In a new documentary, Demi Lovato, Drew Barrymore and other former child stars reflect on how growing up in the spotlight impacted them. In the documentary, Child Star, which Demi codirected with Nicola Marsh, Demi explained that she “wouldn’t end up where I am had I not made all the choices leading up to this point, but it came at a price.” One of the negative aspects of child stardom that Demi and Drew both struggled with was being exposed to drugs and alcohol at a very young age. Both Demi and Drew have been open about their struggles with addiction, but the age at which they were exposed to “substances” seems shocking in retrospect.
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Drew recalled using drugs when she was 10 years old.
In the documentary, Demi, 32, asked Drew, 49, how old she was when she was “first given something.”
“It’s hard to say that you don’t blame other people when other people may have been giving you substances as a kid,” Demi said. “How old were you when you were first given something?”
Drew remembered getting drugs from her mom’s friend, who was someone that she looked up to. “I used to get high with my mom’s friend at like 10. And I thought she was so cool, and she would give weed to me and her son,” she said.
In addition to being exposed to drugs and alcohol at a young age, Demi felt pressured to be a role model.
As a former Disney star, Demi knew that she was expected to be a positive role model for other kids, and that put a lot of pressure on her, she explained in the documentary. “I had to be so conscious of everything that I did as a Disney kid. You obviously couldn’t cuss or swear in public. You couldn’t be seen with red Solo cups because it could insinuate that there is alcohol,” she said.
She also wasn’t aware of the negative impact stardom would have on her mental health until it became a problem. “I didn’t realize that [fame] would have such a negative impact on my mental health. And unfortunately sometimes that looks explosive. Like an incident where you punch your backup dancer on an airplane or you overdose from heroin.”
In 2018, Demi nearly died because of a drug overdose. She reportedly had several strokes and a heart attack, and the overdose caused lasting damage, such as hearing loss and blurry vision.
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Demi said 'it's hard to say that you don't blame other people when other people may have been giving you substances as a kid.'
When it comes to struggling with addiction, Demi shared that she thinks it’s hard to not blame other people on some level because of how young she and Drew were when they were first exposed to drugs and alcohol. “It’s hard to not blame someone else when you’re ten years old,” Demi said to Drew in the documentary.
In spite of being a 10-year-old child at the time, Drew said she takes responsibility for her actions. “Those were all my actions, those were my reactions. That was my coping mechanism. I’m very accountable, I don’t blame other people,” she said.
Drew admitted that it seems 'unfathomable' now that she has kids.
Drew Barrymore has previously been open about going to rehab for drug and alcohol addiction when she was just 13 years old. When she was 7 years old, she worked on E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which was directed by Steven Spielberg. In a previous interview with Vulture, he recalled worrying about Drew because she showed up on set wearing red lipstick. “She was staying up way past her bedtime, going to places she should have only been hearing about, and living a life at a very tender age that I think robbed her of her childhood,” Steven told the news outlet.
Before she was 13, Drew tried different types of alcohol, did cocaine and went to parties with her mom. In retrospect, it’s hard for Drew to believe because she now has a 10-year-old daughter.
“Having a 10-year-old daughter now, I just, it’s unfathomable. But that’s just how I grew up,” Drew said in the documentary.
The documentary features interviews with other child stars.
Child Star premiered on Hulu on Tuesday, September 17. It features interviews with other former child stars, including Kenan Thompson, Alyson Stoner, Jojo Siwa, and Raven-Symoné. Demi and Drew are not the only actors who remembered using drugs and/or drinking alcohol at a young age. When speaking to Alyson Stoner, Demi said, “Finding drugs was easy. That was the only way I knew how to escape.”
