Drew Barrymore isn’t your average girly girl. For last year’s roller-derby flick (and her directorial debut) Whip It, she donned roller skates, pink highlights and tattoos, and though her tough-girl persona was all for the sake of the movie (out now on DVD and Blu-ray), it’s not a far cry from the 34-year-old actress’s real-life personality. “I love boys and I am very boyish myself,” Barrymore — who is dating Justin Long, 31, her costar in 2009’s He’s Just Not That Into You and the upcoming Going the Distance — tells iVillage. “I kind of really love men and their whole perspective and I’m pretty androgynous.” iVillage spoke with the actress about complicated mother-daughter relationships, bonding with her Whip It costars and why Valentine’s Day is, well, “weird.”
Why was it so important for you to show strong female characters in Whip It?
I do fundamentally believe that you can be true to who you want to be in this world and find a great group of friends, and it is so much more fun to do it alongside a group of people who keep you honest and inspire you to do better and who you can laugh with. And that’s what I’ve done with my own life, so that theme is so true to me. I also know what it’s like to be a young girl with a mother and to try to navigate that relationship. Though my own life was quite different than it is in the movie, there were similar themes and emotions I could really make personal. I love to rock out with my friends and have a good time. I like laughing and comedy and I like women who are physically capable, because I’m not really in real life: I just pretend at work sometimes that I am and it’s so fun. I have such admiration for women like that so I celebrate people who are doing it on their own terms and empowering themselves and empowering each other and having a good time and inspiring each other along the way. Read the rest of this entry »
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At 34, most people in show business are just beginning to make their mark and prove their staying power. For Drew Barrymore, 34 means her third decade in the business. Although she did her first minor TV appearances at 3 and 5, and her first film was Ken Russell’s whacked out Altered States in 1980, Barrymore first captured moviegoers at the tender age of 7 when she melted hearts with her tear-inducing performance in Steven Spielberg’s E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. Flash forward 27 years, and you’ll find an accomplished actress, producer and now director.
For her directorial debut, Whip It, Barrymore enlisted an all-star cast to flesh out her longtime dream of stepping behind the camera, including Juno’s Ellen Page, Oscar winner Marcia Gay Harden, “Saturday Night Live”’s Kristen Wiig, Juliette Lewis, Jimmy Fallon, Eve and Andrew Wilson.
Based on the book by Austinite and UT Film School alum Shauna Cross, the film follows Bliss Cavendar (Page), a misplaced waitress of the Oink Joint in Bodeen, Texas, who struggles through every Miss Bluebonnet pageant for her pageant-obsessed mom (Harden). She finally finds her calling in Austin when her and her best friend sneak out to catch a roller derby match. Eventually joining the Hurl Scouts, Cavendar becomes known as Babe Ruthless and enters a world of free-spirited women and fierce competition that begins to take the place of her dead end small town life. Read the rest of this entry »
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Its always hard growing up in front of the camera, but with a godfather like Steven Spielberg, life gets a little easier. Drew Barrymore, who got her start acting at 11 months old in a TV commercial, is now an acclaimed actress, producer and, with today’s release of “Whip It!,” a director as well.
Click on the photo below to see how Drew has transformed from a “Little Girl Lost” to a kick-butt filmmaker. Then, keep reading for more on her rise to fame after the jump.
She’s the granddaughter of cinema great John Barrymore and has actors strewn on both sides of her family tree, so it’s no surprise Drew had her first big hit at age seven cast as little sister Gertie in Spielbergs sci-fi masterpiece, “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial.” Two years later, she transitioned from adorable to deadly in the adaptation of Stephen King’s “Firestarter.” Read the rest of this entry »
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Drew Barrymore, in plain and simple terms, is a sweetheart. From her soft yet confident tone of voice to her bubbly personality, the 34-year-old actress is a delight to be around, transmitting her joy to those in her company.
On Sept. 9, she visited the Artists for Humanity Epicenter in Boston to meet with admirers, sign autographs, take pictures, and share her new movie, “Whip It”, with a select group of fans at a special sneak preview and question and answer session.
She spoke with the audience about the film, a comedic and honest look at a young girl (played by Ellen Page) breaking out of the beauty pageant shell her traditional mother (Marcia Gay Harden) has locked her into, and joining an nontraditional roller derby team consisting of unique members played by such actresses as Kristen Wiig, Eve, and Barrymore herself. Read the rest of this entry »
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Actress Drew Barrymore called the situation surrounding David Letterman’s admission he had sex with women on his staff and the related alleged extortion attempt by a CBS producer “unfortunate.”
Barrymore, who flashed the late night star during a 1995 appearance on his show, joked, “I hope I didn’t start anything by jumping on his desk!”
