Drew Barrymore will always view Steven Spielberg as a father figure in her life.
The actress was only seven years old when she met Spielberg on the set of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial — and the two have remained close ever since.
During a recent sit-down with Barrymore, Spielberg revealed that making the 1982 film made him “want to be a father for the first time,” which didn’t come as a surprise to Barrymore.
“I mean, I’ve heard him say that my whole life so it’s not news or new to me,” she said on this morning’s episode of The Drew Barrymore Show. “He used to call me his training wheels. That was his nickname for me.”
“We have a very tight-knit bond,” she added. “We’ve remained close throughout our lives.”
As for whether they had an immediate connection, Barrymore described Spielberg as a role model at a time when she was estranged from her real father.
“My dad and my mom had split up before I was born. And I really didn’t see him,” she said. “He was off doing his thing. He was a real wild creature. And I don’t know why I just intellectually understood that. And occasionally when I would see him, I was like, ‘Oh, yeah. OK. Yeah. You’re — OK.’”
“And so when I met Steven, I think the universe and the energies and the magnetic pull said, ‘This is the role model right here,’” she continued. “He was the first man that I just really latched onto. He did the things I think parents do, which is be nurturing and consistent, reliable, available.”
Barrymore, who rarely opens up about her biological father, described him as “such an odd bird” during a March 2024 episode of The Drew Barrymore Show.
“I mean, he didn’t wear shoes, he was out to lunch, philosophical, wore his tie as a belt — but he just was always like, ‘Just live and let live, man.’ More of that, please,” she said at the time. “I’m using a very bizarre example of a human, who’s nobody’s poster child of how to live a life. But ‘just live and let live, man’ was one of the best gifts he ever taught me, the little I was around him.”
While Barrymore’s father was absent for most of her life, she previously revealed that she paid for his hospice care before he died from cancer in 2004.
The Drew Barrymore Show airs on weekdays on CBS. You can check the website for local airtimes.
The post Drew Barrymore Says Steven Spielberg Was The “First Man” She “Latched Onto” Amid Estrangement From Her Father appeared first on Decider.
