Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist - Drew Barrymore

Episode Date: March 25, 2018

Drew Barrymore has been acting nearly her entire life, but it was not always glamorous. In this episode of "Sunday Sitdown," the actress opens up to Willie Geist about those tough early years growing up in Hollywood, what it’s like to be a mom now, and her latest adventure on the small screen in in Netflix’s “Santa Clarita Diet.” She also reflects on that infamous interview with David Letterman, plus what she sees on the horizon after 35 years in the industry. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey guys, Willie Geist back with another episode of Sunday Sitdown, our podcast where you get the full interview, the full interview with some of the biggest stars on the planet for my show Sunday today on NBC. Every week, we do a Sunday sit down interview that gives you about seven or eight minutes with these people, which is a lot of time and TV time, but I wanted more time. I was greedy. I knew how much was sitting on the cutting room floor when we edited these great conversations because I do get an hour, sometimes more, with these people. and I wanted the rest to see the light of day, and that's what brought us to this podcast. After two years on the air was Sunday today, we finally have a place to give you the rest of it.

And today, my guest on Sunday Sit Down is Drew Barrymore. I mean, what else can you say about Drew Barrymore that hasn't already been said? Well, she's got a lot to say, it turns out. You know, when you are a superstar at age seven, starring in E.T., one of the biggest, most iconic movies of all time, it kind of does something to your life and she went through a lot and she talks about it all with me she

was you know divorced from her parents legally divorced from her parents she was living on her own when she was 14 years old in los angeles trying to figure out how to fold laundry and walk everywhere she had to go because she hadn't gotten a driver's license obviously and kind of being in those deep valleys with drugs and alcohol and you look at her now and how she's come out the other side of child stardom and all the pitfalls of that. And she's a great mother. She's got a great career. She's a businesswoman.

She's got an incredibly positive outlook on life. We talk about what she learned from all that and what she's teaching her daughters, and what her daughters will never get past her. Because when you've been to Studio 54, when you're nine years old, there's kind of nothing your daughters can do to trick you. A Sunday sit down with Drew Barrymore right now. Welcome to the ice rink. Thanks.

This is a great setting. It's perfect. It's pretty good. It's pretty good. So let's talk about Santa Clarita Diet. Okay. Season two. Yep.

Let's, for people who may just be coming to the show, let's pick them up. Where are we right now? Well, the great news is if they haven't seen season one, they can just binge it and catch right up. And that's the sort of miracle of, you know, Netflix content. But season two picks up literally the day we left. So it's about the aftermath and how they're going to recover from that and move on. And the show really takes place each season over sort of a week or two. It's really short time increments.

And Victor Fresco, the show creator, purposefully does that because he believes it keeps a certain pace. And it does. There is a lot of crispness with the way the dialogue is written, the pace in which we're, like, encouraged to speak it at. you think you're talking so fast, but really it just comes off as like really on top of each other, sort of more like 20s, 30s comedy style. And then because the stakes are sort of always happening to them every single day, it just has this flow that feels really energized, and I thought it was very smart that he did it that way. It's funny, when they came to you with the show, I wonder what your reaction was,

because on paper you go, this is sort of a suburban comedy, but she eats human beings. I just think there's a bewitched element to the show where they're living in a house, but crazy things are going on. And then it has more of like, you know, a dexterish gore factor in it. But I don't think a 1950s television show would work in this day and age. People are too, we've come too far. So I think unless the show has some sort of gritty, can I get past this element, I don't think it kind of works in today's world. We were so innocent back then, and we're not innocent anymore. So it's all out there, and I think you have to have that element of something kind of high stakes and crazy to work in this day and age.

