The other day I was showing off a photo of Drew Barrymore taken at the Toronto Film Festival in the early 90s. It’s been hanging on my office wall ever since.[rssbreak]
“What’s that about?” asked a colleague, sniffing.
“That,” I huffed right back, “is one of the most female-empowering women in Hollywood.”
You heard that right. She’s been easy to stereotype – blond and unbearably cute.
But the endearing scion of Hollywood royalty and now queen of the rom-com can no longer be dismissed as just a people-pleasing personality.
For one thing, she’s turned into a canny producer. Flower Films, the production company she formed with Nancy Juvonen, has produced more than 10 films, only two of which – Fever Pitch and Duplex – can be considered duds. The rest, including the exhilarating Charlie’s Angels and Donny Darko, are credits other producers would die for. Taken together, her productions have made upwards of $900 million.
This year’s been particularly impressive. Aside from producing and appearing in the crafty He’s Just Not That Into You, she gave a stunning turn as the younger Edie Beale in Grey Gardens, which scored her an Emmy nom. This week she comes to TIFF with her directorial debut, Whip It.
Barrymore may not appear a likely candidate to be churning out the next feminist manifesto, but Whip It, based on Shauna Cross’s book Derby Girl, is all about women-positive liberation. Texas teen Bliss, played by Ellen Page, is a loser until she discovers roller derby, that very entertaining, sexy sport in which ballsy women kick each other’s asses on roller skates.
“I never would have guessed my first movie to direct would have been a sports movie,” Barrymore says on the phone from New York City, where she’s shooting her next rom-com, Going The Distance. “But on second thought, I’m attracted to girls who do action, who are athletically capable, who can do what boys do, who have real team spirit and camaraderie.”
Like Charlie’s Angels, the new film is a major exercise in female bonding, a theme Barrymore’s been interested in ever since she starred in Boys On The Side in 1995. And like Charlie’s Angels,
the savvy adaptation of the iconic television series that she produced and starred in, the story puts women in let’s call them non-traditional roles. They’re private detectives in Angels, skaters with sharp elbows in Whip It.
“This movie is about themes I’ve always been interested in: be your own hero, and find your tribe.”
Even some of Barrymore’s bad-girl tendencies (she famously fl ashed David Letterman on his show) come into play in Whip It. She takes on the role of Smashley Simpson, the player whose love of the game’s violence gets in the way of her team’s ability to win.
“I definitely wanted to be on the derby team,” she explains. “I learned from the Charlie movies how important training is. It brings out the true athleticism and capabilities so these girls can do their own stunts, skate, do action and look real without using doubles. I can smell that a mile away.
“It creates camaraderie, too. You push each other, you get hurt together, you laugh at each other, you clap for each other when you learn something new.”
And Whip It has its share of surprises. Barrymore’s used her clout to wrench the once omnipresent Juliette Lewis away from her band to appear in the film, and convinced the much more successful recording artist Eve to put on skates, too.
Oh yeah, and Whip It’s rom-com element doesn’t unfold in formulaic ways.
This year, too, in addition to adding a director’s credit to her resumé, Barrymore raised her acting game to an unexpected level in a project that took her to the dark side.
In the HBO-produced Grey Gardens, she plays Edie Beale, a cousin of Jacqueline Onassis who wound up living in squalor with her mother in a rambling Long Island mansion.
Barrymore’s a knockout in it, nothing like the bubbly persona she plays in her famous rom-coms. She’s sad yet strangely buoyant, delusional but absolutely present for her mother, and more than holds her own opposite Oscar winner Jessica Lange.
She fought hard for the role. Director Michael Sucsy wanted nothing to do with her he dismissed her as a lightweight. But she arrived at the audition with a binder full of research, vowed to immerse herself in the world of the Beales and – here’s an example of how well she knows herself – promised to work on not talking out of the side of her mouth.
She and Lange appeared at the Golden Globes together while they were shooting the project, and you could tell by the way they related to each other onstage that they were falling a little bit in love, the way artists often do when working together.
“Jessica and I had such a rare, confi ned experience of trying to capture these iconic women that we loved and respected so much. You don’t experience these things very often, and once you go through them there’s a bond for life. So, yes, there’s a deep love there, and thank god, because it is a love story, and if the chemistry isn’t there you’re just screwed.”
But Barrymore is in no way kissing rom-coms goodbye.
“I love romantic comedies and I will continue to do comedy for the rest of my life. Those are necessary films to be out there. I really don’t need to see life-altering material every time I go into a theatre. I want to laugh and feel some joy and some love. So I’ll stay true to that.”
Not that she’s particularly focused on her own love life at the moment. Sorry, guys, but she won’t be looking for romance when she comes to T.O. for the Film Festival.
“I haven’t been in a relationship for years, because I’ve been so focused on my work. That’s been my lover, and it’s been a great place to put my energy. I have a lot of love in my life with great friends and unique relationships, and I’m completely fulfi lled.
“That whole romance thing is not on the front burner for me.”
More audio clips
On why she likes the control of directing
susanc@nowtoronto.com
