“I’m a Cali-girl through and through, but it was just nice to not be in the busy rush of Los Angeles,” Barrymore says of her stint in Anchorage, where she shunned Internet and e-mail in favor of letter-writing and reading. Shooting for the film (opening Friday) took place in the fall of 2010, and it could not have come at a better time for the now 36-year-old actress who has been a mainstay in pop culture for three decades.

“There’s a book called Slowing Down to the Speed of Life, and there’s something about that title that totally rang true about this experience,” Barrymore says. “It’s hard to check out of your life for three solid months. It’s even harder when you get older. But I really did dive in.”

Perhaps “dive out” would be a better term. In Big Miracle, a fictionalized retelling of the 1988 effort to rescue three gray whales trapped by ice near the Arctic Circle, Barrymore plays a Greenpeace activist. It is her first big-screen acting project in two years and probably will be her last for a while: No other firm projects are lined up.

That’s all just fine, she says. Barrymore is in no rush to find a new venture and is more content to focus on her personal life, which includes her fiancé, 34-year-old art consultant Will Kopelman.

“I’ve done all of this for 35 years,” Barrymore says of her career. “I think maybe it’s OK to put the life first for a minute. I don’t really know this feeling. It’s new and exciting.”

After all, Barrymore began her entertainment career at age 11 months when she appeared in a dog food commercial. Since finding child stardom after 1982′s E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, she had a famously turbulent adolescence that eventually made way for an adult career that saw her move to rom-com queen (The Wedding Singer, 50 First Dates). She also is a successful producer, director and, lately, professional photographer.

While chatting at her Flower Films office, Barrymore buzzes from just viewing a photo spread she shot for the fashion glossy V featuring some her favorite rock bands in a house party theme. A few minutes earlier, the entire office had erupted in cheers after seeing the pictures in the magazine’s current music issue.

“We just opened the magazine,” she says. “You kind of don’t believe it’s going to happen until you see it and then it’s real.”

About that engagement

Even more real is the effect of two new pieces of jewelry on what she calls her “everyday outfit” of blue jeans, worn boots and casual gray sweatshirt. The first is a two-heart pendant around her neck held together by a gold safety pin, a gift from Kopelman.

“These are these wonderful hearts my man has given me, but the chain broke so I put it on the safety pin,” she explains.

The second is the 4-carat, radiant-cut diamond engagement ring Kopelman presented to her when he proposed in December, after the two had been dating for nearly a year.

“I am trying to get used to it,” Barrymore says, beaming. (She had been linked romantically before to stars such as Justin Long and Luke Wilson and was married twice, most recently to actor Tom Green, from whom she was divorced in 2002.)

When she took on Miracle in 2010, she had yet to meet Kopelman, and the biggest adjustment she was making was to a different kind of ice. Instead of shooting the film on a soundstage, director Ken Kwapis informed his star that the production would be filmed entirely in Alaska.

Kwapis reconstructed the ice fields in Anchorage and filmed there, rather than in Barrow, which is much closer to the Arctic Circle. But the surroundings still packed a weather punch as winter came on toward the end of the shoot in November and December.

“It was really cold, and that’s an important thing to make the scenes look right,” Kwapis says. “One of the more complicated things to create is visual breath. That was not a problem in Alaska. But Drew jumped right in.”

Despite the conditions, Barrymore was pleased to work with three animatronic whales, created by the same New Zealand special-effects company that worked on 2002′s Whale Rider.

“I didn’t want to be playing acting,” she says. “I needed a whale.” Even if the whales were robotic, they helped her cope with the famously shortened days that came on as winter hit.

“That was the harder part for me — the lack of daylight,” Barrymore says. “I’m a sunshine junkie. It was different, I’ll put it that way.”

Even packing was a chore for the Southern California born-and-bred Barrymore, who recalls that she toted a Fisher-Price light-up globe, Sorel boots and Uggs to Anchorage. “I didn’t have anything (else) to offer. I lived at the (outdoor store) REI once I got there. That was definitely helpful.”