But I also think it has to have suburban relatability and heart, and really about the love of this family and how they're going to keep it together through all of this. If it doesn't have heart, I'm just not interested in it. And I don't like dark for dark sake, and I'm not really in the place where I just want dynes. I want things that are funny because they're random and written and a more interesting way. Like this is a couple who's trying to plan to kill someone, but also asking why does our garden hose keep missing? And the conspiracy theory is behind them or toaster ovens or, you know, our neighbors and things we have to balance that really if something tragic happened no matter what and you're still

alive to live through it, you're going to talk about other things. You're going to laugh. You're going to do, you know, things that have nothing to do with the crime. crisis at hand. So that's kind of a comedy I found much more interesting. It does feel like sort of the Walking Dead era was ripe for a spoof, like not a spoof, but a different twist on it, a different take on it. Was that part of the appeal? I think the zombie genre has been very relevant for at least the last 15 years. I think it was like vampires for about 15 years now at zombies. But the thing I loved about this show and I don't think I would succeed at playing like the leg dragging, you know,

sort of out of it. I can't speak zombie. I like that this was really a metaphor for maybe I was dead before. And now that I'm undead, I'm more alive than I've ever been. And I think most women in their 40s can probably relate to that because you live through your, you know, childhood and you go into your 20s and 30s and somewhere in your 40s you think, wait, I've had kids, am I the same person? Am I supposed to get back to who I was? I need to look forward, but what does that look like while I'm trying to have a job and raise a family

and do all of that? And that is just a logistical question that women, I think, ask themselves, my body has changed. Am I supposed to get the body back I had before? You know, there's all these sort of pendulum swinging. Where am I at? Who am I? Who was I? Who am I supposed to be?

And that's a lot of what the show deals with. And for me, at that point in my life, those were really relevant questions. Were you looking for TV? I mean, Netflix almost isn't TV. It's cinematic quality TV. Were you looking for something like that? Or was this a surprise to you? No, I was not looking for a job.

I had actually stopped acting for several years because I wanted to raise my kids. I've worked since I was 11 months old. I had two 11th-month-old children, and I just wanted to be there with them. But then a shift happened in my life and I was separating from their father and it was just a very difficult time and as amicable as we were trying to be and make everything so safe for our children and put them first. I definitely personally was in a very dark and fearful place. This was sort of not the plan. It's the worst nightmare. How am I going to survive this with grace?

And then this script came along. I was like, yeah, I don't think this is a good time. And ironically, I think it taught me a valuable life lesson, which was sometimes when you think something is the worst timing and the worst idea, it can actually become a thing that saves you and pulls you out and gives you a new focus and empowerment and switches your constant stuck way of thinking and feeling and put it into something else that might actually get you to a healthier place faster.

And I went from sort of a lost mother who had, you know, her dream was falling apart into, wait, again, it's sort of that question, who was I, who am I, who am I going to be? And I thought, God, I am an actress. I forgot all of that. And maybe my kids are old enough that it's safe to go back to work. Maybe I should try this. I met with Victor and I thought that with him I could parallel my own life because Sheila needed a wake-up call and so did I. And she wanted to become healthier and more alive and figure out what her new future was. And that's exactly where I was personally.

So I think the karma was a lucky portal to saving me and pulling me out of something that was the thing I didn't expect to happen. And that's what the show is about. Something unexpected happens. Life falls apart as you know it. What do you do? And I've never been a fan of crying in the corner. I think you should cry as long as you want, as long as you're putting one foot in front of the other.

And that's who we made Sheila into being. And it's been such an incredible experience that I could have never expected or anticipated. I was so surprised. How is this happening? How is this Netflix show? I'd never done television. actually the thing that's making me become a person who I can really get behind respect and be enthusiastic about life with.

A Netflix show is going to do that. I did not think so. And has it had the positive effect? Do you imagine it would? Yeah, it really has. It also proved to me that I could still be the mother I wanted to be and work. Because I started these other companies so I could have normal regulated hours and time off to be with me. my kids. I'm very hands-on and very involved. And it was letting me know that the things you also

fear most can be not as scary as you thought they were. Things work out. In fact, we wrote on our makeup mirror. Like, it always works out. And I'm a nervous Nelly. I worry about the future. I look in the review mirror and wonder about my decisions. I'm very conscientious of every single thing I do. As much as I feel like a free spirit and I'm happy all the time, I'm a extremely focused on how each decision will affect the past, present, and future. So this one showed me the element of surprise is still alive, because I did not expect it to be such a positive driving force in my life, not only for myself, but from my motherhood. And moms have to work.

