she says,
"My mom is very emotional, as am I. My dad was very flighty, as am I. The negative side to those qualities
is that I can tend to be too needy and unstable. And I can be too irresponsible and flaky." On the other hand,
she says, "I'm not a stone that doesn't feel. I'm totally in touch with my emotions. And I'm a better
daydreamer because of the flightiness. I'm a better projector of all the possibilities. I'm not harnessed in."
This fearlessness is, perhaps, the main reason Barrymore is constantly giving herself new challenges. Since
making a documentary for MTV in 2004 about voting, Barrymore has become intrigued by the idea of doing
another, and to that end she recently traveled to Africa with a film crew. "I've not been as philanthropic as
I've wanted to be in my life," she says. "I don't think I'm ever supposed to be this poster child for anything,
but this is part of my fascination with documentaries. I can listen to stories and find avenue for them to come
out. I can literally get in the backseat, still do the thing I love, which is filmmaking, and let something else
exist that I think is important."
It seems only a matter of time before Barrymore will direct her own feature film. "I think it's in her future,"
says Nancy Juvonen. "The reason Drew will go toward that is because she is never satisfied with staying put.
She wants to push herself further almost before she's even ready."
One night in early December, Barrymore calls me at home. I mention her number-four spot on the list, which
was all over the news the day before, of the ten highest-paid actresses in Hollywood for 2005. "The thing
that I loved about that was the fine print," says Barrymore. "It said, This is not only according to the amount
they were paid, it's according to box office their movies earned. It was about being worth what you are paid.
Phew! I get to keep my job."
47
Drew Barrymore
Publication: Vogue Paris (France)
Date: December 2006
Author: Emmanuelle Richard
Baby star made known by Spielberg’s ET, miraculous survivor of the Hollywood crushing machine
DREW BARRYMORE
Last of a cinema dynasty, is today a much sought after actress and an enlightened producer. Meeting in Los
Angeles with a charming tornado on whom fashion can play tricks.
From the bungalow which she uses as an office, like a padded doll’s house in the Warner Bros studios near
Hollywood, Drew Barrymore chats with the vivaciousness of best friends at school. Sweet mouthed, she
twists her auburn hair, when a flash-back to the red carpet takes her by surprise. The 31 year old star again
sees herself at the Golden Globes ceremony last January. The unsophisticated actress of romantic comedies
widens her hazel eyes in horror film fashion, as ten years ago on the poster advertising “Scream” by Wes
Craven, and cries “[swear word] that dress!” The conversation is about the famous emerald flounced dress
without underwiring, also known as “The Golden Globes Dress”. “For goodness sake give Drew a bra!”
shrieked a choir of bloggers and fashion writers, making a fool of the “overhanging features” of the actress.
Drew Barrymore, who ordinarily swears “never to read things about herself or to type her name in “Google”)
had given up and skimmed through the blogs. “All the comments about me and the dress were so wicked, so
cruel, it was totally fascistic. I couldn’t stop crying” she confides, her emotions obvious.
Is it necessary to mention that this sensitive young woman, 1.62m tall, natural, in jeans and multi-coloured
blouse, bare foot in her toe-shoes, is one of the best paid actresses and one of the most powerful producers in
American cinema? She proves to be just as comfortable in unpleasant confessions as in self-ridicule. In
response to the criticisms about “The Dress”, Drew Barrymore appeared in the TV comedy programme
“Saturday Night Live” decked up in a false bust like two crepes rolled out right to the navel. Or how to
transform an embarrassing moment into a roar of laughter: An art which this native of Culver City, in the
suburbs of Los Angeles, has cultivated since her very first casting at the age of 11 months for an
advertisement about dog food. At the time a baby with dimples, round and blond, little Drew was bitten by
the puppy star of the publicity spot. After the first seconds of incredulity, the little girl laughed and continued
to play with the animal, refusing any help.
