Drew Barrymore Talks To Parade About Love, Family & How It All Relates Back To 'Whip It': Cover Story

By Lauren Joskowitz

America’s sweetheart, Drew Barrymore is a woman of deep intellect and insight. She has played a variety of roles throughout her career — from a girl who speaks to aliens, to a women who’s never been kissed — and has experienced more heartache and adversity in her life than most ever do. In an interview with Parade, Drew revealed lots of deets on her directorial debut for "Whip It," and how it relates to her own life experiences.

As a young girl, Drew was thrust into a dark and downward spiraling world of drugs and alcohol. Unable to escape the grasp of narcotics and all-nighters, the party teen was in and out of rehabs by the time she was 13-years-old and attempted to commit suicide one year later. She has continuously fought an uphill battle to find comfort, love and happiness. "I don't know if I'm completely comfortable ever. Sometimes I can totally let go with complete abandon — sing and dance and run around and not care what people think about me. Still, there seems to be this ball of stress inside me that I can't get rid of."

Drew has come a long way since her young stardom days. She has been able to turn her life around, and learn from her life experiences, and now uses her knowledge to inspire thoughtful and rousing movies. She has taken her life experiences and poured them into her pet project, "Whip It." The anticipated movie touches on real-life challenges, such as mother-daughter relationship and finding yourself. While Drew’s own relationship with her mother was more than challenging (she emancipated herself from both parents when she was 15), it has helped her realize the reality of relationships and she still believes her mother is proud of her accomplishments. "I believe [my mom] will see the film. I believe she does feel pride in me. I used to pull a lot emotionally from all the stuff with my family, but I did not do this movie to cleanse myself of the mother/daughter debacle that happened in my life. I have been much more objective about my childhood and my relationship with my mother in these last few years. I used to be more attached to all that. I won't deny that the baggage was there at one point."

As for her love life, well, we have all seen the cute and quirky actress go through her share of Hollywood’s eligible men. Despite her two previous marriages and array of unsuccessful relationships, Drew has not yet found security in the fact that someone loves her. However, she is not currently focusing on that. "Sexual love is secondary to me right now," she told Parade. "I've spent a lot of time in my life dedicating myself to love or the pursuit of love or the understanding of love. But for the last few years, my life just hasn't been about that for me. It's just not about the mother baggage. It's not about the boy. It's about something completely different, and it's very refreshing."

With her unique perspective on life, Drew lights up movies with her perky attitude and inspires and makes people think. Her newest movie is expected to encourage people to find themselves and do what they love, and stop at nothing to obtain happiness. “I’ve started believing in good days. At the end of my movie, there’s honesty. There’s truth. There’s peace. What tomorrow will bring is still in question. There is a joy that’s earned by failure or triumph. All those things add up to teach us, if we are open to it.”

Drew’s movie premieres next Friday, October 2.

What do you think of Drew’s insight to life? Do you believe in happy endings?

Tags Drew Barrymore, Parade, Whip It