A lot of us have to support ourselves and how we show our children that work is a positive thing and a necessary thing and a road to your dreams and even a road to being who you are and who you want to be. My kids got older and I started having very different conversations with them and they are now able to support what I do and I'm able to like be excited about it with them rather than afraid. You wrote an Instagram post a few days ago that hit home with so many working moms including my own wife, which was that don't treat work as this evil thing that's taking mom away from the kids, but show them an example of work is important, work can guide you, but I'll always be back home to you.

I think there's more moms than not that don't have a choice. They have to work. And I think that I remember thinking, wouldn't it be so good if I was like, oh, I have to go to work, that, oh, darn work, but I'll be right back and making work the bad thing that's taking me away from them, which just leaves a terrible taste in everyone's mouth about work. And the truth is that I realized I was tempted to do that as an excuse to not take the responsibility. And I had to empower myself to not be afraid to say, yes, I'm going to my awesome job. It's what I choose.

It's what I love. It's how I support myself. And I can't wait for you to find the thing you want to do. And I'm right here. And my kids, I think trust that I'm there with them enough that they also don't think work is something that just always takes me away. I have found that balance. But it's tempting to blame work, because then the responsibility is not on you. It's something else is in the way of our time together.

But I think it's a very scary choice and can really become something negative that I'll regret personally. We have mutual friends, and by all accounts, you are an awesome, attentive, great mom. Oh, good. That's nice. Phew, that's all I care about. That's the word on the street anyway. It's my chief concern in life, so that's great. Well, it's going well. It's going well.

How much of that is you sort of saying all the things I didn't have in my childhood, I'm going to make sure the two of you have? Well, it's funny. Stephen Colbert last night said, are you getting to relive your childhood through them? And I'm like, no, I'm getting to have my first parenthood experience. Right. Because I'm goofy with them, and I'm so silly, and I'm really easy going about a lot of things. and then I'm extremely stern and strong and forceful

about the things that matter. I'm having a dual experience where sometimes I ask myself, like if I was their age, if I just heard no about everything, I wouldn't know the difference between yes and no, and I would just tune out and get so frustrated and almost distance myself. So I choose my battles with my kids, and that was something I had to learn about myself,

parenting myself growing up. choose your battles, I could not believe in that statement more. So I think they have a much more free and fun existence, but they know when I mean that this is important, which usually has to do with two things. It's their behavior and their safety. And they're very aware that those are the two things that I care about most is that they're kind and courageous, polite and protected. So I like that we try to focus on like the core issues rather than stop doing that, and no to this and know to that. I'm like, eat breakfast and bed.

I don't know. Watch a movie in the middle of the day. You know, you don't want to hang out with that person who's over and they're an adult. Then fine, do your own thing. Like I've tried really hard to not like push on them at every single turn about every single thing and really focus on the things that I think are going to really help them through life. which the way you treat people matters more than anything. And keeping you safe, well, that's my job.

So if you're on my clock, you've got to be safe. So those are really like, and I didn't have either of those, definitely, growing up, you know. Well, I was going to say you didn't have role models for any of this parenting behavior. So where did you learn to be a good mom? Who did you watch? Or is it all instinctive to you? No, I followed great people. I followed Steven Spielberg, Nancy Giovon and Fallon, my partner, a gentleman named Brian Lord.

who's like the head of CIA, but he's this Buddha on the mountain, everybody in the world goes to for how to advise on, you know, how to make something happen. I think I've always loved people who are really good at problem solving and crisis management. And those same people seem to tell me this isn't a crisis. You can calm down. This is not life or death. or when you feel like it's life or death, you put one foot in front of the other. Be on time. You know, don't ask.

I've just never also been the person, and I think that's why it's so important for my kids. I never acted rude to people. I was never impolite. I never didn't say my pleases and thank you. I never expected things. I never talked to one person in my life. I don't care who it was or how minimal the exchange was. I have looked them in the eye and had this human connection with them.

