She became a star at the tender age of 7, thanks to her role as the adorable Gertie in ET the Extra-Terrestrial. And while it sounds like a dream come true, her experience with childhood stardom lead Drew Barrymore into a long and harrowing battle with drug and alcohol addiction.
Born into an acting dynasty on her father John Barrymore’s side, Drew was first put to work in a dog food commercial at 11 months. By the age of 7, she was the family’s breadwinner and pouring Baileys over her ice cream. Her mother Jaid started taking her clubbing to Studio 54 in New York City when she was 9.
And Drew, now 46, admits a lot of her issues stemmed from the lack of parental supervision from Jaid, now 74, who was her sole parent. “I had a mum, but she was more like my best friend,” she told Norm MacDonald on his Netflix chat show in 2018. “She was like, ‘Do you want to go to school and get bullied all day, or do you want to go to Studio 54?’ And I was like, ‘Yes, absolutely! I don’t want to spend the day with this little f--kers who are just awful.’ Kids are so mean.”
This story is from the March 15, 2021 edition of WHO.
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This story is from the March 15, 2021 edition of WHO.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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