Drew Barrymore has one hard and fast rule for ending a relationship: It has to be done in person. No phone calls, no e-mails, no texting — and certainly no changing your relationship status on Facebook. “The older you get, the less OK it gets to do it over any technological device,” she says. “The in-person is a must. Fly, do whatever you can.”
But that aversion to technology doesn’t just go for breakups. Barrymore, who turns 34 later this month, is proud to call herself something of a luddite. “I still have a wall phone, and I love tape and shoot on film,” she says. And Mary, her character in “He’s Just Not That Into You,” is very much the same way, dismayed by technology, trying in vain to make dating work in the age of Myspace and Facebook. “No guys call anymore,” Barrymore laments. “It’s just texts.”
Growing up very much in the public eye, Barrymore’s love life has long been on display — she even co-stars in the film with ex-boyfriend Justin Long. One of the things that drew her to the film was its frank discussion of the perils of modern courtship. “At a certain point, you’re just not willing to accept less than what your heart desires, what you deserve,” she says. “You run into that wall so many times and you hit your head so many fricking times that it’s just there on the floor and bloody, and you’re like, I get it.”
The message of the film — inspired by the book of the same name, which was inspired by a single line of dialogue in an episode of “Sex and the City” — speaks to that growing awareness, Barrymore says. “I think there’s something so great about your friends not coddling you, but being honest,” she says. “You think that you’re helping your friend by being nice, but really the truth will get them so much further in life.”
“It’s real life,” she says of the film. “These not fantastical storylines where someone misses someone in an airport, or someone’s a prince, or someone’s your boss. This is what we’re all really dealing with.”
Barrymore also served as a producer for “He’s Just Not That Into You,” and she’s produced several other films already. Adding an extra hyphen to her job description, she recently made the jump to directing with her debut, “Whip It!” about a girls’ roller derby league in Texas, starring Ellen Page and due out later this year. Acting-wise, she’s due next in “Grey Gardens,” opposite Jessica Lange.
And as for potential boyfriends? “Men build bridges if they want to get from here to there,” she says with a laugh. “They can find your phone number if they want to.” Let’s just hope they don’t decide to send her a text message.
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