I so appreciate. And it's just always been who I am. And as much as I had to learn by fire, trial, this, you know, no to that, oh God, that was fun, but it's not who I am anymore. And just grow to the beat of my own drum. I was always smart enough to follow people I admire because if I admire them and I behave like them or I emulate them, I'm going to be proud of myself because I'm so impressed by them. And I just hate rude people. Like I really, hate them. Maybe they could be some of my next victims on Santa Carina Diet because I'm just like, why? It hurts my soul. I'm like, did you really have to approach this situation that way? It's like I've made of

glass and they just shattered me. I just don't know why people aren't strictly very kind and good to one another. Well, I agree with you, but someone might listen to you and say, you've been a star since you were seven years old in ET. Yeah. You could have some sense of entitlement to The exact opposite. I'm overly aware that I've had a very blessed life and there's only one way to meet a blessed life and that is to be grateful for those blessings. I think it actually turned and made me a more humble person to realize how good I have it. I told you when I was watching Santa Clarita last night, I then got into a YouTube rabbit hole with all your old stuff. I'm watching Pillsbury commercials from you were four years old coming out of the rain, having the cookies. Yeah. When you look back on those, I don't think you, do you have a memory of any of that?

Oh, yeah. Oh, God. You remember at that age? Chase, the guy chasing me down with a roll of Toll House, and I'd eaten them all day. And my mom and I were laughing in the car. And I was like, God, no more Toll House. This is their parting gift after I'm, like, on the verge of barfing from too many toll houses for 12 hours. When you look back on that stuff, I'm. I mentioned the Johnny Carson interview when you were seven years old and you're this poised seven-year-old sitting with your feet dangling off the chair.

They still do. My legs never grew. What do you think when you look at that little girl? I, ironically, this is the truth. Whenever I watch myself as a kid, I'm like, are you being polite? Wow. I don't care how, you know, precocious you are. Are you being unassuming? Are you being polite? Are you being nice to people? And unfortunately, I think my kids inherited that discipline. But it is a discipline that is crucial to me and who I was as a kid and who they will be. I get not everybody's nice and I get you can't please everybody, but why won't you try?

I wouldn't mind trying to please everybody for the rest of my life. Inadvertently, it actually gives me a lot of pleasure, especially when I've made someone happy. Like, great, good, moving on. Do you remember when you're seven years old, E.T. comes out. Yeah. What that did to your life, how all of a sudden someone who's in, what is that, first or second grade. Yeah. It's all of a sudden that global star.

You're the age of first or second grade. Yeah, exactly. Now you're a star around the world. Yeah, it's trippy, man. But it was, you know, if I was like a normal kid and my mom put me to bed every night, then maybe it would just seem like a job. But my mom wasn't that kind of person. And we were much more like Chaplin and the kid.

We were hitting the nightclubs and traveling the world. And it was a crazy life. But I don't care. And that's also, I think everything is in tone and delivery. Like when my kids, you know, I don't know, figure out some of the things I did in my childhood. I'm like, yeah. And that makes me all the more insightful

to when you're pulling crap on me. So I was born for teenage girls. You're my karma and don't worry, I know everything you're up to. You're like, I was a teenage girl when I was nine. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I'm basically in my 80s and I've seen it all, darling. You ain't pulling the wool over my eyes.

That's literally how I feel. That's how I felt when I found out I was having two daughters. I was like, yep, we're working out mother issues and we're working out how to live the perfect existence they can coming from what I've seen and done and learned. But I also just have zero interest in like shame and regret. Those are, and jealousy. What stupid emotions we've been given

that is our life's mission to contend with them and keep them at bay. I will never talk to my daughters like, listen, my life was just bad and horrible, and I would never want you to be like me. What is that saying about me in my life? It's like, yeah, I lived a crazy life. It was hell of fun.

Your life will be very different. You know? Well, I think a lot of parents should take that to heart because I think our instinct is to say, ooh, I don't know what to tell them about the things I did when I was in my 20s. Yeah. But your approach is, lay it all out there.

