Whipping it good with Drew Barrymore

Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut, the roller-derby story Whip It, opens in theaters October 2nd. She recently took some time out to chat with MUSE about how the film came to be.

MUSE: This is your directorial debut. How did that come about?

DB: I met Shauna Cross, the writer of the book, Derby Girl, and my partner Nancy and I optioned her book to turn into a screenplay. She wrote it sort-of simultaneously, turned it in, and we started talking to different directors about their vision and their take on it. And I’m the type of producer where I just know ‘- a director, when they come in and give you their pitch, that is really the movie they see’hellip; And I don’t know why, but ‘- I do know now, but I didn’t at the time understand why I was so sort-of curiously disagreeable with a lot of the filmmakers we were meeting with or talking with and I was just like, ‘God, I see it a really different way than that’. I don’t see it sort of modern and pop-y, I don’t see it joke-y, I don’t see it angry, I don’t see it ‘- I see it as very warm and timeless and sort-of going back to the movies I grew up with, watching, where young girls seemed like adults, you know, and the John Hugheses were making movies and you know, you just felt like ‘Thank you, someone out there gets me”hellip; and I just had this severely different take on everything, the way I saw it, and then I had that moment in Clueless where I was like ‘Oh my god, I love Josh.’ I was like, ‘I want to direct this film.’

MUSE: What drew you to this story?

This movie’s about friendship and first love and trying to get your family to accept you for who you want to be in the world, especially their vision for you is completely alternate to yours, and understanding that there’s a bigger picture out there, you know. It’s whether it’s high school or a small town the feelings are the same, of wanting to go out there and find your tribe, find your ‘- be your own hero. Those were big themes for me in my life and how I brought myself up and I loved that they could fit in this movie. As well as show a sport where girls were tough and badass and capable and fun to watch and had a great sisterhood, but wanted to have a party afterwards and go on dates. There wasn’t that cattiness or backstabbing. It was more like a tribe. And those were all things that I responded to and wanted to put into the film.

MUSE: How much of the film is drawn from personal experience?

DB: I think it’s important to draw from personal stuff. I mean, I would definitely rock out to the Ramones and play air guitar with my girlfriend driving to what I thought was going to be a fun night out. I definitely have been set straight from my friends and been given tough love and had things said to me like ‘Look, you’re being incredibly selfish right now’hellip;’ You know when I was in my twenties, I used to really be about happy endings and now in my thirties, I’m more about a good day. This is, you know, a good day in these people’s lives. Life does go on.

MUSE: It’s a very physically demanding film. A lot of bruises by the end?

DB: Oh, head to toe. We had a wall of bruises. We had a ‘Look at my bruise wall.’ It was awesome. We wore them like merit badges.