You know, I said that I wanted
to sort of summon the Vanderbilts and the Barrymores
to this conversation.
I think...
On my side, they're probably drinking somewhere.
So I don't know that...
Oh, well then they're probably in good company.
I am from a long line of alcoholics,
and hedonists and creatives and brilliant people
that I love and I feel their blood running through my veins.
I feel a responsibility for it.
But when I was a kid, you know, I grew up with a single mom
in a very economically challenged environment.
And I always felt a little shy about,
I wanted to talk about what it was like to really grow up
in a single mom, economically challenged way.
And I felt like I didn't have the liberty
because people just assumed that my life was different
because of my last name.
Which is, it's so interesting,
cause my mom was Gloria Vanderbilt and I grew up very happy
that my last name was not Vanderbilt.
And because I think if you have a last name
that is a big name, like Barrymore,
and especially in the industry you were in,
that you were put into as a child,
you walk into a door and there's assumptions
that are automatically made, in your case,
and you said and, I saw that very early on
in my own life because when I was a kid,
people didn't know who my mom was.
I was a Cooper and nobody cared and you know,
people treated me normally.
And then when they would find out who my mom was,
there was always kind of a subtle shift,
sometimes not so subtle, sometimes subtle.
I worked as a waiter when I was, like in high school.
And I remember I worked at this restaurant
that I was under age, so I got a job
because my mom knew the guy who owned the place.
And I used to eat lunch there with her.
And when I would, when I was there as a waiter,
I was serving people who I had eaten lunch with,
with my mom, but they didn't recognize me
when I was their waiter,
cause they didn't even look at the waiter.
And it was the greatest education to see, okay,
when I'm sitting at the table with her,
they see me in one way.
They don't even see me when I'm not there with her.
And they don't think they have to pay attention to me.
And so to me, that was a,
such a big obvious wake up and clear sign that, you know,
for me, the idea very early on was implanted
that no good could come from, you know,
being associated with the Vanderbilts.
The history of the Vanderbilts was very fraught for my mom.
To me, they were like ghosts
from the past I really didn't want to know about.
And I chose to have my story be my dad's story,
which is growing up poor on a farm Mississippi.
And I thought as a young kid,
I looked at my mom's side of the family, my dad's side,
and I thought, you know what?
I'm going with the Mississippi side.
Cause that is, I want that to be my American story more
than the history of the Vanderbilts.
When you see your documentary,
when you're here to talk about this book,
the amount of chapters in your and your mother's
and her family's life is,
It's crazy. it's that of
movies and novels.
It doesn't seem real.
There are just layers and layers.
Yeah, it's like an American crown on Netflix.
I mean, it's just nuts how many characters there are
and dramas and people who are larger than life.
And, you know, it's this incredible story of this guy,
who in the late 1800s,
made the largest fortune the the world had ever seen
at the time...
More than like, the treasury.
Yeah, He had more money than the US Treasury
at the time, he had one out of every $20
in circulation belonged to him.
So...
And when that is a family member,
that's going to color the way people, like, see you.
Yeah, he had a pathological interest in making money
and he made this fortune and you know,
that infected the next generation,
the subsequent generations.
And I think it affected a lot of them in a negative way
and that they didn't really work.
They didn't have to work.
They just pursued their interest in pleasures and boats
and stuff like that.
And by the time, you know, I was grown,
I was a teenager and you know, that money was all gone.
And I was very, you know,
my parents informed me very early on
that there's not some pot of gold waiting for you.
There's no trust, you know,
you're gonna get your college paid for
and then you'll make your own way.
And I thought that was the way it should be.
But I was very happy to know as a little kid,
I would have to make my own way.
And I think it certainly,
I don't think I would have been able to work as hard
as I have, if I didn't think that.
Do you remember, was there a spark,
was there something that happened in your life
that was the catapult?
No, I think anytime,
I think for anybody here watching who lost a parent early
on or experienced a loss early on,
that for me was a huge turning point,
my dad died when I was 10, my brother died by suicide
when I was 21, he was 23.
And that, you know,
seeing, it changed the trajectory of my life
and it changed the way I viewed the world
and it changed what I was interested in
and what I was concerned about.
And, you know, like you,
I wanted to work from a very young age to earn my own money
and to, you know, prepare a future for myself
and yeah, which is why having a child
for me has been such an incredible thing.
It's something I never really dreamed I'd be able to do.
Did you question whether you'd be a parent ultimately?
I did, yeah.
I mean, cause my mom and I were very similar.
My mom had this relentless drive to,
she had had a lot of traumatic experiences as a child
and she developed this kind of a relentless ability
to push forward in spite of,
my brother died in front of her.
You know, she experienced a lot of traumatic things
as a child, being taken away by the courts
from her own mother.
And that drive is an amazing thing
in terms of trying to achieve stuff.
But it also doesn't make necessarily
for stability or a stable, kind of home life.
And I was worried about what kind of a parent I would be,
you know, would I be more like my dad?
Would I be more like my mom?
and you know, it took me a long time,
that's why I had a child very late in life.
Cause I thought I don't want to repeat the same patterns
that I grew up with.
It's a real privilege, also, I found if you get to,
there's no wrong way to do it.
If you do it early,
you get to have more life on the other side.
If you do it a little later in life,
you have a lot more wisdom and patience,
but it's just so win-win.
Yeah, I mean, I certainly, I think I definitely,
you know, I did not want to have a child
when I was still kind of trying to figure out myself
and now I feel like, you know, I'm 54.
Like, if I don't know myself now, it's a little, you know...
And damn, you look good.
God, have you ever not been hot?
(crowd cheering)
Anderson Cooper, be sure to pick up a copy
of Vanderbilt, The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty.
And I can't recommend more,
one of my favorite documentaries I've ever seen in my life,
Nothing Left Unsaid.
Anderson Cooper, You literally are my knightly knight,
it is such an honor to do this with you.
It's such a pleasure to be here, thank you.
Thank you so much. (crowd cheering)
(upbeat music plays)