Drew Barrymore’s new eponymous talk show is only a week-or-so old, but it’s already racked up a handful of emotional moments and interviews that have captured audiences' hearts. (I officially forgive you for coming my job, Drew.)
Most recently, business mogul and heiress Paris Hilton, who has known Barrymore “for many years” came on the CBS show. Hilton has been giving a lot of interviews lately in which she's explained the trauma at the centre of her new documentary, but there was no need to explain here: Barrymore quickly revealed that her friend's experience was one they both shared.
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”I feel like when it comes to an interviewer, maybe they haven't had the same experiences as you," Barrymore told Hilton. "So they're coming at it from more of a journalistic, interested but slightly removed, place. Well, not this time. I've been where you've been. And watching your documentary — I mean, I don't know how many interviews and conversations I'm going to have on this show where I'm watching a mirror image of everything I've been through, as well."
Hilton's new documentary, This Is Paris, is a portrait of the businesswoman and renowned DJ, and most acutely focuses on her confronting a trauma that has affected her since she was a teenager. Her parents had her "kidnapped" and taken to a dozen reform schools when she was growing up, but the emotional and physical abuse she suffered for nearly a year while attending Provo Canyon School in Utah has caused her to have insomnia, "trust issues, and PTSD."
The Santa Clarita Diet actress shared that she, too, was taken to a reform school. "I want to talk to you and have you know that I've had the people come and take me away," Barrymore said. "I've been locked up in solitary confinement, I've been in a place for lengthy periods of time — we're talking a year, a year and a half, plus. I haven't seen a kind of story like this really reflected out there very often that's one I recognise so deeply."
Though the two were able to bond over their shared fear and painful memories of these experiences, Barrymore's point of view was pretty different. Barrymore fell into alcoholism and addiction when she was growing up as a child actress, and said the institution she ended up at "ultimately saved her life" and she "wouldn't change a thing." Hilton, however, said that her strict parents had "overreacted" to her teenage rebellion, which simply involved sneaking out to clubs in New York City.
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"I didn't deserve to go there," Hilton said.
The other difference is that while the two have historically had difficult relationships with their parents, Barrymore still has a tenuous relationship with her mother and Hilton says talking to her mother, Kathy Hilton, about her trauma "brought us even closer than we were."
After talking about the pitfalls of seeking validation through social media, Hilton praised Barrymore for fostering such a cathartic and heartfelt conversation. "This was definitely the most fun and intimate interview so far," said Hilton, smiling. "No one else gets it. My favourite. Congratulations, this was so good."
Barrymore let out a high-pitched squeal of excitement, which also happens to be the same sound as male talk show hosts everywhere being put out of the job. Women supporting women: We love to see it.
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