Drew Barrymore: How to Build a Business Empire

She’s so prevalent on the big screen that it’s easy to forget Drew Barrymore has also carved a business empire. Here, as the humble power queen of Hollywood starts a new chapter, she talks to friend and writer Jill Kargman about beauty, motherhood and counting her blessings.

- Jill Kargman

DREW AND I BOTH LIKE TO SAY WE WON THE sister-in-law jackpot. From the night my brother, Willie Kopelman [who Barrymore is now separated from], introduced us at a quiet dinner in Santa Monica, California, in 2011, we were add-water-and-stir Insta-pals. Our wine-fuelled cackles have taken us late into the night, and we’ve made breakfast for our kids with eye bags at 6am. And at any time in between the hours of coffee and cocktails, she is a pure joy – no prima-donna horseshit, no entourages, no vanity. With last autumn’s memoir, Wildflower, she has cemented herself as not just an award-winning actress, but also an accomplished writer. Not to mention entrepreneur: her production company, Flower Films, has made more than $1 billion at the box office and released the recent How To Be Single; her make-up and eyewear line, Flower, is launching an e-commerce site this year and may expand abroad; and sommeliers across America have added Barrymore Wines to their lists. We plopped on her bedroom carpet while our kids watched The Little Mermaid downstairs, and got to it.

On starting a business…

JILL KARGMAN: I don’t want to be sexist and lump all women together, but why do you think so many actresses create ancillary things, such as blogs or products or drink mixes? Do you think it’s a fear of the shitty roles in Hollywood, and the need to have something to fall back on?

DREW BARRYMORE: We are living in a different day and age. In the 90s and 2000s, celebrity endorsements were a big thing, but now it’s about being entrepreneurial. Your job gives you a platform to try things.

JK: Yeah, why should you make money for some corporation, hawking its product on a billboard in Japan?