Drew Barrymore Chats With Chris Wragge About Season 2 Of Her Talk Show
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The CBS Broadcast Center isn't just home to CBS2. Several popular talk shows are also taped there, including "The Drew Barrymore Show."
Her studio is right across the hall from ours, and CBS2's Chris Wragge recently had the chance to drop in for a visit. They spoke one-on-one about her second season and looked back on her career, including one of their memories together.
The Drew Barrymore Show is surviving and thriving, emerging stronger in year two now that live audiences are back and the days of launching a brand new talk show during a worldwide pandemic are in the rearview mirror.
"Every day I thank everybody for choosing to spend their time here. I know life is busy, and the fact that they would make a choice to carve out time to spend it here is a privilege for all of us," Barrymore told Wragge.
"The conditions, the circumstances were just so surreal," Wragge said.
"They were very surreal and humbling. You have to be willing to pivot and change things, because you're working in a time in life when you're just lucky to have a job, period. And I think we all approached it that way, but you have to show up and offer something," Barrymore replied.
That's what she has done her entire life -- from the first time we met her as the adorable Gertie in "E.T.," to cult classics like "Never Been Kissed," "Charlie's Angels" and the scene-stealing opening scene of "Scream."
She has carved a Walk of Fame career, entertaining audiences for decades. And the audiences love her back.
"From what I've watched over the years, I get the impression there are some stars that walk down the street and people are like, 'Oh my god, there's so-and-so.' I get the impression people see you and they want to come up and hug you," Wragge said.
"My life's more like the chicken coop, we're all hens together, absolutely," Barrymore replied. "I have no veneer, and I don't want one. I had that ripped off real early in life like a Band-Aid, and I just thought alright well this isn't the way that I would have planned it, but I'm going to see this as a liberation to stop -- especially in Hollywood, screw it, I don't want to pretend to be perfect."
She may have taken that "I don't want to be perfect" a little too far back when Wragge met her for the first time in 1998 while she was starring as Grosie Josie in "Never Been Kissed."
"The studio literately was calling and going, 'I'm sorry but you've gone too far. You look really unappealing, dial it back,'" she said.
"I could not believe how, I shouldn't say, how bad you made yourself look," Wragge said with a laugh in the 1998 interview.
"Oh God, awful," Barrymore replied. "I had no sexuality in my life during this entire process."
In hindsight, the studio let her do her thing and "Never Been Kissed" became a huge hit.
Barrymore is also fortunate to have one of her best friends, Ross Matthews, side by side with her every day.
Wragge ran into Matthews in the hallway and took him and Barrymore on a tour of the CBS2 newsroom. They took over the studio, did the weather and barged in on the folks who do the real work.
"This is the bullpen!" Barrymore said. "Thank you for bringing everybody the news every day."
Thank you Drew, for making our day every day.