My past is out there. They're always going to be able to find it if they want. I don't think my kids are really going to be seeking with a minors cap my follies, you know. I think my kids and I are going to be looking forward. We're not looking back. They're the thing that make me less obsessed with the past, present, and future and worrying about things. Or, you know, they've made me such a calm or better person.

And I'll never take the tongue with them of work is bad. My past was bad. Life is bad. This is the adventure and journey we're on. But you have to be nice and safe. I'm picking up a theme here, nice and safe. That's your slogan. When I asked them, I'm like, what's the journey?

two most important things. They're like, safety and kindness. And I'm like, that's right, girls, here we go. You did your job, mom. You did your job. So it's amazing when you look at, you know, you talked about the kids not looking up your past, but what you've come through, I mean, the success at a young age and the problems you had with celebrity that you've come out the other side to be this adjusted great mom, how did you do it? In a way, a lot of child stars didn't do it. I know, God, child stars, it really does a number on them, doesn't it? It's horrible. It did a number on you for a while, but now here you are. I did. And, you know, I think everybody's going to have to go through some, you know, dark period, midlife crisis. It doesn't matter if it

happens at 13. No one's getting like into their 50s going, I had such a pure, clean ride. Can you see my wings? Aren't they amazing? Aren't I awesome? No, people go through hell and back. That's what life is. And when I look at it logically, almost like if I became a type A person, an Excel spreadsheet like mom, which I don't get at all because I'm just not that person, I'm very type B, the percentage of some of the crap or hell I had to face and figure out and come through is like, let's call it 30%. I have 70% of functionality, accountability, an appreciation of life. And I don't, again, I'm not a numbers girl, but I'll take 70-30 any day of the week. It was a tough 30, though.

It was a tough 30. Yeah, it was hard, but, you know, I don't know. What are you going to do? Like, sit around and boo-hoo about it. I use it as my strength. It's my weapon. So what was that time like for you when you were living on your own? Yeah.

Not just a teenager, a young teenager. Yeah. How did you find your way in those years? Books. I became a literature freak. Because I wasn't in school and I was emancipated and living on my own. I was terrified to sleep at night until the sun came up. I literally didn't feel safe enough to sleep.

In an apartment by yourself? Yeah. Yeah, with like cats screwing in the alley and bars on my window. And I was like, I knew nothing of domesticity. There were like spores and science projects growing in my refrigerator. I had to master laundry. I didn't have a car in L.A., which is hard. So I had to walk everywhere.

And you were 14. I was 14. No 14-year-old knows how to do that stuff. Well, I learned, and I'm, like, really good at that stuff now. And I hope to pass that along to my children. It's nice and beneficial when you don't have people to do things for you. Everybody should go through that in their life at some point. And, you know, it was actually a time where I felt very free.

For the first time, I wasn't in the business. I was just a 14-year-old, like, deciding to concentrate. or the literary world by reading every classic there ever was written and learning how to become a master at laundry. And looking back, as much as I was scared of living on my own because I was young and it intimidated me, it also gave me great strength, great independence. I started traveling at 16. I took my first trip to Hawaii by myself, and this was before cell phones and GPS, and I landed in the middle of the night in a hurricane, and they told me the address is on a pine tree. There's about 8 billion pine trees on the island of Kauai.

And I, like, was so scared. I was shaking, driving this Jeep in the middle of the night. But I found it, and I got into the house, and I fell into the bed. And I was like, I did it. And those types of things are something any time in their life, any age, has got to force themselves to know how to take care of themselves, how to travel the world by themselves, how to figure it out. And that's really important to me, and something else I really want to install on my daughters,

is great bravery and independence. It's really, it suits people. It's important. And you did find your way back into the industry, obviously. When you were 20 years old, you founded the production company with Nancy. When did you feel like I'm ready to be back in this world that created this crazy storm in my life, and now I'm ready to go back? I think because my love of books and just reading,

every single book I could get my hand on, thousands upon thousands of books. I realize that the film industry is like the literary industry in that, first of all, writing is the key. You have to have something well written. That's crucial. When things are slapped together and an idea and worked up into, it's never kind of as great quality. So it made me appreciate the writing element and screenwriting or literature. And then I also thought film is exactly like the literary world in that you can create any world. I was very interested in art and travel and culture and music

and literature and museums and the different characters that I would get immersed in the world by reading all these classical books. And I just thought film really encompasses everything that books do. It's you're creating the whole world, the patina, the era, the character. And I didn't think that I was a writer. So I thought, I'm not going to be able to go into the literary world. That's not my forte. I know that about myself.

