With a career spanning over three decades, actor Drew Barrymore, 42, says she has finally begun to take a step back and appreciate life outside the professional acting realm. As part of promoting her lifestyle brand Dear Drew, Barrymore took a stroll down memory lane to reflect on what she has learnt over the years in US InStyle's February issue.
But it wasn't without flair, as the mother of two proved by recreating the iconic fashion looks she adorned as a child between 1980 and 1985. The idea for the shoot was the brainchild of editor Laura Brown, an Australian who is known for her close relationships with celebrities, (as her Instagram account will attest) and her original ideas.
The five outfits included one she wore to a mother-daughter fashion show at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in 1983, the Academy Awards she attended when E.T. was nominated for Best Picture, and posing for Vanity Fair in 1984, at age nine. "I like that my mum dressed me like an 80-year-old woman, but I'm six or eight," Barrymore told InStyle.
In an accompanying interview with InStyle, the producer of her own company, Flower Films, spoke candidly about growing up as a child star, expanding into the fashion business and why she isn't "hungry" for love anymore. And according to the actor who rose to fame in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, she is so stuffed with love from her daughters, there is no room for anyone in her love life right now.
"My daughters are so fulfilling that I feel like my cup is just avalanching over," explained Barrymore, who split from her husband Will Kopelman in 2016. "If love took a physical analogy form, I'd be an overstuffed turkey or pinata. So I'm not really hungry for it at this moment."
"Everything lived and died in a professional atmosphere, because back then, it was really all I had."
Barrymore and Kopelman have remained on good terms when it comes to co-parenting, spending Christmas together with their five-year-old Olive, and three-year-old Frankie.
A post shared by Laura Brown (@laurabrown99) on Dec 28, 2017 at 5:16am PST
Barrymore said that while her changing perspectives on romance and work are surprising she is not actually "that different from the kid in the pictures wearing giant poofy dresses."
"I don't think I would have ever known that I could be this content, this whole, without being in a romantic relationship. That would have been a surprise to my younger self. I just had a lot of rebelling that had to calm down," she said. "I definitely have a ferociousness. And I've always had it. I completely rebel against authority. I am very f---ing scrappy."
She continued, "When people say, 'Be present,' I want to punch them in the f------ face. I just get murderous. I think I find the advice 'Just put one foot in front of the other' far wiser. There's a simplicity to that???a motion and an action."
It this sense of rebellion and freedom that inspired Dear Drew, who has a "burning desire to build an apparel brand for women by women."
"I have a body type that I tend to cover up. I'm very conscious about the way people feel," adding she considers the clothing line a "love letter to women."
"When I was making movies, I just didn't want to tell a depressing story; I wanted to tell one about some type of self-improvement. I thought, 'There's enough s--- in life. I want optimism and joy.' At the same time, I don't like magic-wand happy endings ??? and now I don't like magic-wand makeup or magic-wand clothes," said Barrymore.
A post shared by Drew Barrymore (@drewbarrymore) on Dec 28, 2017 at 11:02am PST