Some 35 years later, “as soon as she enters a room, Drew has a gift for disarming people and reminding them
that they are capable of laughing” says Nancy Juvonen, also known as “Nan”, the smart best friend of
Barrymore, sometimes compared to a young Farah Fawcett. Partners for 13 years within their production
company, Flower Films, they knew how to obtain the respect of the whole of a rather misogynist Hollywood
by producing a variety of feature-length films: from the brilliant cult film Donnie Darko to the romantic
comedies 50 First Dates (hit) or Duplex (flop). Nancy Juvonen describes her co-producer as being “involved
180%: she is a worker and an enthusiast, capable of staying up all night to read word of the script or writing
up her notes”. In founding her company at the age of 19, in her junk room beside the washing machine, Drew
Barrymore wanted to encourage adolescents to feel strong in their heads and comfortable with themselves: in
Ever After, her feminist variation of the story of Cinderalla, the pretty slattern takes her destiny in hand
without waiting for Prince Charming. Another expression of the “Girl Power” of the girls from Flower: the
mega success of the remake of Charlies Angels or the breath-taking adventures (spoiled by numerous
criticisms) of activists of junk who “assure”.
“I am just somebody who is totally happy and I have always believed in optimism” says Drew Barrymore,
sipping a very large iced tea in between two little burps punctuated by laughing excuses. In her eyes, the
hostilities of the red carpet (she was also attacked for having dared to come to the Oscars with marguerites in
her hair) are rather funny in the ladder of a career studded with ordeals. Child star at 7, broken at 10, in detox
for cocaine, alcohol and marijuana at 14, with a suicide attempt before her fifteenth birthday, Drew
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Barrymore seemed to be condemned to haunt the magazine people in the poignant “What has become of
them?” sections.
Descendant of a tumultuous Hollywood dynasty, Drew Barrymore grew up under the projectors. To judge by
the number of portraits of John Barrymore covering the walls of her miniature office, she venerates her
grandfather. An actor with a classic profile, he was considered to be the greatest theatre Hamlet in the
thirties, before becoming a star of the big screen. He drowned his career in alcohol and died of cirrhosis of
the liver in 1942. His daughter Diana, a talented and tortured actress, committed suicide by means of
barbiturates. His son John Drew, Drew’s father, made a name for himself in the fifties as a charming “bad
boy” of cinema, the favourite of the bimbos. But drink and drugs drove him away from the sets, and he
became a recluse. “My name hasn’t opened a single door for me,” says young [Drew] Barrymore. “When I
was born in 1975, there hadn’t been an active Barrymore in Hollywood for years. People thought ‘It’s a
terrific dynasty, but these people are completely mad’”.
Drew Barrymore describes a childhood “with adult responsibilities”. Her mother, Jaid Barrymore, a young
actress of Hungarian origin (maiden name Ildikô Makô) brought up her daughter alone in a bed-sitter in
Hollywood. Unpredictable and violent under the influence of alcohol, John Drew was an absent father, who
had a taste of prison. Little Drew’s fees in advertising or in the cinema brought home the bacon. She lived in
turmoil at the idea of losing the source of the family income. At 7 years of age, she charmed Steven
Spielberg and obtained the role of the little sister in E.T. the Extra Terrestrial, a huge hit worldwide. Drew
became the Shirley Temple of the beginning of the eighties and the director, her godfather. But, gifted with
the famous Barrymore chin, the pre-adolescent also inherited their demons: her precocious nocturnal outings
to trendy nightclubs, her battles with alcohol and drugs and her three detox cures were fodder for the
American tabloids. “I lived my life at 100 miles an hour for a child” concedes Drew Barrymore, who
nevertheless maintains certain nostalgia for the gallery of mythical people of Studio 54 in New York, at the
end of the disco era.
At the age of 15, freed from her addictions, the young actress “divorced” her parents and rolled up her
sleeves to re-launch her career, literally. The producers had no faith in the deranged cherub, henceforth
platinum blond. The tattooed Lolita prepared the salad sauces in a restaurant and cleaned the toilets. She
went out with a grunge rocker (from Courtney Love’s group, Hole) and took roles... such as tattooed Lolitas,
as in Poison Flower. In the middle of the nineties, Drew Barrymore appeared topless in Playboy. Godfather
Spielberg sent to her a gift of a good quilted cover and the advice “Cover yourself up!” Then the young
beauty unveiled the most unexpected assets: a warm personality in interviews and an innate talent for
romantic comedies, such as Woody Allen’s Everybody says I Love You and Wedding Singer, the hit which
shot her to star of the box office in 1998, in which she plays more real than life an idealist waitress.