But I can figure out every detail of the filmmaking process. I had some insights from when I was a kid. And I love production design and cinematography and storytelling and casting like Sidney Lumet wrote in his book is like, his job is done once he's cast. And I think I like a lot of things. I'm not a very singular person. I'm all about building this great piggy bank, putting all these coins in it of things

that I am so passionate about, and then cracking that mother open and seeing what comes out all over the floor. And it may be a mosaic, but it's not broken. It's a collage of all the things you love. And film was the medium that I felt really comfortable in and loved and understood that I could do anything I dreamt of doing. So that's what made me want to start

Flower Films at 19. So ever after Neverman Kiss, the wedding singer, people point to this era as like Drew's back. Did it feel that way to you? I felt like Nan and I, Nan Fallon and I, who was Nancy Giovanni at the time, we found an alchemy

of we loved happy movies and we loved empowering movies. and we liked strong female leads. But we were in our corduroys in our Janstport backpack. I had no interest in walking to a room and expecting anyone to take me seriously. I wanted to prove to them that I was capable of doing this.

And I found this incredible partner who was extremely creative and pragmatic and accountable. And we could work and bounce off of each other in different ways that made a whole. We were two parts that made a whole. And I had a very very... very good experience. They never treated us like, oh, you silly little girls, but they weren't unsure of who we were because we put it all out there in this very visual and organized

and problem-solving way. So they knew exactly what they were getting with us. And Nan always said, never, ever, ever not keep a promise. And that was very effective to me. She told me so many things. Vote. Slow and steady wins the race. You know, earn it. The word earn might be my favorite word in the English language because I think it just says everything. And then you return the favor with quite a setup with the guy up on the sixth floor, Jimmy. She met her husband on one of our films fever pitch and I'll never forget it. Nan was always great at finding the story. She'd be like, dude, Sony's making Charlie's Angels and there's no one on it and like, we got to do this and I was like, I'm in the middle of lunch and you're literally giving me an ulcer

because now all I want to do is throw the lunch aside and figure out how we make Charlie's angels. She found never been kissed. She found Donnie Darko. And she found we were, she found 50 first dates, which was a drama and a script we tracked for seven years until luckily it finally landed at Adams Company and I wrote him a long crying letter. I was like, this is the one I knew it. And we did that and we were on the press junket in Hawaii. for 50 first dates and she goes, I found our next one and it was fever pitch. So really, in essence, she found her husband.

Right, indirectly. Yeah. Right. Yeah, but it warms my heart that I could be a part of her happiness because I definitely know she was the family I never had. You mentioned Charlie's Angels. I feel like that was a huge moment in your career.

Not only did you star in it, but like your movie, this huge blockbuster movie with sequels and all the I know, I can't believe that all worked out, you know, because it's ironic. I'm like laughing now going, oh, Charlie's Angels. But seriously, during the making of it, it was a studio saying, we have hired you two girls with a hundred million dollar budget on a film that the press is already saying is going to be the biggest piece of crap that ever hit the silver screen. And that was how we made the film.

It was made under duress, and it's high stakes, you know. And Hollywood, they need to make their money back. take a risk on you, but they let you know it's a risk every second of the day. But I just thought if I could create the funest people on set, Sam Rockwell, God bless him, I'm so happy for him. Cameron and Lucy and McGhee, the director, we were just having, like, the world's greatest party, and I knew I wanted to make it a film that was really tongue-in-cheek with capable girls, girls who had sisterhood. I never want to make a movie about women tearing their hair apart. Like, yuck! I don't want to watch a couple fighting.

