Drew Barrymore: True Drew

It must have been so, like, fate, too when Mad Love, in which Drew plays a manic-depressive teen whom boyfriend Chris O'Donnell tries to save, was shot in Seattle, where Eric lives. Five months after she threw up on his shoes, they rekindled their relationship over herbal tea, eight hours of conversation, a long walk and earth-shaking smooches. "Kissing--and I mean like, yummy, smacking kissing--is the most delicious, most beautiful and passionate thing that two people can do, bar none," she says.

"Better than sex, hands down. I'll never forget the first lime I kissed Eric. We had hung out for hours having tea and we went for a walk and I ended up just walking him home and went up to his place with him. His bedroom is one of my favorite rooms. It just has the greatest fucking vibe. We're sitting on the edge of his bed playing records. I look up and go, 'Oh, my God, you have a blue light in your bedroom.' Thai's so wild because the first verse of one of my favorite songs in the whole world goes, 'There's a blue light in my best friend's room.' You know the one, 'Blue Light' by Mazzy Star on her second album, right?"

So, then what happened? "Eric had the Mazzy Star tape, put it on, turned off the lights and put on the blue light. Like I said, he was sitting next to me on the edge of the bed and he's six-foot-four. He's really long. He just, like, put his bead on my back and wrapped his arms around me. They wrapped all the way around my body and he had his hands together under my legs. This warm, honey-like energy just poured into me. I sort of had to take a deep breath and go, 'Whoa.' because, the whole night, we were trying to figure out whether we were gonna be best friends or totally in love. And the moment he wrapped his arms around me, it was like, 'OK, I think it's an "in-love" thing.'"

What about the smooching? "It happened right then." she says. "It was very, very gentle, at first. Small kiss. Then, it went just a little bit bigger, then a little bit bigger, bigger, then we were just kissing for a long while. Just kissing. And that's all it was. Just the softest, most beautiful, non-threatening kiss I've ever received in my life. After that, he was with me every day shooting Mad Love. He got me through that job. He would have to wake me up in the morning because [the movie] was so emotionally debilitating and strenuous."

Turns out it's a good thing she had something else to occupy her mind while making the movie for director Antonia Bird, who made Priest. Although Barrymore confirms that this is the first movie on which she "made some money, like $1.5 million," things started off rockily with Chris O'Donnell. "When we first met, I was, like, 'Fucking frat boy, get out of my face,' and he was like, 'Hollywood chick, go fuck yourself.' We totally freaked out on each other. But we got so close doing this. He is my 'Apple Pie,' that's my nickname for him now. He and Eric and I got to hang out together a lot, too, Chris is sooo beautiful in this movie, so fucking amazing. His acting is my favorite kind of acting. So many young actors are, like, acting so much, it's like a disease you can't shake. It's like if we were sitting here and I'm going, 'OH, MY GOD, ISN'T THIS PASTA GREAT?' and you go, 'GOOD FUCKING PASTA! AND HOW ABOUT THIS ICED TEA?' Chris isn't like that. He's real. He exists."

I know how she feels. When I bring up the names of a small platoon of actors, she brings up one I didn't name. "I loved the story you did on Stephen Dorff. You made him sound way more eloquent than he is. I like him. Hey. Dorff, you little fucker! I mean, he was my boyfriend in the third grade. I've known him all my life, and now he's like Mr. Hollywood Schmoozer. He has a mouth and doesn't want to keep it shut, but he's all talk--totally, totally all talk. He means no harm. Eric was around Stephen 'cause he went to the Hole show in Japan while he was promoting S.F.W. there and, you know, Stephen hangs out with Courtney all the time. So, Eric calls me and says, 'Now, I don't want you to get mad at this, but you and Stephen were definitely brother and sister in a past life,' and I told Eric, 'No, the only similarity is that we grew up in similar sick circumstances. Young actors, same school.' We were close, we were on the same path, but we definitely branched off. It must take so much fucking energy to remain out there in the scene like a socialite."

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