Drew Barrymore – story of a wild child

Drew Barrymore is a great actress. Almost all her relatives are actors: John Drew Barrymore, Jr. (actor); mother: Ildiko Jaid Barrymore (actress); brother: John (actor); great-uncle: Lionel Barrymore (actor); Great-aunt: Ethel Barrymore (actress); grandfather: John Barrymore, Sr. (actor); godfather: Steven Spielberg (film director); fiance: Tom Green (Canadian comic).
Drew was born on February 22, 1975 in Los Angeles, California. Her parents divorced when she was a few months old. The girl made her first commercial at nine months and her first TV film at the age of two. She always wanted to become an actress and at five she made her feature-film debut. At the age of seven she played in Steven Spielberg’s The Extra Terrestrial, and became a true celebrity.
It isn’t easy to be world-famous for the 7-year-old child. After appearing in the film Drew gave interviews, signed her autographs, posed for pictures and went to lots of Hollywood parties. She had to behave like a grown-up.

Drew Barrymore – story of a wild child

That’s why she often missed school, and the more she missed it the more afraid she was to go there.
At the age of 9 Drew got drunk at a birthday party. The girl didn’t know that her grandfather, father and her brother John were drink-and-drug addicts. At the age of ten she first experimented with marijuana. Three years later she tried cocaine… Everybody thought that Drew would come to a sticky end.
She was brought to rehab hospital where she stayed for three months. Her mother helped her and when Drew came back home just before Christmas, everybody thought that the girl had been cured. Rehab hospital helped, but only for a short time. One day Drew went to a popular New York club. Drew was afraid to tell her mother that she had started taking drugs again. She put on weight and it seemed to her that everybody thought her fat and ugly. The boy she liked started to avoid her. She became more and more depressed. One day she grabbed a knife and cut her wrists…

Drew was sent back to rehab centre. It was her last chance. Drew didn’t want to die, she managed to clean herself up and get rid of her addiction.
About her unhappy childhood she wrote in her autobiography, Little Girl Lost.
Today, she is a successful actress and producer, and she no longer takes drugs.
In 1997, she set up her own production company, Flower Films, which allowed her to produce her first feature film, Never Been Kissed. Her next success as an actress and producer was Charlie’s Angels, a remake of the famous 1970 TV show.