Drew Barrymore Opens Up About Stepping Back from Acting to Become the Parent She 'Dreamed to Be'

Mar. 15, 2025

Drew Barrymore at ‘The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon’ on May 16, 2024.Photo:Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty

Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty

Drew Barrymoreis getting real about stepping back from acting.

Barrymorehas two daughtersOlive, 11, andFrankie, 9, with ex-husbandWill Kopelman.

She recalled being in her “early 40s, and not learning how to be my own healthy, independent individual, how to be the parent I dream to be” in her interview withAARP.

Will Kopelman and Drew Barrymore with their daughters.Drew Barrymore/Instagram

Drew Barrymore/Instagram

“Being other people doesn’t help me figure that out right now,” she added. “And the long hours of doing films were hours I wouldn’t have with my kids. I wasn’t going to do that.”

The host ofThe Drew Barrymore Showappeared in her first commercial when she was only 11 months old, and was cast in Steven Spielberg’sE.T.at age 6.

She continued to appear in several successful works, includingNever Been Kissed,Charlie’s Angels,Scream, and50 First Dates.

The Golden Globe winner also played the lead in the Netflix comedy seriesSanta Clarita Diet.

Drew Barrymore for AARP Magazine.courtesy of AARP The Magazine

courtesy of AARP The Magazine

Speaking with PEOPLE in April 2024, Barrymore shared thatshe does not want her children to get into actinguntil they are older despite her love for the craft.

“When I first had kids, I remember people asking me like, ‘Well, would you want your kids to go into the business?’ And it always gave me such a sad feeling, as if this business was so toxic, like, ‘Ew,’ ” she said.  “And I just thought, that’s not how I feel about this business at all. It has given me every opportunity under the sun and I couldn’t appreciate my life more.”

Suzanne Hanover/20th Century Fox/Kobal/Shutterstock

Barrymore went on to share that her kids ask her “all the time” to follow in her footsteps, but she points them to “school plays” and “theater camp” instead.

“But being in the public eye, [no] until…’ And then they say, ‘Well, what’s the number?’ And I always say, ‘I know you want an answer, and I know the fact that I can’t give you one that’s so specific isn’t satisfying, but it’s going to be a feeling. It’s going to be when I think you’re ready,’ " she said, adding that she wants to keep them out of the spotlight until they are “probably north of 14, 15.”

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Barrymore gave an update on her potential return to screen in a 2023 interview withLos Angeles Times, in which she said acting did not feel “emotionally available to me right now.”

Barrymore went on to call being a mother “the role of my life.”

source: people.com