Drew Barrymore Said She Wanted to Quit Acting After Having Kids
Drew Barrymore has had a long acting career, but when she had kids, her interest in acting waned. During an interview with Armchair Expert podcast host Dax Shepard, Barrymore shared how becoming a mother impacted her career.
Drew Barrymore said she wanted to quit acting after becoming a mom
During the Sept. 27 episode of Armchair Expert, Barrymore spoke about her career and how having kids really diminished her desire to continue acting.
“You wake up before your kids do and you get home after,” Barrymore said of the challenging hours that come with filming a movie. “I didn’t want to be anyone else. I didn’t want to pretend to be someone else. I didn’t want to study someone else’s life and become them.”
She continued, “I couldn’t come to grips with the fact that I didn’t want to do the job I had done my entire life anymore because all I wanted to do was be their mom.”
Barrymore said that having children ‘changed’ her
The actor said that having kids also “changed” her in a way she couldn’t have imagined. “I wished anything was a catalyst for me to be my best self — nothing was until I met my kids,” Barrymore said. “I could be a highly functioning person at work. I was a woman in the boardroom and a child in the bedroom — and I didn’t f***ing care. I would drive with people intoxicated on Mulholland [Drive]. How I didn’t go over that side and I’m dead, I don’t know.”
She continued, “My life was an absolute experiment in how far can I push this? And idiocy and immortality and just complete delusion and hedonism and selfishness. And a lot of fun and adventure… But it was like, I had my kids and I changed.”
Becoming a parent helped heal her relationship with her mother
Barrymore shared that the experience of becoming a mother also helped with healing her relationship with her own mom and they are now “in the best place.”
“I did not forgive myself or my mom for a long time — mostly myself,” the actor explained. “The guilt I had that my mom and I could not have that societally perfect mother-daughter relationship crushed me throughout my life. I finally let it go and was just like, ‘This is what it is, this is who she is, this is what I am.”
It allowed the mother and daughter to “come together” and find forgiveness. “I was like, ‘Hey you know what? F**k it!'” Barrymore explained. “Woman to woman. Guess what? You’re not perfect. I’m not perfect. Let’s just f***ing not live the rest of our lives like this. I can’t take it anymore. I am so ready to let it go. I have sat in this s**t for so long I can’t wait to get out of this. And it’s been great ever since.”
