Drew Grit
My interview with Drew Barrymore in today’s Irish Examiner
Drew Barrymore has to burp. “Excuse me, I’m very gassy today,” she explains. She pauses to make a muffled, petite belch, following it up with a smile that suggests she’s more proud than embarrassed of her emission. “Now where were we?”
The 35-year-old had been in the middle of talking to Weekend about her latest movie Going the Distance, a very modern romantic comedy in which she plays Erin, a struggling tomboy journalist who attempts to conduct a 3,000-mile long distance relationship with her new beau, played by Barrymore’s own on-off (more of that anon) boyfriend Justin Long.
Perched on a large chair in Claridges in London, Barrymore is rocking a grungy look, mixing a vintage white maxi dress with a black, studded-collar leather jacket and simple black shoes. She’s wearing a large mood ring on one finger, and has a long earring dangling from just one ear. The star is also growing out her roots, so her usual blonde hair is mostly dark.
At first, she speaks very slowly and politely, going as far as to thank me for asking her a question, but she soon relaxes, and the real Drew – funny, opinionated, kooky, more than a little naughty – starts to shine through.
“I want to do something different with romantic comedies,” she says. “I’m more interested in making ones that are more reality-based than fantastical. I want to make films as a woman for women, but I’ve always wanted to appeal to men in my films too. I don’t like chick flicks. I like films that boys will think are cool. I always want to appeal to the male mentality because I have it very much alive inside of me.”
What does she mean by that? “I think my approach is very androgynous,” she explains. “I grew up as a tomboy. I was raised around a lot of boys, and gay men, and they gave me an edge where I didn’t always have to be the girly-girl. Don’t get me wrong: I’m very feminine. I’m inherently a woman. I think the worst thing I could try to do is be a man in a man’s world. Ever since I founded [her production company] Flower Films, I’ve never worn a power suit. I don’t want to be a man as a director.”
Indeed, Barrymore’s first foray into directing – the roller-derby comedy Whip It, released earlier this year – was an avowedly girl-power-infused project, and was very well received by critics to boot. Since starting Flower Films back in the mid-90s, Barrymore has produced many of her own movies, including Never Been Kissed, the Charlie’s Angels reboots, 50 First Dates and Donnie Darko. After 30 years in the business, and some 60 movies, her total box office takings to date are close to e2bn.
That Barrymore is such a Hollywood powerhouse today is testament to her remarkable resilience in rehabilitating her personal and professional lives throughout her early 20s. A child star at age six in Steven Spielberg’s ET, Barrymore – a member of a legendary, Oscar-laden acting dynasty – famously entered rehab for drug addiction at age 13, attempted suicide at age 14, became emancipated from her parents at age 15, and was declared washed-up by the time she came of voting age.
After getting her act together, in every sense of the word, Barrymore clawed her way back into showbiz with a startling cameo in the blockbuster horror movie Scream (1996). A star was reborn.
Going the Distance has attracted attention because it pairs up the star with rising comic actor Justin Long (32). They dated for over a year, and though the couple officially split in 2008, rumours abound that the two are still more than just good friends. Barrymore isn’t giving anything away on the status of their relationship today, but she does say about filming with Long: “I was happy to capitalize on the fact that we had such a great history, and knew each other so well.”
Barrymore adds that she’s “getting better” at managing her personal life and relationships (she already has two short-lived marriages under her belt). “I’m getting to know myself better, and spending very vast periods of time alone, whereas I think I was in a lot of consecutive relationships up until now,” she says. “It’s given me a great sense of personal awareness.”
Given the movie’s subject matter, the question of long distance relationships ultimately arises. “I’ve been in long distance relationships my whole life and I find that they take an extraordinary amount of work,” she reveals. “But I don’t think they’re much different from a relationship where you live across the street.
“I think the best relationships are the ones where you don’t feel as if you’re doing all the work, and the other person is never meeting you half way. I think that breeds a lonely, empty resentment. I don’t like guys who are half-assed about things, who leave you unsure of where you stand. I can’t do that. I like a guy who is bold and willing to put his feelings on the line.”
A key scene in the movie involves the two characters attempting phone sex to keep the heat in their bicoastal relationship. “I did attempt phone sex with a lover one time, but I feel like I could have been on the other end of a dinosaur,” she laughs. “I was so off in my own world. I just had to get lost in my own fantasy rather than do the banter back and forth. I don’t even know if he hung up or whatever. That helped me realise how good I am at creating my own fantasies.”
Barrymore also divulges what she would view as grand romantic gestures. “Just little surprises when it’s least expected, like some flowers or a special appearance,” she says. “I like engravings: that’s clearly something that the person has thought about.”
She’s on a roll. “I love letters,” she continues. “They’re such a beautiful way to convey your feelings, plus you can carry them with you in your bag or tuck them under your pillow. That’s far, far more romantic than a text message, which I think has become very lazy. It’s become almost like bad foreplay.
“I like guys who are into art, and going to revival movies. Someone who’ll take you for tacos that you eat on the sidewalk somewhere off the beaten track. I don’t need fancy; I just need clever.”
Actress, director, producer: Barrymore’s future options are more varied than at any other point in her career so far. So what’s next? “I’m starting a movie soon called Everybody Loves Whales, and I’m doing some writing for a book of my photography,” she says.
“I’ve worked really hard over the last five years to do lots of diverse things, like Whip It and Grey Gardens [a miniseries for which Barrymore won a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award]. I would just like to continue on a trajectory of scaring the ever-loving shit out of myself, and feeling like I have snakes in my stomach, and that I might die everyday at work because the stakes are so high.”
*Going the Distance is released September 10.
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