When asked why directors didn’t want to deal with her, Drew Barrymore said, “They basically wrote me off as broken goods and I, tragically, accepted that.”
She is a star who has been open about her difficulties as a child star, but she was too young to comprehend the repercussions at the time. But she overcame her troubled past and emerged even more powerful.
When Barrymore became famous for her appearance in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, she was just 7 years old. But because to her mother Jaid, she started using drugs and alcohol when she was just 12 years old.
The Scream actress used to go to Studio 54 with her mother as a child instead of going to school, where she would be left alone with a group of adults while Jaid partied.
The Never Been Kissed actress was a raging drinker by the age of 11, having been abandoned by her father when she was nine years old following her parent’s divorce.
She entered a treatment facility at age 12 after being addicted to cocaine and marijuana. The good times were brief, though, and she relapsed, tumbling worse than ever.
When speaking with The Guardian, she commented, “That was probably the lowest when I was 13.” She had to be institutionalized since the situation deteriorated so badly. Barrymore told the publication, “My mom put me in a mental hospital,” and continued, “Ah, boo! But it did provide a remarkable discipline.”
She continued by saying, “It was awful, dark, and very long-lasting—a year and a half—but I needed it. It was like severe boot camp and recruitment training. I needed all of that crazy discipline.” Added she, “just realizing that I was truly alone And that was… awful.”
At the age of 14, she made the decision to become emancipated from her parents, her drug-addicted mother, and her absentee father. She declared, “I officially become an adult.”
At the ages of 15 and 16, the actress was forced to work in restaurants and clean toilets in order to make ends meet.
It was weird, she remarked. “At 14, I had no idea how to manage an apartment, so it was a complete disaster. I was worried and couldn’t sleep because it was in a bad area.” But she persisted despite that. By the age of 17, she had recovered thanks to the film Poison Ivy.
She described her struggle and added, “By the age of 14, it’s a difficult journey to have to have such a large profession at such a young age, then nothing for years – people going, you’re an unemployable disaster – having access to so much and then having nothing.”
She claimed that her experience at the age of 14 helped her get her act together in an interview with Today. She described her situation as a “midlife crisis, institutionalization, blacklisting, no family, got it done, and then got into the cycle of being my own parent, figuring things out.”
Barrymore’s career only advanced once she emerged from the pits. She recently admitted on The Drew Barrymore Show that her rebellious personality caused her to incite riots at the rehab where she was staying and become out of control, but she “didn’t appreciate being thrown in solitary confinement.” But, she added, “I wouldn’t change a thing since that facility really did save my life and heal me.
The actress, who originally believed she would pass away before age 25, expressed her thanks for everything that has occurred by saying, “I have no idea how I got here, but I’ll never forget how fortunate I am.
After being placed on a list at age 12, I value every job I have “according to The Sun.
“I have experienced everything from winning to having to work hard for what you have to be extremely fortunate to have the chances you do. I don’t believe there is anything to conceal at this time “Added she.
According to a Closer Magazine article from 2014, she acknowledged that her mother and she were in a “difficult” relationship. According to the article, she has never “simply been angry” with her mother; rather, she has “felt shame, empathy, and total sensitivity,” to the point where they “can’t really be in each other’s life at this time.” The two, however, have subsequently discovered comfort in one another’s company.
In 2017, she shared a photo of herself and her mother celebrating Mother’s Day on Instagram with the remark, “Proud. my mom and I. During Mother’s Day!”
