The Canberra Times interviewed Drew as Australia prepares for the release of Blended!

The former Hollywood wild-child has settled down to a quiet life.

For someone who was a child star by the age of six, a cocaine addict at 13 and in rehab by 14, Drew Barrymore seems remarkably grounded, balanced and, dare I say it, ordinary. It’s the way the 39-year-old actor prefers it these days. “I’m real. I’m just a normal person,” says Barrymore, who arrives for our interview wearing no make-up, her signature locks hanging loosely and framing her smiling face.

“I just want a quiet life,” the former wild child turned queen of domesticity says convincingly. “I’ve been doing [show business] 38 years and you just get to that point – it’s silly to like fall prey to expectations of people you will never see, or meet or care about. It doesn’t matter what people think.”

Refreshingly, the mother-of-two also refuses to adhere to Tinseltown’s obsession with thinness (“I simply love food”) and cosmetic surgery. “Why is everybody fighting it?” she says of the obsession to never age. “Everybody is looking like a catfish at the moment … I’m desperate not to get on that hamster wheel from hell. It looks psychotic.”

Barrymore was not always this pragmatic, admitting there was a time when she felt enormous pressure to be stick-thin, perfectly preened and wrinkle-free. “I would actually make myself so unhappy to try to fit a mould that I do not fit into,” she says, in a subtle reference to the diet merry-go-round she endured in her 20s. “This is the body God gave me,” she says. “Why fight it? I don’t want to get up at 5am in the f…ing morning and go to the gym.”

We’re in a hotel suite at the Four Seasons in New York for a round of interviews Barrymore is doing for her latest movie, Blended, a romantic comedy in which she co-stars with her regular sidekick, Adam Sandler. The film, shot mostly in South Africa, is about two single parents who, after a disastrous blind date, end up on holiday with their respective children.

Barrymore, whose family joined her during the film shoot, says it was an incredibly fun movie to make with long-term friend Sandler – their on-screen chemistry is infectious. “We have been close for 20 years,” she says. “We both still really care about the films we do and try to bring out the best in each other. We have sort of done a movie [together] every 10 years.”

Barrymore giggles as she recalls how her first two movies with Sandler mirrored her own life. The Wedding Singer was filmed when she was in her early 20s and still navigating the path to love, having divorced bar owner Jeremy Thomas in 1994 after an eight-week marriage. Fifty First Dates was filmed in her late 20s after another short-lived marriage, to comedian Tom Green, in 2001. It lasted five months.

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Drew is one of the celebs who wants her children to have a normal life and has spoken how she would not want her daughters to act.

Drew Barrymore was only seven when she got her big break in “E.T.,” but she won’t let her kids go down the same path. In a new interview, the “Whip It” star said she would not allow her two daughters, Olive and Frankie, to follow in her footsteps.

“I will never let my children act,” she told The Mail on Sunday’s You Magazine. “When they’re 18, if they want to, but not before.”

Though she didn’t explain why she didn’t want them to be child stars, she did say that while “E.T.” gave her life structure she didn’t have, they wouldn’t need that. “They are going to have everything they need,” she said.

Barrymore is one of a growing number of celebrities who have come out to say they won’t let their kids have the same life that they did. Here are the top three reasons they are against their kids going into showbiz:

They want them to have a normal life
Back in 2012, Jennifer Lopez told Women’s Wear Daily she would prefer that her twins, Max and Emme, have some normalcy until they’re old enough to decide on careers for themselves. “They should have a normal life – go to school, play, grow up. They should have a family life, as solid a foundation as I can give them,” she said. “If they want to go off and be artists or singers or dancers or pilots or architects or anything – then they have my full support. “

“How I Met Your Mother” star Alyson Hannigan, who started acting in her mid-teens, said the same thing in 2009 of her daughter, Satyana. “I really want her to have a childhood that is about climbing trees, playing in the grass,” she told Celebrity Baby Scoop, adding, “I really would like her to have a normal childhood, whatever that means. But if she wants to go into showbiz when she is an adult, I’ll support her.”

Since then, Hannigan has had another daughter, Keeva.

It’s too much pressure
Brooke Shields started acting in “Pretty Baby” at age 12, but wouldn’t want that for her own daughters, Rowan and Grier. “I just don’t think they need that burden, that pressure,” she told Life & Style in 2009. “There’s a lot of pressure. As long as they get an education, they can do whatever they want. If they need my help, I’ll try, but I hope they find other interests.” Nick Cannon, who has twins with Mariah Carey, has also spoken out about the pressure of being a child star. “As a parent, and maybe because I’m a new parent, I am so protective and so sensitive and would never want anyone to judge my child,” he told Parade in 2012.

It’s too stressful for the parents
In her new interview with ELLE, Angelina Jolie, who has six children with Brad Pitt, admitted that having daughter Vivienne play opposite her in “Maleficent” made her question whether she wanted her children to pursue a showbiz career. “Brad and I made the decision that we wouldn’t keep them from sets and the fun of making movies, but we wouldn’t [glorify it either] — we wouldn’t make it a good thing or a bad thing,” she said. “But I would really prefer they do something else. After two days of it, Brad and I were so stressed we never wanted to do it again.”

I love this article done by the Associated Press.

As a new mom, Drew Barrymore felt she might sacrifice her famous free-spirited nature for the safety of her 15-month-old daughter.

“I try to have a sense of humor about how… (much) you need to learn and tackle,” she said, “and how to remain fun-loving and not, like, uptight because there’s so much to care about and to learn about.”

Though becoming a parent is “the greatest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” Barrymore says it’s brought a new level of anxiety.

“I’ve never been so worried in my life about making sure that something I care about more than I’ve ever cared in my life is safe and intact,” she said.

That’s why the 39-year-old — who is expecting her second daughter with husband Will Kopelman any day now — is joining other famous families at Safe Kids Day, an educational playdate that raises funds and awareness of preventable childhood injuries. Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale, Mark Wahlberg, Piers Morgan, Kelsey Grammer and Ciara are among the celebrities expected at the Los Angeles event Saturday. A second Safe Kids Day is set for April 12 in New York.

Preventable injury is the No. 1 killer of children in the United States, said Kate Carr, president and chief executive of Safe Kids Worldwide, a nonprofit that aims to educate parents and caregivers about safe practices for infants and toddlers. The organization’s website offers tips to avoid common crib, car seat and household dangers.

Barrymore has become a student of such information, which she also collects from other moms and her pediatrician.

“I think the best thing to do in life, or certainly what I’ve done in my life, not really having a traditional family (background), is you find the enlightened people,” she said. “If you do your homework and really apply yourself… that’s a way to absolve the fears and get proactive.”

Arming herself with information allows her to be “free and fun-loving as a parent.” The actress, photographer and founder of Flower Films and Flower Beauty has also shifted her work priorities around her family.

“It used to be work first and now it’s life first,” she said. “So even though I’m doing a lot, there’s a lot of things that have slowed down. I don’t make that many movies anymore. I’m not really producing right now. And I’m trying to do jobs where I can work from home or be at home by dinnertime if I do have to go out to meetings. You just sort of change your life.”

Her latest products are also more family-friendly, like her upcoming film with Adam Sandler, “Blended,” and her recent photo book, “Find It in Everything,” which she dedicated to daughter Olive.

Barrymore is excited about Safe Kids Day, though an early arrival by her new baby could interrupt the festivities.

“I still have two weeks, but we’ll see,” she said. “It keeps it interesting!”