Drew Barrymore

We celebrate a woman who’s had a diverse and successful career spanning four decades

Believe it or not, Drew Barrymore has been on our screens for over thirty years. She first got a film role at five years old and then two years later appeared in ET: the Extra Terrestrial at aged seven. Since then she transformed from a cute child actress to an accomplished adult actress in films where she plays a promiscuous obsessive teen in Poison Ivy, a gun toting outlaw in Gun Crazy and a boy loving wildcard in Boys on the Side.

She’s appeared in two franchises to date, playing minor characters in both Batman Forever and Scream, and after a decent run of supporting cast and lead character roles she finally got her blockbuster calling card with the film version of Charlie’s Angels, starring in a lead role alongside Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu. This sky rocketed her to Hollywood stardom and gave her a box office dominance and reliability that is so rare in actresses.

However, Drew Barrymore didn’t get there by sheer chance. She started a film production company called Flower Films with business partner Nancy Juvonen way back in 1995 and ensured she could produce her own films and keep central control. Flower Films produced films such as Never Been Kissed, Charlie’s Angels, Donnie Darko, 50 First Dates and Music and Lyrics and is partly responsible for Barrymore’s longevity in an industry that notoriously drops women when they go out of fashion. Flower Films also produced Whip It, Barrymore’s directorial debut in 2009, a film that saw Ellen Page take the lead role with Juliette Lewis, Kristen Wiig and Barrymore herself all supporting.

Since then Barrymore hasn’t directed any more movies, but we’re hoping that her attention to picking varied roles and productions in and out of Flower Films will lead to another thirty years in the industry.