Drew Barrymore: The Latest Drew Stories

Q: You thought you found it all in Tom and said of him: "He's funny, extremely understanding, loves to go on adventures, he's kind and a good communicator and inspires me to do good things in life and be a good person."

A: All true.

Q: So what was missing?

A: [Long pause] The ability to see the big picture. Trust in time. It was a big problem for us.

Q: That's still abstract. What was the big picture?

A: It's the ability to allow a relaxation that there will be time. We weren't sure how to function in our relationship due to a lack of trust and time.

Q: You played your relationship out in public. Was that a mistake?

A: Yes.

Q: And will you do it differently in the future?

A: Yes.

Q: Did it become more a performance than a relationship with Tom?

A: It felt like a circus.

Q: Did he feel the same way, or did he enjoy that?

A: Well, so much of his job was about that. And I played along with it because I thought it was fun and funny.

Q: On "The Tonight Show" you admitted to being controlling at times in the marriage. Was that a problem for Tom?

A: It wasn't a problem for me and Tom; I was speaking more about myself. The greatest downfall that I've experienced in relationships is one word: expectations. Too many expectations drives people nuts.

Q: Do you have a problem trying to change people?

A: No, I don't try to change people.

Q: Did you try to change Tom?

A: No. I realized that I couldn't, and I didn't want to.

Q: What is your relationship now with him?

A: We're trying to be friends.

Q: How did you decide who got what when you split up?

A: We were just incredibly fair about everything.

Q: You've spoken about making promises you couldn't keep--what kind of promises?

A: That I would stay married.

Q: And do you feel guilty about broken promises?

A: No, because it's much better to get out of something than to be miserable and stay in it.

Q: You once said that you treat everyone "with a lack of judgment." Why is your judgment so poor?

A: [Laughs] It's getting a lot better. I go into everything trusting people. I will believe in the best in people. You will have to prove to me that you are not a good person. I know I've made some really wacky choices with men. I didn't have good examples growing up.

Q: Do you write a lot in your journal?

A: Yes. Sometimes it's nice to have someone to write to when you're alone. In the last year I was writing to a man and I said, "Sometimes I just need someone to write to, to think about when I'm walking down the street, to love, to separate myself from a group of people and take a deep breath and look at stars while smoking a cigarette and think about you and have a telepathic moment of 'Hey, how are you? Are you thinking about me? I think I can feel it.'"

Q: Getting back to your films, why do you think Charlie's Angels was such a big hit?

A: Cameron Diaz said the other day, "We're in a time when people need something to make them feel good." I wanted people to feel good after they walked out of the theater. I wanted them to party with their best friends or make out with their girlfriends in the middle of some crazy area.

Q: Why did it have 17 writers on it?

A: We make fun of ourselves in the sequel for doing that. Matt LeBlanc's character comes in--he's making a sequel of the action film he was making in the first one--and I ask him, "How's the sequel going?" And he says, "Oh, it's great, we've got, like, 13 writers, so it's going to be awesome." So, yeah, we know. It's not rocket science.

Q: It must be fun playing a badass.

A: Fuck yeah! If I wanted to play sexy, amazing and capable, I had to make the film because I'm usually the girl who walks into a room and trips--I usually say the wrong thing and embarrass myself. And I wanted so badly to play cool and refined.

Q: The disparity between contracts for the first one was glaring: you got $8 million, Cameron Diaz got $12 million or 10 percent of the gross, and Lucy Liu got $1 million. Diaz is getting $20 million for the sequel. Are you other two also reaping it in?

A: We all got amazing raises, which is traditional for a sequel. I hate that people know that because it's so not about that. I wish the world wasn't so unbalanced like that.

Q: Were you happy with Confessions of a Dangerous Mind?

A: I loved it. I read the script seven years ago and fought to play the part through every incarnation at every studio where it was.

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