Drew Barrymore: Daisies and Butterflies

Q: You were willing to kiss off carrying a movie you knew would be your biggest hit since E.T.?

A: Yes. I knew this was the part of the movie that was most challenging. I'm thinking Janet Leigh in Psycho, I'm thinking Angie Dickinson in Dressed to Kill. One thing about scary movies like Halloween, all the franchises, is, whenever you're with the one character, you know you're safe, that they're never going to die. I knew if I died, then nobody would be safe. How cool is that? It messed with the system and they let me do it and it was fun.

Q: That was quite a frightening sequence.

A: There are two ways you could go with that role. Girls can be tough, kick the bad guy in the sternum, shove him out of the way and fly down the stairs. No way. If it was me, I'd be shitting, vomiting, puking, peeing, crying in a comer. I wanted to play the character that way. I spent seven days, up 18 hours a day, with blood all over me. Later, I made jokes about how I didn't have PMS for six months because of that movie.

Q: Did you ever regret that your character's evisceration made her ineligible for sequel duty?

A: No! I just saw the sequel and I loved it. But I got to do what I wanted to do. To me, it's never about money, it's about work. Sure, I would have loved to have been part of those Scream movies, just for the people involved. I feel a part of that family. I missed them while they were shooting their movie, but I got to do The Wedding Singer and Cinderella.

Q: Don't you feel pressure to play the lead in a big hit?

A: No. I think The Wedding Singer is a movie people will enjoy. Instead of dollar signs, I see enjoyment signs.

Q: How did The Wedding Singer come about?

A: Part of the reason I don't feel competitive is because I have a company and I'm always trying to develop things. I never want to sit back and wait and see what comes to me. Adam Sandler and I met because we wanted to work together. I had an idea, he had an idea, we decided which one we liked. We chose his. That's the coolest thing in the world.

Q: Are you looking to get the roles that, say, Winona Ryder is getting?

A: When I was supposed to do the current Woody Allen movie and couldn't because I was committed to Cinderella, Winona Ryder did that movie. That's why competitiveness is silly. There's enough to go around for everybody and fate is always, always working. There's a hunger and a fervor that I have, but there's no person I'm going to push to the side to get to where I'm going. I want to create my own road.

Q: Was it tough for you to say to Woody that you couldn't be in his next movie?

A: The worst! The absolute worst in the world. The only thing I do is send a personal affirmation, once in the morning and one at the end of the day, that I get to work with him again. It's that fate thing. I just hope that fate will take me to him again. Deconstructing Harry was by far the best movie I saw last year. He's brilliant and everything he says is everything you'd want to say, but articulated on the most eloquent level ever known to man.

Q: How do you think the studios perceive you now?

A: I hope that they look at me and say, This person is professional and shows up to work every day, tries their hardest and gives their best. That's the only thing I know for sure that I can do. I don't know if I can bring in hundreds of millions of dollars. I can be professional. That I dig. Reliability.

Q: Do you have to lobby hard for the roles you want?

A: I think everyone has to lobby. You have to fight for these things, but the fight makes it worth it. I don't trust things that come easily.

Q: In The Wedding Singer, you play a woman getting married, and in Home Fries, you play a pregnant single woman. How do you feel about such eventualities for yourself?

A: Getting married and having babies? All in due time. It's funny. As long as I can remember, I've felt I can have a baby, right now, and be OK, even by myself and without a father. But to tell you the truth, with each peanut of smartness I accumulate, I get that I can wait. I always looked at it too quixotically. The truth is, I'm going to be such a good mother, I'll be thoroughly excited about it and I think I'll have a very honest relationship with my child. It's something I think about every day and I pat my tummy and know how sacred and beautiful it is. And I prepare for it every day in gathering information. Someday, when the planets are aligned just perfectly, I will have a child.

Q: Your boyfriend Luke Wilson is your costar in Home Fries, and there did seem to be obvious chemistry between you two.

A: Cool.

Q: What's it like to work alongside someone you have such strong feelings for?

A: The way Luke and I are on the set is completely professional. We don't sit on each other's laps, we don't hold hands. We might visit each other, see each other in makeup and hair, and we're friends. But we're not a couple when we work and we've done two movies together, so I know this. At night when we see each other, it's like, Omigod, I haven't seen you all day, how are you? Maybe that contributes to the chemistry because it is new and fresh and exciting every day.

Q: You wrote a book, Little Girl Lost, about being out of control and spending a year in rehab at the age of 13 for booze, pot and cocaine. It's obvious the way you were raised is not the ideal way to rear a child, though you seem fairly forgiving of mistakes your parents made. What will you do differently?

A: I don't think I would have my child be an actor. But some of that forgiveness you mention comes from this: there's one saintly quality I give to my mother, who, for all intents and purposes I don't get along with. I've only recently realized it in my growing maturity. Had she not given me the opportunities she did--no matter that they might seem from the outside like I was pushed--I would not be sitting here right now. It's true. In some people's eyes, she fucked up. I think she did. But she also gave me a weird, inadvertent gift which I have to appreciate and acknowledge.

Q: Your character in Home Fries loves and accepts her dysfunctional dad--there seem to be clear parallels to your own father, John Barrymore jr.

A: I could definitely relate to how Sally looked at her dad, which was, I see you just for who you are. And I accept you for that. More importantly, I expect nothing more, because that's the only way I won't be let down.

Q: How old were you when you embraced that attitude?

A: Immediately. By age three, he told me, "I can't be a father, I can't do it." I had respect for that honesty. [But] maybe I felt like saying, God, that's such a pathetic excuse. I think it is--it's weak. Someone said something to me that made so much sense to me it's changed my life. Even if parents are separating, kids need to know they'll see dad at 3:00 on Sunday and that mom is going to pick them up from school and that Friday they're having dinner at 7:30. That's all kids want. That's what pissed me off about my father. He didn't give me that. But it's cool.

Q: You've not only forgiven your absentee father, you've taken him in.

A: He's my father and he gave me life. But we're just like neighbors. I think I was basically just trying to make sure he was safe, and he is. I don't have to worry and I don't worry. I get snippets of what a lovely person he is. But I also remember he's that crazy man, the same one I knew when I was a kid. He didn't take care of me. I don't take care of him.

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