Harper Bazaar Interview: Red, White and Drew
October 06, 08 by AngelicDrew 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.”
While Drew is a passionate advocate of voter registration–she directed a documentary aimed at youth voters, The Best Place to Start, in 2004–she is reticent about becoming a “soapbox celebrity.” “Does anyone really want to hear from me? But I think people know I’m not just a party girl. I’m a producer, a director, an actor, I believe in philanthropy”–she is an Ambassador Against Hunger for the U.N.’s World Food Programme–”I stay under the radar as much as this celebrity bullshit will let me, and I don’t thump on every cause.”
So she’ll weather any media sniping. “I’ll risk it because it’s that important to me. I want to get out and do whatever I can.”
Drew has been in discussions with the Obama campaign about working on voter registration. “What I want to do is work at the headquarters and do my part as a citizen,” she explains. She describes Obama as a “uniter and an engager.” “For example, when I heard him speak about a gay person never having to sit outside the hospital room with their loved one sick inside, I burst into tears because so many people I care about are homosexual and it was profound to have someone be sensitive to that. That’s the kind of world I want to live in, where we’re not holding our own principles in judgment above someone or against someone.”
She has mixed feelings on McCain: “He is a good person and he does care, but he has voted against things that are shocking as far as people’s liberties and economic choices. I study everyone’s voting record because they say one thing and do another.” As for McCain’s choice for vice president, Sarah Palin, Drew chooses her words carefully. “I think people realize the intention of the choice,” she says. She supports a female leader, but not one chosen simply because she is female. She is a big fan of Hillary Clinton. “It hurts me to see women so upset that she didn’t get in. Not voting because you’re angry? That won’t work.”
Drew cast her first vote, for Al Gore, in the 2000 election. She admits now that she didn’t pay much attention to the process before that. “I was raised in a family–well, no family, really, so no one talked to me about politics or why voting is important. So my way to educate myself was driving around America and filming all sorts of different people with different mind-sets. I became an avowed voter and feel it is really important to engage other people in it.”
She has transformed, she observes, since she turned 30. “My priorities have changed so much. I’ve been single for months now, and I’ve turned my attention toward my passions, my friends, and the causes I believe in. I’ve learned to put myself second. I’ve had a couple fun, frolicky relationships, but really, I got out of a five-year relationship and I dated a few people here and there. Mostly it’s been about learning who I am, not through a man, but for myself. I’ve been spending time with my friends and doing more traveling with the U.N.”–Drew has visited Kenya twice–”and challenging myself at work. I’m so happy with where my priorities are right now.”
Of course, Drew’s greatest priority is getting people to that other roller derby, the polls. “I’m impressed with young people’s awareness of the issues, but I don’t understand why their voting numbers are so low,” she says with a shrug. “That’s got to change.” The sunny optimist returns: “I can’t imagine why we all don’t want desperately to take care of each other. We need to be passionately inspired by the fact that we can take our environment and our country back.”
Source: Harper Bazzar
Tony Baller Says: 27.01.09 at 12:17 am
Yes, I have but one question….how the hell do you get into acting, cause I’m pulling my hair out.