Drew Barrymore is looking back on being a wayward teen.
The “50 First Dates” star opened up about entering rehab at just 14 while talking with Mae Martin during “The Drew Barrymore Show” on Friday.
Martin, who uses they/them pronouns, recently released the new Netflix series “Wayward,” which also stars Alyvia Alyn Lind, Sidney Topliffe and Toni Collette.
The thriller centers around two friends attending an academy for troubled teens, and Martin revealed that the story was loosely inspired by a real-life friend “sent to one of these troubled teen institutes” for two years.
“I also was someone who got taken away and put in a place for two years,” Barrymore, 50, shared regarding her 18-month stint Van Nuys Psychiatric Hospital in the mid-1980s.
“I did not know that,” Martin, 38, responded. “I mean, I know that you were a wayward teen – as was I, and I was in rehab and stuff – but I didn’t know that you were at one of those places.”
After bonding over their shared experience, the “Never Been Kissed” star praised Martin for perfectly depicting what it is like inside a rehabilitation facility for “Wayward.”
“I didn’t know that about you, but watching the show, there was way too much accuracy,” she shared. “It was too real for me in that element where I knew there was no way you weren’t telling an authentic perspective.”
Barrymore went on to warn her viewers that if they haven’t experienced a “breakdown” like her and Martin yet, they’d better watch out because one is most likely bound to come sooner or later.
“A lot of people who have not had that experience or that track – by the way, watch out, something’s coming because none of us escape breakdowns or rebirths or the excruciation of what it takes to get to that,” she cautioned. “It’s coming sometime at some time in some form.”
Meanwhile, the former child star admitted that she suffered another difficult decade shortly after turning 40, something she previously revealed during her popular daytime talk show.
“Oh, no, I found another one at 40, which was interesting,” she shared. “Yeah, I thought, ‘Oh, 14, this is rock bottom.’ Turns out I hit it at 40 as well.”
But despite the trauma of her teen years and 40s, the “Wedding Singer” star still managed to get herself back on the straight and narrow.
“We pull ourselves up, hopefully, and we find people that encourage us to tell the truth and to finally have the opposite of shame, which is what comes with any type of erratic behavior or society telling you ‘that’s not appropriate at this age’ or ‘what you’re doing is out of control,’” she told Martin and her audience.
“That is shame,” Barrymore added. “And when you live with shame, it is crippling.”
As for her nearly two years in rehab at 14, the actress-turned-talk show host admitted she found “a lot of lightness in my experience in the institution” and noted that her experience was reflected in “Wayward.”
“I know that sounds wild, but it was encouragement to say your truths, to be brave, to find humor and heroism in your journey,” she stated. “And it’s the best thing that ever happened to me, honestly.”
“I hold a lot of it sacrosanct, but it wasn’t easy,” Barrymore concluded. “It was hard as hell, and I found that the tone that you brought to the show was true to a life experience when you gotta be broken and get fixed.”
Barrymore first revealed that her mother sent her to rehab for drug and alcohol addiction as a teenager during an interview with The Guardian in 2015. Shortly after being released, she was emancipated from her parents.
The “Scream” star opened up about her experience at Van Nuys Psychiatric Hospital more recently in a 2023 blog post.
“I lived a boundaryless life and job,” Barrymore, who was only 7 when she became famous for “E.T.” in 1982, explained.
“And this place, as hellacious as it was, it was exactly what I needed from the too much excess my life had become on the outside,” she added.