Barrymore found a kindred spirit in real-life Greenpeace activist Cindy Lowry, who was the basis of Barrymore’s character. Lowry also had been unprepared when she first went to Alaska to aid the whale rescue. Says Barrymore: “I feel like that we had that in common.”

The two spent time together, before and during the shoot, and other shared traits surfaced.

“Ken (Kwapis) told me that my character fights for the right things but sometimes goes the wrong away about it,” Barrymore says. “And that is a lot like me.”

Back to 1988

Lowry says watching Barrymore shoot a scene in which she pulls a bullhorn out at a meeting about oil drilling rights, which actually happened, made her see the similarities.

“I was just smiling and thinking ‘That is so me,’ ” Lowry says. “She just totally got me.”

Barrymore’s self-imposed Internet and e-mail ban meant she couldn’t conduct business for her busy production company, which produced the highly successful Charlie’s Angels films and the less-successful rebooted TV version on ABC in 2011.

“I shut down,” she says. “I said, ‘The work can wait.’ I did it right up to the moment I left and said I would get back to it when I got back.”

That disconnect helped her keep the feel of 1988 as she conducted letter-writing campaigns with friends using a period-appropriate IBM Selectric typewriter. (“Every week there were letters back, too,” she says. “I loved it.”) She immersed herself in books, including Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America, and indulged in a simple life.

“I went to work, did my hot yoga, and then I read. It was all very Zen.”

Still, there were lighter moments. Actors Ted Danson, Kristen Bell and John Krasinski, who plays Barrymore’s TV reporter ex-boyfriend, had an entire floor of Anchorage’s Captain Cook Hotel to themselves. Krasinki’s red fox Labrador, Finn, and Barrymore’s mutt, Douglas, were able to roam about at will.

At times, Krasinski and his visiting wife, actress Emily Blunt, would pull Barrymore out to a local restaurant away from her books. “It was like, ‘Come on, you’re going out to dinner with us,’ ” Barrymore says. The big dinners had an added benefit of keeping the body nourished in the Alaskan cold.

“You really do need more calories to exist in Alaska,” Lowry says. “People who live there get used to the dry cold. But folks visiting need to acclimate.”

Barrymore might have taken the advice too seriously with a pad thai dish at a local Thai place.

“I definitely did put on a layer of 5 to 8 pounds of protective blubber. You just couldn’t tell under all of those clothes,” she says. “When I got home to Los Angeles, I was like, ‘Wow, Alaska. I really brought it home with me.’ ”

Despite returning to the bustle of the filmmaking capital, Barrymore maintains the low-key attitude about her life. With the future wide open, she’s at peace with not having every step of the way planned — even her usually packed professional calendar. The balance of emphasis has shifted to her personal life.

“It’s all sort of in reverse now,” she says with a laugh. “Now I am dating a few work things. But I just haven’t committed.”

Though she has found “the one” personally, she is willing to wait for her next professional soul mate.

“I really love being in love. I am that girl who will sit outside your house in a car at night. And I mean that in a sort of good-committed way, not a psycho-irritant,” she laughs. “When I’m in love, I really commit myself to things, whether it’s work or a person.

“So when I find that new work love, I’ll stalk it.”

USAToday.com

Drew beamed.

Are wedding plans moving forward?

“We’re trying to figure it out,” the actress said. “I think everyone expects you to kind of know right away what the plans are. I’m like, oh goodness, it just happened a month ago! Do I not have it together or is it OK to keep daydreaming?”

Roberts told her it was fine to keep daydreaming: “To see how happy you are makes us so happy for you.”

Replied Drew, “I root for his happiness and people’s happiness and this is a really positive story and positive time and I like positivity, I’m drawn to it!”

USAToday.com

I was recently invited to participate in a roundtable interview with the two stars of Big Miracle in which they spilled their guts about filming their new movie. Check out the interview below in which they discuss the film’s messages as well as what it was like working with Ken Kwapis on such a different project, the true story that the movie is based on, and what they enjoyed about working together.

