Drew Barrymore Shares the Secret on Turning 50 She Learned from Ellen Pompeo
Season 5 of The Drew Barrymore Show premieres today and the thrice-nominated Emmy nominee for Outstanding Entertainment Talk Show Host goes into it with a sigh of relief because she has already received a pickup for Season 6.
“It is such a gift to everyone doing the show, because then they know they have some job certainty, we’re not going year to year,” Barrymore told Parade and a select group of reporters backstage on the set of the reboot of Hollywood Squares, on which she will be the center square when it premieres in January. “This is the biggest gift, and it gives us a huge sigh of relief. We’ve been on fire for many years, not as far as success but that feeling of: Is the room on fire? So, this is the nicest, coziest, best gift to everyone making the show that we get to stay.”
Speaking of gifts, even though it’s several months away—Feb. 22—Barrymore is already thinking about how she’s going to handle her next birthday because it marks a milestone: 50 years.
“I’m so excited, I’m so relieved,” she said. “Ellen Pompeo taught me about the 50 f--k-its, so I’m really excited. She taught me it three years ago, when she came on the show, so I’ve been waiting to get here.”
The advice includes a reference to one of Barrymore’s most popular rom-coms Never Been Kissed, on which she played Josie Geller, a newspaper editor who begs for the chance to cover a story and finally gets an assignment to return to high school as part of research for a story. Josie was not in the popular group when she attended high school the first time around and, her return finds her reverting to her old high school personae Josie Grossie until she gets some help from her brother Rob (David Arquette) who introduces her to the in-crowd.
“Ellen said you stop feeling so worried and uptight all the time about every little thing,” Barrymore said. “I thought, ‘Where’s that and how do I get to it?’ Again, it kind of goes back to Josie Grossie. It is never how it looks. How it feels is scrambly and on fire and messy. That’s how it feels. I’m really excited, though. I’m happy I’m getting a little more peaceful every day, and I do think that comes with age. So, I really like getting older. I think I get a little bit better every day, a little less na?ve, a little less stressful, a little less thinking that everything is life or death. A little less like white knuckling everything.”
Courtesy CBS
Making her life a little less stressful for Barrymore involves spending a lot of time with her two daughters—Olive, 11 [turning 12 on Sept. 26], and Frankie, 10—and her four cats, but also spending alone time to recharge and get her batteries topped off.
Related: Drew Barrymore Stuns With Transformation Back to Charlie's Angels-Era Self
“I’m a single lady with four cats, and I like to be alone with my cats,” she said. “I enjoy remote controls in one hand, nachos in the other, watching the Food Network…. Also, my friends are my priority. I got so busy that I was like, ‘Am I being a good enough friend to my friends? Am I available enough to them? Am I checking in on them enough? Am I making enough plans?’ My friendships are the first family I ever had, so my kids get everything, work gets everything, are my friendships getting everything? So that has been a big north star 49. I definitely have a lot of friend hangs. And then, I like being alone.”
The Drew Barrymore Show airs weekdays on CBS.