Drew Barrymore has no regrets about her Hollywood childhood.
Chatting with Bill Maher on the Club Random podcast, the actress got candid about her past. When Maher mentioned her early drug use around the 4:55 mark, Barrymore openly admitted she has no shame about it.
“I don’t regret a thing,” Barrymore said. “I loved every bit of it. It’s funny being a mom now because you’re like, ‘Oh my God, you can’t do that.’”
The actress has long been open about her turbulent younger years, even penning a memoir in 1990 titled Little Girl Lost.
After landing her breakout role as Gertie in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial at just seven years old, Barrymore started drinking and, by 12, had developed a drug habit.
In a 2018 appearance on Norm Macdonald Has a Show, she reflected on her early struggles: “You know what’s exciting? I got my shit over with at, like, 14. Midlife crisis, institutionalized, blacklisted, no family. Got it done. Then I got into the cycle of being my own parent.”
By 2021, Barrymore told CBS Mornings she had found perspective on her past. “Maybe people think I figured out so many problems when I was young because it was so hard then,” she said. “But we keep confronting new challenges with each decade that can even surpass what we thought we’d been through. I’m interested in that conversation — we don’t fix it, move on, and it never breaks again. We’re on that roller coaster.”