Were you guys aware of the story the film is based on before the script came together? Was it news to you or do you remember hearing it?

John Krasinski: I remember hearing about it. I remember definitely knowing something about it, probably was too young to be at all involved in it and wasn’t necessarily the most current events guy at age whatever-I-was…nine, I guess? Ten? But no, I mean, when you read the script I remember I read the script and I thought it was really great, I thought it was really sweet. My concern was that it was like, I said to Ken [Kwapis], “Yeah, it’s really good, but we have to cut back a little bit of this stuff. Some of this stuff is a little unbelievable.” And he’s like, “Nah, it’s all true.” And I was like, “Alright, Ken. I don’t know how long you’ve been in Hollywood, but none of this is real.” And he was like, “No, these people got married and…

What part seemed the most unbelievable to you?

JK: I think that the press secretary and the national guard pilot falling in love and getting married after being so adversarial on the phone is insane. That is insane! And then when you see the picture at the end of the movie it’s so moving. I think it’s just a great, great movie, especially at this point in time to believe in the power of unity and getting together for a cause or really for anything, especially with social media. I think this is the time where not only can you have a voice, but your voice can be the catalyst for something massive.

Ted Danson was talking about while you were shooting Shell was trying to drill, did you get at all involved with that?

JK: Yeah, I remember that night when he went. He was nervous. He said, “Those guys are real.”

Drew Barrymore: I think it was great for him because he was playing J.W. who is this oil man, but no, that was really his cause.

The way he explained it was that night it almost seemed like your character, Drew, in the beginning of the movie. There’s like a correlation between the two.

DB: Yeah, I definitely think these are the kind of… I just think that sort of seeing this story and living in it, you just appreciate that everybody kind of put their agendas aside for a second to work on the same thing and sort of peeling away the layers of maybe…I liked when I got to say to his character in the film, “You’re not as hard to hate as I thought.” I always just liked that moment and thought what it would actually be like if you were stuck and got to know the people that you thought you were so different from or really had fundamentally different morals and beliefs. And yeah, I think galvanizing and trying to fight for something that you believe in is always inspiring. So I’m glad it inspired him. He’s the best.

Did you work with or speak with people at Greenpeace at all?

DB: I did! I met with the head of Greenpeace and spent some time with him. They’re actually coming in DC for the screening. And I went and studied whales up in Seattle with Paul Watson, who did Whale Wars. And then I spent a lot of time with Cindy Lowry, who is the woman that I play in the film. And she’s just rad and a total badass and super cool and we really actually connected, which is the way you hope it will be, but maybe it will, maybe it won’t. But we were like two peas in a pod, it was great.

Both of you have had previous experience working with Ken Kwapis, but this movie is obviously very different from anything you’ve done previously. From your perspective, how did his approach change for this project?

JK: He was, in a good way, very stressed, and I say in a good way because I think he understood the difference in the level he was trying to achieve in this movie versus the movie that I did with him and the movie you [Drew] did with him and certainly The Office. That’s a little more low-rent than this movie. So I think he wanted to make it really, really fantastic and I think he knew immediately that the visual spectacle would be an essential part of the movie and, I think, he’s very aware that he, at this point, wasn’t known as the visual spectacle guy and he knew he could do it and he wanted to do it right. And I remember his shot selection and his preparation and going over the script he was so dedicated and it was amazing to see him do it because the movie I had done and especially on The Office, he’s so performance-based, and he still was on this movie, but to see him be able to be performance-based and do these incredible crane shots, I was just so incredibly proud of him.

The two of you share a great scene when you, John, are recording her in the studio, and you’re like, “Stop being so formal and rigid.” Can you talk about filming that scene and finding that space and speaking to the people…

DB: I think it’s also making it very personal rather than just soapbox-y, which I think this film is, I hope it achieves or is as good at in that way. It’s amazing how it touches on so many things that could be different today if they were different back then, but it doesn’t do it in a preachy, in your face kind of way. So I think the more you do speak from the heart, rather than thumping the agenda, I just think that’s what people listen or relate or open themselves up to more. That’s one of the things I really loved about that scene.

