Steven Spielberg reflected on the times when Drew Barrymore was trapped by the Hollywood industry and there was little the director could do to help her.
Drew Barrymore He’s had countless drug scandals. His life was chaos. Her father, an abusive alcoholic who left her when she was three, her mother and manager, Ildiko Jaid Barrymorehe devoted himself to exploitation and exposed her to all sorts of dangerous situations at the various parties in Hollywood. Drew tried alcohol at the age of eight and was already addicted to cocaine by the time she was twelve. Her mother forced her into rehab. He came in and out several times over the course of a year. In fact, Jaid pulled it out so he could make the Far From Home movie.
At 14 and tired of the abuse Drew was emancipated from the stateand although he managed to escape his mother’s yoke, the addiction continued for many years to come.
Drew Barrymore tried her first beer at the age of 8 and by the age of 12 she was already addicted to cocaine
Amidst all the chaos Barrymore went through at a young age, there was one very important person: the director Steven Spielberg. Steven met Drew when she was just 7 years old and was part of the ET band where she played the adorable role Gertie. Since then, Spielberg saw the little girl get involved in very dangerous situations. Recently, the medium Vulture shared a profile of Drew Barrymore, which salvages an interview with Spielberg in which the director confessed that he felt powerless in the face of the situation that many saw as his protégé.
“She stayed up well past her bedtime, went places she shouldn’t have heard of, and at a very tender age lived a life that I think stole her childhood,” she once said. “I felt helpless because I wasn’t his father. He could only be a kind of advisor to her“Steven Spielberg said to Vulture.
Despite Spielberg’s limitations in caring for Drew, he made it his mission to make his time on the set of ET as magical as possible. The film was shot in chronological order, and when Drew realized that the charismatic alien was being controlled by eight people, Spielberg managed to tell him so ET was so special that it took eight assistants.
Steven Spielberg did everything he could to make 7-year-old Drew Barrymore believe the entire shoot was real (Getty)
Barrymore himself affirmed that it was Spielberg “The only father figure he’s ever had in his life.” However, this is not entirely true. After emancipating herself from her mother and undergoing a second rehabilitation at the age of 14, the actress tried to get a role in the film Sueños Violentes. The director of the film Tamra DavisShe didn’t want to date Barrymore, but when she overheard her asking for another chance after Hollywood turned her back on her, Tamra melted and vowed to help the young actress with whatever she needed to get ahead.
So Drew lived with Tamra and her husband for eight months. Mike Dmember of Beastie Boys. “I felt like she was like our daughter. “We gave her this surreal, stable family where she lived with us and just had to focus on being an actress,” Davis told Vulture.
Tamra Davis let Drew Barrymore live in her house for eight months Photo: Instagram/tamradavis1
Despite the troubles that arose in the years to come, Barrymore managed to surpass himself and become a successful actress and mother who worked hard to keep her two daughters away from the chaos she experienced as a child. In this regard, Barrymore confessed in his autobiographical book Wildflower that despite all the abuse, he loves his mother and continues to care for her.
“I couldn’t function without knowing that she’s okay and that she’s being taken care of. I am grateful to this woman for bringing me into the world. As unorthodox as our life together has been, I hold no grudges because I like who I am. And for that every step was necessary.”
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