From child star to wild child to movie mogul, Drew Barrymore has done it all. Part of an American acting dynasty, she was a star at the age of six and was in and out of rehab before her thirteenth birthday. But unlike a lot of child stars, she pulled herself out of the spiral of addiction, legally emancipated herself from her parents at fifteen and struck out on her own. She’s achieved a near-impossible feat: a thirty-year career that’s only getting stronger. Her production company, Flower Films, has taken in roughly $900 million from the ten hit films she has produced. Now she’s adding director to her resume, with her girl-power film Whip It! We’ve dug up a few facts you didn’t know about America’s Sweetheart, but beware—you’ll fall more in love with her than ever before. After all, who wouldn’t want Drew to be their best friend?
1. She says she isn’t competitive.
Drew may be an incredibly successful actress and producer (and possibly director—see Whip It! to find out), but she claims a competitive edge has nothing to do with it: “I like teams—I like buddies. I don’t understand women who are competitive, apart from positive forums like athletics. One person is a powerful thing, but a tribe is unstoppable.”
2. She’s thirty-four, but is only just starting to feel like an adult.
Drew began working when she was just eleven months old, and her career kicked into high gear with 1982’s E.T., when she was only six. Despite a thirty-year career and a mega-roller-coaster ride of an adolescence, she hardly feels like a grown-up.
“My twenties were about exploring love and being a wildflower and trying to figure everything out,” she told Glamour in 2007. “I still don’t feel like a woman. I wonder when that moment’s going to hit. Am I going to be making eggs in my kitchen and all of a sudden it’s going to dawn on me that I’m a woman?”
Apparently, it has. She says she feels like she’s finally growing up. “I’ve always wondered what it felt like to be an adult, because I’ve always had to mother myself,” she said in a September issue of Parade. “I think I finally am one.”
