22 February 2017

Drew Barrymore: Wildflower


I've always really liked Drew Barrymore but a lot of people aren't
into her. I find her to be sweet but then quickly very blunt and sarcastic and I like the roles she's chosen. If you watched her stand on the pitchers' mound in Never Been Kissed (1999) with that clock ticking and still don't like her, stop reading now, I don't like YOU. With her new show out on Netflix (The Santa Clarita Diet- which is not good if you were wondering) I've been thinking a lot about her book lately. It wasn't an amazing read but it wasn't bad either. I thought she chose perfect, sweet, and funny stories and if you're a fan I think you'll really enjoy it. It also has a very beautiful cover in my opinion.

When I was younger I always thought Barrymore was kind of a badass. I think it's from the scene where she's smoking in the bathroom in Charlie's Angels (2000). As it turns out she did have a rocky childhood. She had a hard relationship with her mom and was abusing substances at an early age which may have been normal for child actors but I'm not sure... Her book, however, does not read like a badass wrote it. It's incredibly sweet, humble and encouraging and it's in essay format (as all of these celeb memoirs are) so you can pick and choose which topics you want to read about.


Barrymore and Diaz flipping off paparazzi together. Something Meg and I only dream of.
Naturally, I love when celebrities gush about their celebrity friendships or how cool other celebrities are. One of my favourite essays is about her relationship with Cameron Diaz. I love so much that they are best friends in real life. The essay is all about the time they went skydiving together. She also gushes a lot about Adam Sandler and talks about how much they love making movies together. Usually I'd find this charming also but I actually despise Sandler because of Billy Madison (1995) which I cannot stand

"Now we are older and [Diaz] is still one of my closest friends. I was her bridesmaid, and she is my daughter Frankie's godmother. We still go on adventures all the time, but they are much more mellow. But that's the thing I love about my friend. She is always game." 

My other favourite essay is all about how Spielberg changed her life casting her in E.T. (and why she got picked which is a great story but I am not going to ruin it here). It's fun to think about the breakthrough role of a celebrity and how they probably had no idea what would hit them from that one film/show/etc. Barrymore was only really a toddler when that happened and she was PERFECT in E.T. She is just the right amount of bratty and sweet combined and I love the scene where she's showing her mom the track marks her brother made from the car he wasn't supposed to be driving. I do also think it must be annoying for people to continue to talk about how perfect she was in E.T. since she's had about a jillion roles since so I'll stop now... except she WAS perfect and just think how hard it must be to explain to a small child about acting and pretending to be feeling a certain way... I can barely mask my true emotions at 25.

Spielberg and Barrymore on the set of E.T.
"When [Spielberg] holds my daughters in his arms, I don't think there is a prouder moment for me... he single-handedly opened all the doors in my life with that one decision of putting me in that film."

My criticism of this book is heavily timing-based. She has a lovely essay about her then-husband Will Kopelman and how nice it felt to finally have found the person who was her perfect match and how important compromise is and blah blah blah and then what felt like a day after I finished it THEY ANNOUNCED A DIVORCE. I was heartbroken. I mean I'm sure she was too but I had literally just fallen in love with the two of them as a couple and the whole thing put a bad taste in my mouth.

Barrymore and Kopelman, ugh.
I'd recommend reading this if you're a Barrymore fan, otherwise I don't know why you would. She doesn't say anything life-changing or discuss global issues or anything like that. She writes very sweetly about her life, her daughters, parenting, running a business, the film industry, etc. but unless you like her overall I don't think you'd find it to be very interesting. If you're like me and you DO like her, this book will make you smile and laugh and reinforce the idea you've always had that she's a humble, down-to-earth person who is also a bit of a badass. 

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