Drew Barrymore Apologizes for Bringing Show Back During Strikes: ‘Nothing I Can Do Will Make This OK’
Drew Barrymore tearfully apologized for bringing her daytime TV talk show back amidst the ongoing writers and actors strikes, explaining why she was going ahead with the plan despite fierce criticism from various parties, including her own picketing writers.
In a video shared on Instagram, Barrymore said, “I believe there’s nothing I can do or say in this moment to make it OK.” She went on to reiterate her desire to “own a decision” and “take full responsibility for my actions,” before also acknowledging: “I know there is just nothing I can do that will make this OK to those that it is not OK with. I fully accept that. I fully understand that.”
Additionally, she said: “I deeply apologize to writers. I deeply apologize to unions.”
Barrymore confirmed last week that The Drew Barrymore Show would resume filming this week without its writers. While The Drew Barrymore Show isn’t the first daytime program to return without its writing staff (see: The View), the decision thrust the show and host into a PR firestorm, and made it the focus of an intense picket outside the show’s studio on Sept. 12.
During the picket, Chelsea White, a co-head writer on The Drew Barrymore Show, told Rolling Stone she was disappointed with the decision. “When any production that is covered under WGA comes back during a strike it undermines our whole group effort to come to a fair contract with the AMPTP,” White said.
The decision not only puts Barrymore at odds with her writers, but technically her own union as well. Barrymore is a member of SAG-AFTRA, but she’s able to resume filming The Drew Barrymore Show because guild contracts for talk shows were renewed last year. Even still, she’s faced criticism from other striking actors like Bradley Whitford. Greg Iwinski, a WGA negotiating committee and Writers Guild East council member, also confirmed to Rolling Stone that several big names — Matthew McConaughey, Samantha Bee, Leslie Jones — pulled out of guest appearances on The Drew Barrymore Show in solidarity with the strikes.
In her video, Barrymore reiterated and expanded upon a handful of points she shared in an initial statement last Sunday. For instance, she stated, again, that the show would continue to comply with WGA and SAG strike rules, meaning there would be no discussion or promotion of movies and TV shows that are currently struck.
Additionally, she addressed why she chose to come back, saying, “I wanted to do this, because as I said, this is bigger than me and there are other people’s jobs on the line. And since launching live in a pandemic, I just wanted to make a show that was there for people in sensitive times. And I weighed the scales and I thought, if we could go on during the global pandemic, and everything that the world has experienced through 2020, why would this sideline us. So, I want to just put one foot in front of the other and make a show that’s there for people, regardless of anything else that’s happening in the world.”