She added, referring to The Late Show with David Letterman, “I’ve always had fun there. I feel, you know, it’s an unfortunate situation. I’m not one to comment on it, and I wish them the best, because that’s an unfortunate situation.” Read the rest of this entry »
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‘I don’t know if I’m completely comfortable ever,” says actress Drew Barrymore. “Sometimes I can totally let go with complete abandon—sing and dance and run around and not care what people think about me. Still, there seems to be this ball of stress inside me that I can’t get rid of.”
Barrymore, 34, is about to take off on a national tour to promote her directorial debut, Whip It, a movie about women’s roller derby starring Ellen Page and herself, due out Oct. 2.
Her production company, Flower Films, has made 10 movies (50 First Dates, for example) and grossed nearly $900 million worldwide. If you take into account all the films she’s appeared in, the amount rises to more than $2 billion.
Some other things about Barrymore: Her lucky number is 22. The childlike twinkle in her grown-up eyes—the very essence of her screwball appeal—obfuscates a childhood sadness. She does not “tweet.”
Right now, Barrymore is shooting a new romantic comedy, and her trailer is a mare’s nest of food containers, opened books, Post-it notes, and tossed-off clothes. Barefoot and wearing a tie-dyed T-shirt and a favorite pair of jeans, she apologizes for the disarray. On the wall opposite her is taped a photograph of Buster Keaton, one of her heroes, whose own famously sad eyes seem to serve as both an inspiration and a warning.
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Shoehorned into a banquette on the sun-drenched patio of a Mediterranean joint in Manhattan’s West Village, Drew Barrymore and Ellen Page can’t keep their hands off each other.
The two stars first buddied up on the boisterous set of Whip It, this month’s Roller Derby romp, which features Page as Bliss, a small-town pageant girl who trades in her tiara for ripped fishnets and elbow pads; it also marks Barrymore’s first time as director. From the looks of things, bonding appears to have continued unabated well after the movie wrapped: Barrymore, wearing safety-pin earrings and a nubby scarf that Page knitted for her (”I stitch and bitch,” the Juno alum explains), playfully holds hands throughout lunch with Page, who’s sporting a tissue-thin Rolling Stones T-shirt, smudgy black eyeliner, and a jacket with the sleeves pushed up to display an enviable calculator watch. Read the rest of this entry »
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Ever want to feel like Sally McDork, president of the Model U.N. club, who’s mistakenly been invited to the cheerleaders reunion? Then I’d advise organizing a get-together with Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, and Ginnifer Goodwin at Chateau Marmont in L.A.
“You look so beautiful!” Aniston, 40, says to Goodwin, 30. “I love that dress!” chimes Barrymore, soon to turn 34. The women were together a week earlier at a photo shoot, but they greeted each other like long-lost friends, which apparently they became while shooting their latest project, He’s Just Not That Into You. An ensemble piece based on the best-selling advice book, HJNTIY follows the lives of nine men and women as they date, mate, break up, and reconnect. Or don’t. Read the rest of this entry »
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Drew Barrymore is sitting in her hotel room at the Holiday Inn Suites in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She is in Michigan–has been for more than two months–filming her feature directorial debut, Whip It!, a roller-derby comedy starring Juno’s Ellen Page. Ann Arbor is quite the hot spot today. The town is buzzing because Barack Obama has checked into the local Marriott en route to a parade in Detroit. Change is in the air.
Flopping on the couch with a large Coke, Drew’s a little whipped herself, swiftly flicking off the Republican convention honking from the television. She is sporting a few roller-derby bruises, but what she is prouder to sport is a one-off Marc Jacobs T-shirt that reads, in bold Jacobsean font, TIME FOR A CHANGE.
Drew is known for many things: a 28-year film career, a storied and notorious past, and being the owner of one of the sunniest dispositions this side of the sun. But she has not pledged herself publicly to a political party. “It’s the first time I’ve really admitted I’m a Democrat,” she observes. A Democrat who supports Barack Obama: “His values,” she says, “are my values.” Read the rest of this entry »
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Wild women do, and they don? ? !” t regret it Wild women show, what they? ? !” re goin? ? !” through, wild women do, what you think they? ? !” ll never…
The song by Natalie Cole, could very well be an ode to Hollywood? ? !” s wild child Drew Barrymore. From being the star kid of ET to posing nude in Playboy, Barrymore? ? !” s broken every rule there is in the book.
However, recent times have also seen a far more professional edge of the Charlie? ? !” s Angel star. From being a star to a producer, the sexy actress has certainly proven time and again that she? ? !” s a force to reckon with. And as her romantic drama Lucky You hits the theatres today, BT reins in the beauty for an exclusive chat Read the rest of this entry »
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