I'm so glad Victor said on Santa Clarita, like, I never want to see this couple of fight. I was like, I'm in. I don't want to sit around and watch that either. There's so much stuff we have to sift through in our daily lives that I've always wanted to make movies or TV now that is the antidote to that. How can I not watch fighting with my husband? How can I have the friendships that I have in my real life where these women would lay down on the tracks for each other? And, you know, what kind of stories can I tell that will make girls like me who don't feel like I'm bikini ready since the day I was born into someone who doesn't walk around insecure and appreciates who they are and what they have? Neil Young said a great lyric.

He said, I'm moving pretty fast for my size. And that lyric really connects with me. Like, we're all just trying to do our best. and we should support everybody because there's enough room for everyone to be the success that is the definition of success to them. The definition of success to me is employment. We've had a good long run of employment, so that's good news. And I was a kid who stood in an unemployment line with my mom.

Like, I understand. It's not just talk. I would go in there year after year and we would get our government money to live. She was very poor and so was I. And the whole Barrymore name had ceased to exist for a long time. And we got no special treatment. I worked during the day. She worked during the night.

And I'm so glad that happened to me. And it's one of the things I'm concerned about with my kids is hard times make better people. And I'm like, interesting. What are your life lessons going to be, you know? Where's your adversity? Yeah, where is your adversity? I think the kids that get crapped on on the school you, are going to be the best kids out there.

You know, it's true. Life's really tough lessons should and will make you a more empathetic person. And if empathy and earn aren't the greatest also words in the English language, and then I just don't know what are. It seems to me you made peace over time in a very gracious way with your parents. I mean, you're with your father when he died. Yeah. You support your mother.

Yeah. How did you get to that place after all you went through together? Because bitterness is exhausting and toxic, and I refuse to carry that around with me. You know, it's a choice. Happiness is a choice, which sounds lofty and hippie, but it's not. Choice is hard. It's a war. You have to fight every day to be happy.

And I just, I've got enough demons inside to work with, too. I'm a dark person, and everything is not a clear. Are you really? You don't give off dark. Oh, it's in there. Oh, yeah. There is like some really sick, weird stuff. going on in there. But again, it's just a part of me. No one is like happy and in a good mood or

knows the right thing to do or how to save every situation. People are hardened themselves. And I'm right there with everyone who's like that, but I choose to march in the Army of optimism. I cannot be weighed down and I'm very good at forgiving people. I may not forget everything but I forgive because who am I not to and I don't want that ew that's like carrying around baggage of like bags of toxic fat it's like I I like a Jan's port I want to be light and easy on my feet duck around you know I'm short it's amazing that's the one gift of being short is you can really run around this world very discreetly and with some type of agility that I never thought it was possible was short. But I can sneak around. I live my life. I do everything I want to do.

Nothing holds me back. Things will upset me here and there, but you get over it. And I, you know, I'm sure I've hurt people along the way too, and I hope they'll forgive me because I was immature and selfish and stupid. I've never intended ever to hurt anyone, but you never have like a clean slate or a perfect ride like I said but it is very easy for me to forgive and I for me it's just the only way to get through it so when you walk around New York in your Jansport yep if people do notice you and they do and they do what's the first thing they bring up I loved you in I weirdly play a game where I'm like I wonder what movie they're gonna have

I feel like I've nailed down some interesting demographics, but it's also a very long, it's 35 years, 36 years of stuff. It's probably generational, right? It's generational. It's sometimes people surprise me, but I'm always like, what movie are they going to say? It's like a game I play with myself. And what's the leader? What's the most frequent choice? You know, I knew I was on to something when we made films like The Wedding Singer and 50 First Dates and Charlie's Angels.

People want to go into a zone and be taken out of their life. They want happy. They want empowering. They want joy. So I think never been kissed is a big one. We all want to come together collectively and feel like for a moment things are going to be okay. and I just forgot all my problems. So I'm really glad I focused a large part of my life

trying to make movies that would just make people happy. Isn't that the whole point? I'm just not good at the dramas. Even Grey Gardens had so much delight and wit and was so beautiful and was such a beloved documentary. I could not go to work and be the woman who's locked up in a cage and crying the whole movie. and like that, I don't even want to watch that.

