The odds of a child actor finding lasting success in Hollywood are about as good as a neighborhood hoops phenom being drafted by the NBA.
Drew Barrymore -- whose thespian heritage is synonymous with wretched excess -- fooled everyone. One need only see this week's charmingly romantic Ever After, in which she stars, to see how far she has come. A retelling of the classic Cinderella fable, it is the kind of movie you can take your family to. No curse words. No nudity. It's a true departure from her previous edgy movie roles (like Poison Ivy) and her public misbehaving (like flashing her chest to David Letterman).
"I'm so proud of myself," she says, sitting behind the desk of her makeshift production office in Los Angeles. "I experimented. I was young, and it was public. But if it hadn't happened, I don't know that I would have the priorities I do now."
It was only a few years ago that Barrymore was being rejected by nervous casting directors as too much of a risk. The angelic child who charmed generations of moviegoers as Gertie in E.T. found herself cascading into drugs and alcohol, drinking champagne and smoking pot by age 1012. By 12 she'd discovered cocaine, and two years later she attempted suicide. In and out of rehab before she could drive, Barrymore -- whose father left before she was born and whose mother often kept her in discos until dawn -- was considered another show-business casualty.
It was a slow comeback. "I had to prove myself. I knew it would be tough, and I knew there would be disbelievers, and I knew I had to keep going," she says, pulling back her hair in both hands. "Even when it didn't feel good."
At 23, she has her own production company (Flower Films), a two-year "first look" deal with Fox 2000, a home in the Hollywood Hills, stalwart friends, and a steady boyfriend in young actor Luke Wilson. She's now drug-free, she says, and has a reputation as one of the hardest-working actresses of her generation. In recent years, she has starred in
respectable movies like Batman Forever and Boys on the Side, and won a coveted role in Woody Allen's Everyone Says I Love You. She also found the script and starred in the $155 million-grossing Scream, and proved she could handle the romantic lead opposite Adam Sandler in the surprise $100 million box-office hit The Wedding Singer. Now she plays Anjelica Huston's trod-upon stepdaughter in Ever After.
If it's true, as one industry wag observed, that Barrymore "lives in dog years," she has reached a level of maturity beyond her peers'. "She certainly understands a hell of a lot more than other kids her age," says horror-film king Wes Craven, director of Scream. "There is an emotionality and vulnerability. She knows what is of value and what is not. And for another thing, she's a legend in her own time. I think everyone in Hollywood takes her very seriously."
Barrymore credits her close circle of friends for her personal and professional comeback. "I have the greatest respect for my relationships. They've been a tremendous influence on my life, and helped me figure out who I am. I've built a really solid foundation."
The subject of family is painful. She's estranged from her mom, who posed for Playboy at age 49 and sometimes pops up on Howard Stern's raunchy radio show. "You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family," Barrymore says, her eyes glistening with tears. The need for connection is strong, perhaps because she was so disconnected as a child.
"I think your friends make your dreams come true. The irony is that people say your family will judge you the least. And they are the ones who judge you the most. You're always trying to be a certain something for your parents, and it becomes this exercise of who you're trying to be rather than who you are. My friendships are the only relationships I've ever known. I don't have it with my parents; they're not there, and I'm not there for them. So many people I know don't have families. You create it somewhere -- in your work, or your friendships, or your lover."
As film legacies go, Drew Blythe Barrymore's pedigree is infamous for self-destruction. Her matinee idol grandfather, John Barrymore, squandered his talents on films celebrating his own alcoholism and debauchery. Her aunt Diana Barrymore also succumbed to alcoholism, dying at age 38. The title of Diana's torrid autobiography, Too Much, Too Soon, was self-explanatory.
Drew is the daughter of John Drew Barrymore, who dabbled in acting (playing weaklings) and was jailed for drunken driving and marijuana possession. He and Drew's mother, Hungarian actress-painter Ildyko (known as "Jaid"), separated two months before Drew was born. The first time Drew saw her father she was 3. She wrote in her 1990 autobiography, Little Girl Lost, that he walked into the house in a drunken stupor, threw her against a wall and left.
Does she believe there is some wild gene in the family DNA? "Definitely. No question. The good news is I'm one of the first people in the family who seems to have gotten a handle on it. That's no kudos to myself. A lot of my family members have felt really out of control at times, and I feel bad for that."
Her father, once a homeless recluse, now lives in Joshua Tree, Calif. "He is just so crazy, [but] I think I always respected him as a child because he said he couldn't be a parent. He didn't try to pretend. ... I talk to him every once in a while."
She doesn't speak to her mother, who as her manager had her doing puppy-food commercials before she was a year old. "I don't understand her, and I tried for so long," Barrymore once told a reporter.
Because she never had a family, she works hard at her friendships. "My therapist said a great thing: 'When the people who are supposed to introduce trust to you are not there, you have a problem finding trust the rest of your life.' I totally get that. It's like walking into a classroom and there's no teacher. You've got to figure it all out for yourself, and it takes 10 times longer. It's our parents' responsibility to teach us those fundamental things."
But there is no trace of self-pity in her voice. Says Ever After director Andy Tennant: "Drew Barrymore has every reason in the world to be a victim, and chose not to be. ... I think she felt she was Cinderella. Here is a girl who went through the wringer ... and then found success. This film was almost like therapy."
Barrymore has been through a few public romances, among them Hole guitarist Eric Erlandson. Actress Joanne Whalley named her in court papers as the other woman in her divorce from actor Val Kilmer, though Barrymore said she and her Batman co-star were just friends. She also was married for less than two months in 1994 to Welsh bar owner Jeremy Thomas (she claimed it was only to get him his green card). She considers herself bisexual, is a strict vegan, sports several tattoos, drinks wine and beer in moderation, doesn't mind putting on a pound or two eating creamy pastas, and orders every episode of Melrose Place on tape.
Her wild days seem to be waning. She's in love with actor Luke Wilson ("it makes me blush every time I think of him"), and their relationship is going on two years. They will appear together later this year in the low-budget movie Home Fries.
Barrymore thinks mature women are sexier than ingenues. "I look in the mirror and I can't believe it, but I'm starting to look older. I love wrinkles. They're so beautiful. I like it when people say I'm an old soul."
Contributing Editor Stephanie Mansfield last profiled actor
Ben Affleck.
Photo Credit: ALBERT SANCHEZ FOR USA WEEKEND