TMS Muse of the Week: Drew Barrymore

(Warner Bros)

A favorite Halloween scream queen of mine is one I feel is overlooked, despite appearing in a classic slasher flick, a spooky indie teen movie, two Stephen King associated features and an iconic Halloween set family film. Former child star turned modern renaissance woman Drew Barrymore has had many, many periods of her long career that people of all generations know her from. You might remember her as the precocious little sister in Steven Spielberg’s colossal hit E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and her comeback in the late 1990s with Wes Craven’s Scream (1996), Frank Coraci’s The Wedding Singer (1998) and Andy Tennant’s Ever After (1998). You may also recall her co-starring in McG’s Charlie’s Angels (2000), Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko (2001) and Michael Sucsy’s Grey Gardens (2008); or her crossover to TV with Netflix’s “Santa Clarita Diet” (2017-19) and her own CBS talk show since 2020. Depending on your age, you could have memories of Drew’s infamous wild child days clubbing more than studying as a pre-teen and teenager, to partying with rockstars in her early 20s, to successfully getting her act together by the time she was 25 after multiple stints in treatment. She’s had high profile relationships with rock musicians Eric Erlandson of Hole and Fab Moretti of the Strokes, dated fellow actors Corey Feldman, Luke Wilson, Sam Rockwell, Edward Norton and Justin Long, and has had public friendships with Courtney Love, Cameron Diaz and Kirsten Dunst. She also has her own production company, Flower Films, and various make-up and fashion lines. You might have recently heard about her awkwardly attempting to bring her talk show back only a week before the WGA strikes ended with much criticism as well.

But let’s go back to the beginning for a minute. Most who know of Drew are aware she’s part of the legendary Barrymore acting dynasty, including grandfather and old Hollywood movie star John Barrymore, plus her great aunt Ethel Barrymore and great uncle Lionel Barrymore, both respected character actors. People have also heard of Drew’s notorious parents: absentee father John Drew Barrymore—who was more famous for getting arrested than for any of the B-movies he starred in—and mother Jaid, who gave up her short-lived acting career to be Drew’s manager full time.

(Dimension Films)

Even though Drew is usually near the top of retrospectives and listicles on child star cautionary tales, many [especially young people] still assume Drew grew up in a fancy Beverly Hills neighborhood like the typical Hollywood kid with famous parents. In reality, Drew and Jaid lived in a basic apartment while Jaid had her daughter auditioning and filming more than attending class as a little kid, which then unsurprisingly led to Drew’s troubling lifestyle. Fortunately the starlet seemed to have a good support system by the time her adult life was back on track, even without the parental support. One assumes Drew’s childhood motivated her to raise her two daughters, Olive [b. 2012] and Frankie [b. 2014], with ex-husband Will Kopelman out of the spotlight too.

Many people seem to prefer Drew as a romantic lead in romcoms, like The Wedding Singer and Raja Gosnell’s Never Been Kissed (1999), and melodramas, a la Charles Shyer’s Irreconcilable Differences (1984) and her directorial effort Whip It (2009); which isn’t surprising since she’s cute and has a very endearing personality that translates well in those roles. But she’s also a regular in October viewings, like I already mentioned. She is the Janet Leigh-esque surprise kill at the beginning of Scream that horror fans are familiar with, as well as the lead in both Mark Lester’s Firestarter (1984) and Lewis Teague’s Cat’s Eye (1985). The latter of which was developed as a vehicle for Drew after original Firestarter author Stephen King was impressed with her performance in Lester’s adaptation. She played one of Donnie Darko’s cool teachers in the Y2K era cult classic and, of course, let out her first big movie scream when she is introduced to everyone’s favorite friendly alien E.T. As many Millennials and older Gen Z can attest, a lot of Drew’s characters are perfect for Halloween costumes too. Such as me, who dressed up as Dylan from Charlie’s Angels in 5th grade and had to correct people who assumed I was supposed to be Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Drew has had many titles throughout her illustrious repertoire, both endearing and polarizing. This weekend, let’s tip our hats to Drew’s place in spooky cinema before Halloween season ends and consider one of her classics for holiday viewing.