Drew Barrymore Made Sure That Her ‘Charlie’s Angels’ Movie Didn’t Fall Into A Specific Trap

Since launching her morning talk show in 2020, Drew Barrymore has emerged as a perhaps unexpectedly unique interviewer. Her mega-sincerity gets guests, particularly fellow former child actors, to really open up. Other times she’s just…interesting. She’s accomplished a lot over her career, including producing the 2000 movie version of Charlie’s Angels — which she did by making sure it didn’t fall into a very specific trap.

In an interview with Insider, Barrymore talks about wanting the film’s main trio to become instant heroes to female viewers. One way she did that was to ensure the female action stars didn’t “act like men or try to pretend they were masculine,” even when they’re kicking butt.

Barrymore says she didn’t want the characters played by herself, Lucy Liu, and Cameron Diaz to “want to all of a sudden become men and or hate men or try to be the man. It’s like, no, we’re the girls, and they are boys. We’re just like there’s something we’ve got to do, and we want to do it together. ”

Women, Barrymore said, don’t “have to take down the other gender or pretend to be like it.”

She also wanted them to be “dating crazy,” on top of saving the world. “While they’re kicking someone’s ass, they’d be like, ‘anyway, last night, hold on’. Like, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. ‘And then he didn’t call me back,” Barrymore said. “And that’s how girls really are in real life.”

Charlie’s Angels is available to rent. The Drew Barrymore Show airs on CBS at 9:30am weekday mornings.