Drew Barrymore felt she “couldn’t speak” to the ‘MeToo’ movement
In a recent appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show, the titular host and Brooke Shields revealed their thoughts on the MeToo movement. The Blue Lagoon and Pretty Baby star joined Drew Barrymore to discuss her relative silence during the MeToo campaign, which became popular in 2017 amid Harvey Weinstein’s allegations, among others.
“I didn’t feel like I had a dog in that race; I didn’t feel like I could speak to it because I experienced so many things that were so inappropriate at such a young age that I’m so confused about what was I accountable for,” Barrymore explained, asking Shields: “We were children. How did that movement affect you? Did you feel like you could speak to it?”
“No, because I didn’t know where I fell on the spectrum of it,” Shields replied. “I don’t know where to interpret my experiences because I was made to feel culpable, and by the same time, you victim shame yourself, but we were so young, and it was appropriate that we just, I couldn’t feel sorry, I didn’t know what it was, I didn’t know, and so when it was called out to me as such I was like, ‘No, not going there. It did not happen.’”
Barrymore recalled being “so happy it was happening” before admitting her experiences felt too “grey and awkward” to bring up in public debate because she didn’t know they “were wrong at the time”.
“As a mother with daughters, I think that’s what helps with the perspective of it,” Shields reacted. “But the ownership of it, or the ownership of the reality of it, that never was in my, I did not know how to handle any of that, so I just pushed it under the rug.”
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