“Drew’s fans have an emotional relationship with her” stated Lucy Liu, one of Charlie’s Angels, during their
promotional world-wide tour three years ago. “Her personality is so radiant: I adore her enthusiasm and her
accessibility” explains Ashley Bevilacqua, aged 24, co-founder of the website thedrewseum.com, a
“museum” on-line in tribute to her favourite actress. “She has transformed all her personal tragedies into
sources of motivation,” continues the administrative assistant from Las Vegas. “Taking into account where
she comes from and the extraordinary fashion in which she has re-directed her life, I wish to inspire myself
from that in my everyday life”. After several decades of media cover, the Americans know more about
Drew’s joys and sorrows than they do about their own family secrets: her two lightening marriages, with a
bar owner in 1994 (two months) and a Canadian actor, Tom Green, in 2001 (five months); her apparently
happy relationship over the last three years with Fab Moretti, the drummer of the group The Strokes. Since
last year, they have shared a flat in Manhattan, with Drew’s white chow chow dog, Flossy. In 2004, Drew’s
father died from cancer: they were reconciled during his illness. “He was a nomad and a hippy: he taught me
about freedom” affirms the now most famous Barrymore. She has a distant relationship with her mother
Ildiko, regularly cited on the hit-parade of the most deranged parents in show-biz. “She taught me something
very important in my life” emphasises the former child star “the passion for reading.”
Having abandoned school at the age of 16, Drew Barrymore tries to compensate for her lack of formal
education by devouring books, omnipresent in her Hollywood villa. “Each time that I finish one, I mark my
name on the inside” she says, like a hardworking pupil. She has forged for herself a very “new age”
philosophy. “I believe in nature, in the beauty of simplicity and in the power of greatness. We are so
49
small….I am just a little ant among so many others who crawl in the universe” she says extremely seriously.
Because of lack of family, she reveres the more so her friends: the actress Cameron Diaz or the photographer
Mark Seliger, who encourages her to pursue her passion for photography, in the old style, on film. “Her work
is very intuitive,” he says, referring to the photos taken in Africa by she who has often posed for him, and
whom he considers as a muse. “She doesn’t hesitate to approach people, to establish a relationship with
people, with sensitivity and a sense of composition which are not given to all”. So many qualities which
Drew Barrymore will be able to exploit when she moves on to directing, shortly, she hopes. In 2007, after the
romantic comedy Music and Lyrics By with Hugh Grant, the actress will distinguish herself in more
dramatic roles with Curtis Hanson’s Lucky You, in which she plays a waitress infatuated with a poker player
(Eric Bana). “I have done many romantic comedies because I love happiness and love”, explains America’s
little darling, “but I understand my grandfather, who found it more interesting to play a monster than a
seductive gentleman. I like playing roles far apart from what I am in real life”.
In her leisure hours, the possessor of a star on the “Walk of Fame” pavement likes nothing better than to take
the metro to New York with her dog and her rucksack. She dons clumsy Ugg boots or a poncho, at the risk of
titillating the tongues of the Internet vipers: “I like clothes which are comfortable and give me pleasure, and I
don’t care if they are cheap, expensive, second hand or from a designer boutique” Drew Barrymore defends
herself. One thing is certain: she hates anyone saying to her what is trendy or old fashioned. As for the
fashion parades attended by all the stars? “I prefer snuggling into my couch with a pizza and a beer”, she
says, laughing. But she makes an exception for Dior and her friend John Galliano, “a guy with a sense of
humour and a real artist”. Details in a huddled up position of “little ant”. “His parades are like art in
movement, with museum pieces as well as skirts to wear every day”. Recently, her friend gave her a bustier
dress “magnificent, silvery, with black lace... One would have thought it came from another era. I am
keeping it for a special occasion”. The next Golden Globes ceremony, perhaps? “You know... I am just a not
very tall girl weighing 52 kilos, bra cup size C, who juggles with questions of weight, food and exercise” she
philosophises, “so to be able to wear magnificent designer dresses, have my hair done and have myself
made-up... It is a Cinderalla’s dream.”