-Our first guest tonight is a very talented actress you know
from films like "50 First Dates," "Charlie's Angels,"
and "Never Been Kissed."
She now hosts "The Drew Barrymore Show."
Please welcome back to the show Drew Barrymore, everybody!
♪♪ [ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
Yay, Drew Barrymore, everybody! Please!
-Hi, guys. How are you?
Thanks for having me.
-Drew, I'm so happy you're here.
-Me, too, because I almost wasn't.
-Well, you were supposed to be here a few weeks ago.
-Yes, I was.
-And it was a day-of cancelation.
This is very rare. -What happened?
Did someone else fall off the wagon?
-No, when you canceled on us, day-of.
-Not in 20 years have I canceled on anyone, ever.
-Yes. -I am very consistent.
-And yet here you were very sick.
Not COVID, but you were very sick.
-I had full-Blown bronchitis,
which I did not know at the time.
And I've known you for so long
that I didn't want a rep to call.
I feel like we're too knowing of each other for that.
And I didn't want it to be like, you know, surface.
So I decided to let you know on my own terms
so that you felt it was true.
-So I didn't think you were dodging or something came up.
You recorded an audio message of yourself
to prove how sick you were. [ Laughter ]
And it was like 45 seconds, Drew,
and I could not make it more than three.
[ Laughter ]
-Oh, my God. And I have to admit, I was so sick that I
feel, like, a little bit blackout-y about it.
Like, I was like, "I want to let Seth know, with all my heart,
that something's really wrong."
-The thing is, you're also a very good actress,
and this is so -- [ Laughter ]
No, no, but let me say this. -Can you imagine if I faked it?
-If this was you acting, I'd be like,
"Drew, this is so over-the-top." [ Laughter ]
So we're gonna actually play it so people can hear.
-Oh, my God!
-Because it is -- We're not gonna play much.
[ Cheers and applause ] It's audio only.
-Okay, I do not remember any of this, except for that I was
like, "I have to tell Seth and be personal about this."
What the -- Oh, God.
-This is like somebody in a very bad dinner-theater production of
somebody who's like, "Play a very sick person."
So let's listen. -I have heard from every
director I've ever worked with less.
-[ Gravelly voice ] Hi, Seth, it's Drew.
I am -- [ Coughing ]
-Oh, my God!
-[ Coughing ] [ Laughter ]
I can't do your show because
I don't want to do that on the show.
[ Laughter ]
-I realize now you're actually doing E.T. which is really cool.
[ Laughter ] -I totally am. I am E.T.
-It's a really good callback to your early work.
-God, you never know what you sound like.
-But that was very nice that you did that.
I mean, especially now, because, as a fellow talk-show host,
I think the host would be the last person who would bail
at the last minute unless they absolutely had to.
So I want you to know, we totally understood.
-I mean, in some ways, I kind of wish
I had brought that to the show.
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
It would have been a pretty awesome vibe.
[ Laughter ] -That's the thing where it's not
the right time to make jokes about wellness.
-Nobody wants that.
Nobody wants that to come out of the elevator.
-No, no. But I'm here now!
-I'm so happy to have you. And not only are you
a talk-show host, but you're a talk-show pro.
You started doing this at a very young age.
-That's true. -And we actually have a clip,
an incredibly precocious clip of you on "Johnny Carson."
And I mean, you are -- Not only are you a kid,
but you are just so confident.
You're more confident than, I would say,
half the adults I have on this show.
-And we're both parents, so we're around younger kids now.
-Yeah. -Whereas, when I grew up, I was,
like, weirded out by kids 'cause I was, like, a working,
you know, paying-the-rent kid.
Didn't go to school, I didn't have siblings.
I was always around adults.
So kids would be like, "Mah mah mah!"
and I was like... [ Laughter ]
-You're like, "Do you behave like that at your job?"
-Yeah, exactly. -The kids were like, "I don't have a job.
I'm seven." -"Beat it, kid, you're being a weirdo."
I just was -- I was, um -- I don't know how kids
are as precocious as they are or how I was.
I feel like my life is so full-circle in that
I'm much more intimidated and dialed-back.
When you're a kid, you don't know to filter.
-Yes. -It's like Amy Schumer said
in that cute movie, "I Feel Pretty," which I love so much.
She's like, "We let our bellies hang out.
We don't think about it. We say whatever we want."
We get older and more conscientious of what people
think and feel, and you start to almost
get shyer as you get older.
-Well, there was no shyness here.
Let's show this clip real quick of a young Drew.
-I love New York.
-Why? -Well, I mean, it's my place.
I mean, I don't like to go -- I mean, I'm not a person,
really -- I mean, I love L.A.
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-But, um, I like -- I don't like to dress up
in bikinis and go to the beach.
I like to dress up warm and be in my thermies
and go run around the hotel.
[ Laughter ]
Okay, well, none of that has changed.
[ Cheers and applause ] I am the same person.
-I will say, the crazy thing to me, is the awareness of
being in L.A. with an audience,
as you're doing a talk-show appearance, and you're like,
"I love New York. I love L.A., too," that even as a kid,
you were like, "I don't want to lose the audience here."
[ Laughter ]
-Well, the first time I was on "Carson," I walked up
to the stage and fell and went, like, splat.
And that was a good moment in that
it never can get worse than that.
-Yes. -You know?
You can't, like, eat it in your first time out
on national television and not go, "Well, you know what?
Only up from here." [ Laughter ]
No fear and embarrassment anymore.
-I have a lot of questions of what you're doing
when you're not hosting your talk show.
We're gonna be right back with more
from Drew Barrymore, everybody.