From E.T Actress to Drug Addict

Drew Barrymore

This beautiful actress has a roller coaster life. She went from child actress, to drug addict, to scandalous modeling, to a mother on a little girl, and then back to being an actress.

 

Drew was boring in 1975 in Los Angeles, California. Her father, John Barrymore, along with her grandparents the great grandparents were actors too. Even her godfather was a famous director!

 

When Drew was 7, she starred in every child's nightmare movie: ET. She was the little girl who befriends the creepy alien who just wants to phone home. Everybody loved her. She was the cutest and most talented actress the world had seen since Shirley Temple. This movie caused for the world to notice this young girl, and she soon found herself on Saturday Night Live, being the youngest host ever.

Who knows why, but Drew's mom starting taking her little daughter to clubs, such as Studio 54, and the China Club. This is when was introduced to drugs and alcohol. At age 9 and a half, she began smoking. Her rebellious side came out and she eventually just wanted to do everything bad. She then started drinking with friends. She admits that she drank not just to have fun, but to get drunk. She then started going from club to club. The people of the club would let her in because they knew who she was and how famous she was at her young age. No, unfortunately she didn't stop at drinking. She began to smoke pot. When pot didn't satisfy her, she reverted to cocaine. She was not very involved in school, and began to hang out with adults because she felt like she couldn't relate to her peers. Her condition got worse and worse, and her mother was apparently oblivious to all of what her daughter was doing until one night when Drew came home intoxicated. Drew's mother yelled at her asking her what she had been doing. Barrymore then "demanded" that her .mom leave the house. Yes... you heard me right. This 11 year old wanted to kick her mom out of "her" house. Her mother, infuriated, started throwing things all over the house.  That night, her friend who previously attended rehab convinced her mother to take Drew to the hospital. Drew was in therapy/rehab for 12 days. She meet kids her age and saw that they had problems too, and that everybody was there for a reason.

 

 

Drew Barrymore speaking about her problems as a child: "I started smoking cigarettes when I was 9½. I was, like, smoking constantly and going out and doing everything I could do to be bad. I thought, "Well, if I smoke cigarettes, I can drink." At first it was with friends. Just sneaking. I would drink not to have fun—I would drink to get drunk. I was also a club-hopper at 10, as much as a 10-year-old can be. I would sleep over at a friend's house, and we would sneak out. And after a while I started thinking, "Well, this is getting boring now, so let's try something even better. If I can drink, I can smoke pot. There's nothing to it." When I was 10½, I was sitting in a room with a group of young adults who were smoking pot. I wanted to try some, and they said, "Sure. Isn't it cute, a little girl getting stoned?" Eventually that got boring, and my addict mind told me, "Well, if smoking pot is cute, it'll also be cute to get the heavier stuff like cocaine." It was gradual. What I did kept getting worse and worse, and I didn't care what anybody else thought."

Drew and her mother

 

About a year later, after filming Far From Home Drew returned to LA. She hung around people who were getting drunk and high, but she managed to stay sober. She was expected to act like a 25 year old, mature girl. She felt weird...different. And in a way, she was. What kind of 12 year old hangs with adults who get drunk? After 88 days of being sober, she was convinced by some pot-heads in a club. She bought $100 worth of cocaine and started her "bad-girl" stage again.

 

When she was 13, she finally decided that she had to stop messing around. This realization came to her after being sent to a rehab schooling group. She got her relationship with her mother back into line, and she was officially sober. She never wanted to go back to drinking/drugs.

 

At age 19, she turned to modeling...and not modeling clothes, but quite the opposite. In 1995 she began to model nude for Playboy. This modeling didn't last too long.

In 2012, she got her act together and ended up marrying the love of her life.

She now has a daughter and is a wonderful mother to her. I think we can all agree that she went way off track as a little girl, but thankfully there's a happily ever after for this one. Now she's back to acting, and I think this time she'll stick to that career, rather than modeling or clubbing.

 

          

Luke 21:34  “But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap."

 

Thanks for reading!

 

                              -Maddie Cortese