Everyone knows Drew Barrymore. If you’ve watched movies in the 90s or early 2000s, you’ve probably seen her in a couple.
She’s had a long and relatively prolific career and has since settled into her most important role as a mother and role model.
These are her most important roles, above any movie she’s ever starred in, because they were what she wished she had through all her youth.
Despite being known as a more wholesome name now, she used to be a completely wild, loose, and free spirit. Perhaps too free.
Drew Barrymore is one of the many secrets, sad stories that Hollywood tries to keep buried or mired, but with the release of her biography Wildflower and numerous interviews, she’s laid her past bare for the world to react to.
It’s such a recent story that much of it can still be viewed from recordings and footage as far back as the early 90s. She’s an example of both the terrible price and brilliant power that Hollywood can give.
She paid a steep, early cost for her destructive starlet ways and has since recovered and been rewarded with clarity and wisdom that exceeded many of her peers.
10 /10 A Legacy Of Entertainment
The Barrymore name is one of a long line of entertainers, particularly in cinema.
Her grandfather was the star of Paramount’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a transformative piece of cinema that set the stage for horror stories and monster movies to come.
Ever since, the Barrymore name has been a name of actors and A-listers, which meant the pressure was on for Drew as soon as she was born.
And she got her first significant role at seven before most children even had the time to watch the movies she would be in.
9 /10 E.T. - The Early Teen Rebel
Drew had a leading role in Steven Spielberg’s E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial when she was seven years old. The part landed her massive fame and propelled her into very young stardom.
Her mother was quick to capitalize on it and used her to get into exclusive parties and get-togethers and pampered Drew with things like liquor on her ice cream and cigarettes as treats.
Her addiction started very young, all behind closed doors of her home or at the elite parties where such behavior was passed over or encouraged as fun.