Drew Barrymore enjoys slowing down
An Alaskan adventure usually conjures up images of snowmobiles, bears and crashing glaciers. But Drew Barrymore’s threemonth experience shooting Big Miracle was more like “Into the Zen” than Into the Wild.
“I’m a Cali-girl through and through, but it was just nice to not be in the busy rush of Los Angeles,” Barrymore says of her stint in Anchorage, where she shunned Internet and e-mail in favour of letter-writing and reading.
Shooting for the film took place in the fall of 2010, and it could not have come at a better time for the 36-year-old actor who has been a mainstay in pop culture for three decades.
“There’s a book called Slowing Down to the Speed of Life, and there’s something about that title that totally rang true about this experience,” Barrymore says.
In Big Miracle, a fictionalized retelling of the 1988 effort to rescue three grey whales trapped by ice near the Arctic Circle, Barrymore plays a Greenpeace activist. It’s her first big-screen acting project in two years and may be her last for a while.
Barrymore is more content to focus on her personal life, which includes her fiance, 34-year-old art consultant Will Kopelman. “I’ve done all of this for 35 years,” Barrymore says of her career. “I think maybe it’s OK to put the life first for a minute.”
Though the actress has found “the one” personally, she is willing to wait for her next professional soulmate.
“I really love being in love . . . When I’m in love, I really commit myself to things, whether it’s work or a person.
“So when I find that new work love, I’ll stalk it.”