I don't. I don't want the negative and I don't want the drama in my entertainment. But you can make a film like Call Me By Your Name, which made me cry harder than a movie that's come out in a while because I think the scene between the father and son is sort of a mandatory guide that every parent should watch. But to me, that film was still spirited and uplifted.

I hate those like, I will bring you down. I will push you through the floor. I will make you so miserable. Those films I just, I won't make, I won't watch. Well, you have a whole other generation of people coming because my kids now watch E.T. We own the DVD. So they're like, oh, she's so cute. So if they see you on the street, you're going to get an E.T from eight-year-olds.

I love that. And blended is a weird bridge for the kids, too. Like if it's a 13-year-old or an eight-year-old, it's usually E. T or Blended. And those films are 30-something years apart. Right. So that's cool. I'm just happy to keep working.

Again, the definition of success, employment. So you're in the middle of Santa Clarita. You've got a hit show on Netflix. What do you see on the horizon? Because you've been in the business 35 years and you're still young. I know. So do you have ideas of things you haven't done? You've been a producer, a star, you've done everything.

Is there other avenues you want to explore? I have a beauty company that's extremely meaningful to me because I started creating it when I first started having babies and I have girls and the empowerment and messaging that we put into women is very vital to me. I would have loved to have worked at an advertising agency. I think marketing is a very powerful thing. So I've been in that mode a lot, sort of a company about women and for women. That has been a great occupier of my time and my entrepreneurial passions. And I've done a lot, I wrote a book that was like a bucket list dream.

I always wanted to do that since I was very young. But I don't know. I could see myself being like, that's it at 50. And that's only seven years away, but I'll have worked 50 years. Isn't that time for the gold watch and a see ya? When you started 11 months old, 50 is a nice long career, right? Then I think I'm good. I don't think I'll be put in the lazy category, which is a huge fear of mine.

I don't like lazy. Well, I don't think anyone could ever accuse you of that. Well, then good. I'm outy. I don't know. I don't know. I always have fantasies of just, like, moving and just shutting it all down. I definitely think about it a lot.

You've talked about your girls liking to be up on stage. I don't know. We'll see. They may have inherited it. it from somewhere I'm not sure where given your experience is that a good thing or a bad thing that they would maybe want to act right day you know I'm not worried because they're not yet and they're not going to be under my watch until they would be of sort of independent age to choose their own path anyway so it's not a concern yet but they very they're very theatrical and they do

always want up on the stage but I feel like a lot of kids like totally want to you know go up there and act it out but they ain't shy I'll say that. They're not shy. And yeah, no, they have plenty of time to figure it out. So you had the Letterman interview heard around the world. Yeah. Or you hopped up and showed a little of yourself. Yeah, I wasn't even thinking about it. And just, again, I'm like sort of an act first, think later person, especially at 19 or whatever I was. I don't know. And so you said in your book that that was sort of a turning point for you. How so?

Well, I think that I was like doing films like the Amy Fisher story and bad girls and poison ivy and because it was my mental execution of how am I going to help people not see me as a child anymore. Right. So I was like, oh, freedom and hedonism and sexuality and wildness and all of that. And then by the time I was like 19, I was like, no, I'm done with that chapter. I want to, you know, or my early 20s and I had found that script ever after. And it was the greatest lesson of my life because it was about demure capability at a woman rescuing herself rather than waiting to be rescued. And that for me felt just organically inside myself of the woman I wanted to become. So I really sort of changed my outlook and therefore it affected my behavior.

Thank you so much, Drew. Thank you. I really appreciate it. Thank you. It was a pleasure. Thank you. Thank you, thank you, Drew, so much for a great conversation. That is this week's episode of Sunday Sit Down.

I'm Willie Geist. Don't forget to tune in every Sunday to Sunday today on NBC. And, of course, do click subscribe on our Sunday Sit Down podcast. Thanks for listening. See you next week.