Drew Barrymore Essay, Research Paper

Drew Barrymore is a 23 year old actress, born on February 22,1975. She was born in Los Angeles into a family known for both its thespian talent and personal life difficulties. When Drew was an infant, her parents were told numerous times, she should ?get into commercials.?Drew was a very talented little girl. The movie she first appeared in was a minor role in the movie ?The Protagonist?s Daughter.? Her main acting career began in 1982 when she was cast as ?Gertie? in Steven Spielberg?s science-fiction movie ?E.T.: The Extraterrestrial.? This movie was one of the most popular films of all time. This great achievement pushed Barrymore to stardom and was now known as a ?Child Star?. Throughout the 80?s she worked steadily, appearing in more films and T.V movies. This young star grew up in a very tough Hollywood lifestyle. She attended many late night parties, publicity events, and clubs. She also was known as ?E.T.?s pal, Gertie, parties ?till 3.? Soon Drew started smoking, sneaking sips of her older friends? drinks, and experimenting with drugs. As her drug use and drinking grew more addicting, she could hardly hide it from the outside world. Drew first started using cocaine when she was 13 years old, at the time she didn?t think she would become addicted to the drug. But she was mistaken, before long she found herself using increasingly large quantities of the drug. Drew?s mother became concerned and dragged Drew to a Family Treatment Center, in Van Nuys, California. Drew attended many therapy sessions with other patients her own age. She spent only 12 days in the hospital and proved she was satisfied with the program. She left the hospital early, due to a prior commitment for a shoot in Nevada.This shoot had to travel to New York City, where, after more than 2 months of sobriety; Drew craved for cocaine and immediately fell back into her terrible habits. Her mother hired two private agents to track down Drew, they found her and a friend and returned them in handcuffs to the hospital. Drew finally thought to make her recovery her top priority, and she was forced to admit she had hit rock bottom. After 3 months stay she had made much progress and was discharged. Barrymore was threatened to tell her story world wide by doing this it influenced her to want to help other troubled young adults. She wrote in the ?People? article, ?These days, its pretty hard being a kid.? When Drew returned to acting, she filmed a television movie about a teenage drug abuse, and she called the film ?Pretty accurate.? But this time in her life was not to be. In march 1989; she fell back again into those same bad habits by smoking pot. This depressing period worsened as time went on. Her self-esteem dropped and she attempted suicide, by cutting her wrists. She then returned to the family treatment center and stayed for 3 more months.For a couple of years Barrymore did not act professionally. She was turned down a lot of times because she was either too young or too old for the role. She was quoted on saying, ?People wouldn?t touch me; they just thought I was some loser drug addict.? Drew Barrymore had many accomplishments. Some of these great achievements took a lot of work for Drew. In 1992 she took control of her career and resurfaced, appearing in 5 new films. In 1993 she took on another role in the ABC-TV movie The Amy Fisher Story. After the Amy Fisher Story, in 1995, she performed in two other movies. In 1996, Drew was briefly in Wes Craven?s horror movie ?Scream? and in 1998, she acted in ?The Wedding Singer? opposite Adam Sandler. Barrymore?s most recent accomplishment was the leading role in the 16th century France Cinderella story, ?Ever After.?As you now Drew Barrymore had many ups and downs in her life but she still had the courage to recover from the mistakes of her past. She was shortly married, in 1994, to Jeremy Thomas a bar owner. The relationship between them both did not work out fore long, soon after they were divorced. Now she lives in California, and is in the midst of continuing a great career in acting.