Do you find it hard to talk about a movie you are starring in the same time President Bush is on television informing the world that the United States has just bombed Afghanistan? ^ Yes, I wanted to go home this morning. I didn’t think that anyone needed to hear anything from me. I just felt so trivial and so extraordinarily lost. We (the cast) tried to talk through it and realized this was going to be an ongoing process and that we are going to have to find a way together in how we are going to learn to deal with this. It’s okay not to know how. I’ve never had to do my job in a time of war, and I don’t know how to do my job right now. I am learning truly in front of you, and that is very humiliating and embarrassing because you just feel so trivial at a time like this. So we are all going to try to be brave and go on and continue to do our jobs, and just be like graceful, gentile and peaceful towards one another as we figure it all out together. That’s the only thing I can think and hold on to.
Granted a lot of people have lost their lives and our freedom seems to have been taken away from us, but do you think that any good has– or can– come out of the attacks on September 11? ^ Absolutely. The extraordinary thing about life is that everything has a polarity. When everything becomes so negative, there is positive in there and it’s incredible to see how beautiful, kind, patient and giving everyone is to each other right now. I want to see that go on because it’s wonderful how most people have made this be their greatest strength by becoming the best person they can be. Like Adam (Garcia), for example. I didn’t know how to do these interviews today and I asked Adam if we could do them together. I now realize in so many ways that we are like Bev and Jason because I looked to him to be a solid rock and my dependency on him was met with, ‘yes, I will.’ That was just so kind of him. It’s just amazing.
Now America already knows you as a sweet and caring person. You donate a great deal of your time to numerous charities and organizations, including the Wildlife Way Station and the Female Health Foundation, so how have the attacks changed the way you treat others? ^ It’s just so confusing. You always feel like you aren’t doing enough and maybe somehow we can learn through these jobs that we have to figure something out. I’m certainly looking to some people for inspiration and guidance because I just want to do the most that I can possibly can to make this safe and better for people. I’ll never feel like it’s enough, but I have to keep trying.
Do you think that any of us will ever really feel safe again when this is all through? ^ I am just not the person that could ever answer that. I can only say that I hope so.
Moving on to Riding in Cars with Boys, the role you play in the film is a bit different from parts audiences have grown used to seeing you in. Usually you play bubbly, likable, loving characters like in The Wedding Singer and Never Been Kissed, but Beverly isn’t like that at all. In fact, some viewers may leave the movie even disliking Bev. What made you decide to stray away from the type of roles audiences have grown accustomed to seeing you in, and were you at all afraid to play a character that may not be liked? ^ I think that you want to keep challenging yourself, and whatever is scary to you means you haven’t done it yet and therefore it’s not “safe.” To constantly challenge yourself is really important to me and yes, it was scary for me to play someone who isn’t liked all the time. But I didn’t want to compromise or sugar coat that because Bev has such an extraordinary way of being honest about things we don’t want to admit. The degrees of it I think vary between people, but I wanted to honor who she is. Penny is an extraordinary director and Bev is a wonderful guide in how I was able to get there because it was an uncomfortable state for me to live in someone who’s confident, sarcastic and not people-pleasing. Bev doesn’t smile at people and she has a completely different attitude and intentions than I do, but that’s also exciting trying to figure out what that is and that’s sort of the challenge. I couldn’t have gone to those places without Penny and Bev though.
Get the rest of the interview in part three of DREW BARRYMORE’S WILD RIDE>>>
