Crying fan embraced by Drew Barrymore explains why the moment was 'super special'
"Like myself, Drew has had a super hard life," she said.
Drew Barrymore speaks during the FLOWER Beauty launch at Westfield Parramatta on April 13, 2019, in Sydney, Australia.
Drew Barrymore, 48, has been in the public consciousness since she starred as Gertie in 1982’s mega-blockbuster, “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial,” a performance that earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. So, it makes sense that many people of a certain age feel as if they’ve grown up with her.
Now, she’s an even more significant part of people’s lives as the host of “The Drew Barrymore Show,” which runs every weekday on CBS.
On May 25, the show’s Instagram page posted a touching video of an off-the-cuff moment between Barrymore and a fan during a taping of her show. In the clip, Barrymore realizes that someone in the audience is crying. So, instead of ignoring the fan, she jumps to action to see what is the matter.
The fan is Olivia Radford, 21, who recently moved to Los Angeles from Salt Lake City, Utah.
“Are you OK? Did anything happen? Whose a** do I have to kick?” she said while approaching the audience member. The crying fan’s friend clarified things for Barrymore, saying she loves her. “Oh, thank God, it’s nothing bad,” Barrymore exclaimed.
“I was like, ‘Tell me who they are, and I will take them down.’ Who made you cry?” she joked.
“You’re just, like, my childhood idol. I don’t want to be that person to cry,” Radford admitted. Then Barrymore assured her that emotional outbursts are acceptable and encouraged in her studio.
“Oh, screw that! Be that person!” Barrymore said.
"I really love you. I'm sorry," the fan said as she was handed a tissue. The talk show host then sat on Radford's lap and comforted her. “I have the urge to do this," Barrymore said as she held her.
“This is such an honor for me to meet you. I’m sorry I have dumpling breath,” Barrymore told Radford. “It’s so funny that you would say you don’t want to cry here,” she continued. “I cry here all the time.”
Radford told Upworthy that her "all-time favorite movie growing up" was "50 First Dates" starring Barrymore and Adam Sandler. "As you can tell from the video, I'm quite an emotional person," she told Upworthy. "I cry every single time I watch that movie. It’s extremely inspiring. I’m a huge fan of Adam Sandler as well!"
Radford feels a kinship with Barrymore that goes even deeper than her films.
"Like myself, Drew has had a super hard life," Radford said. "Drew is an extremely loving person, despite all the hardships she’s had to overcome. At the taping, she told me that there was a reason we met and that she sees herself in me, which felt super special."
Radford was able to briefly speak with Barrymore after the taping, and the talk show host wished her luck on her new life in Los Angeles. She hopes to make the experience permanent by getting Barrymore's words of advice tattooed in her handwriting because "she told me to always 'Be that person.'"
The tender exchange between Barrymore and Radford shows that the talk show host is just as sweet and caring off-camera as she is when she does her show. They always say you should never meet your heroes, but it’s probably a good idea if yours is Drew Barrymore.
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