JK: Yeah, and I think that you did such a great job in that scene too, because I think that agenda-based movements in any sort of way, though incredibly powerful and worthy, I think that sometimes you get lost in the white noise of people’s anger and being super adamant on one side or the other and what fails to happen is that you actually aren’t disseminating the information that you want to get across to these people, which is whether it be any sort of major issue, what you fail to do is tell them the basics and the details of how long these whales need to live and how this is scary and all that very human, emotional stuff that will connect with people rather than having them at home feeling like, “Oh, this is too big an issue, I can’t get involved, I don’t know how to get involved, there’s no way to get involved, someone else will take care of this…” And when you bring it to a small level and sort of make it easy to access, which you did, I think it’s the most powerful part of the movie.

Everybody still does have a lot of agendas going on throughout the movie, but you’re the kind of person that’s allowed to be…

JK: I get stepped on early on in the movie [laughs]. No, no I totally agree as far as the media thing. His whole thing is that he wanted the glamour of being in the national news spotlight and as soon as people came they sort of pushed him aside so he had to become, really, an assistant to get his voice back with these people. I also love the idea that, I’ve always loved those movies where somebody thinks they want something and then they realize that the thing they really want is right in front of them, and that glamorous life of what it is to be a news man or be in the lower 48 or in New York or whatever it is, I love that he discovers the real truth of life, which is as long as you’re doing what you love and you’re around people that you love you’re doing something right. So I think that was sort of the undertone of my character was kind of keeping that thing in check versus all of the other people who had a specific political agenda.

Did you bond with the young actor as well?

JK: He’s so good though, isn’t he? He’s so good. Mal is definitely one of the coolest kids. If they ever did like an MTV or something on him they would be like, “Oh my god, this is like the coolest kid ever.” He’s like this handsome, cool, fun, really funny kid. He brought a couple of his friends from school and they were blown away, more blown away that he got to miss school for this [laughs]. But it was really, really fun and he’s so good and it’s one of those things that it’s frustrating to see how natural it was to him. He wasn’t sitting in his trailer really figuring out the scene. He was like, “Yeah, I get it,” and he just understood the whole thing, it was really amazing.

Did the Walkman freak him out?

JK: “What’s that, grandpa?” [laughs] It was pretty wild, that whole thing with batteries, and he played that so well! Especially a kid who I think had a Wii and an Xbox and all that stuff. And he was like, “Wow, a Walkman!” And I was like, “That’s pretty good acting, because these things are ancient.”

Did you have to explain the bands to him or did he know Guns ‘N Roses and all of them?

JK: He did know Guns ‘N Roses and he really liked Guns ‘N Roses. I think when we got into Def Leopard and stuff he was like, “All right there.” But he was really fantastic and a great energy to have on set. He was always really excited to be there and, you know, those scenes where I am alone with him are really amazing. I feel like one of the great relationships in the movie is mine and his relationship only because it bonds the Iñupiat tribe with the outside world and to be the only guy that understands that grandfather when even he is like, “My grandfather doesn’t understand anything that’s going on.” It was just really nice to be the character that sort of pulled everybody together and sort of really fun because I got to work with everybody, which was fun. I got to be in a scene with everybody.

What did each of you appreciate about working with the other?

JK: I really appreciated – and she’s going to say “No” and blush and all that – but I really appreciated how professional she was. I don’t think anybody really fully understands what it’s like to be at the level that she’s at and the amount of responsibility that it is, and I think that I’m one of the people that feels very, very lucky to be there, but I’ve only been doing it for a certain amount of time, she’s been doing it for longer and achieving so much more than any of us could even hope to do and to stay so incredibly positive and so incredibly normal…you’d be surprised how much the sway of the day really wants to go to the negative, whether it’s too cold or lunch wasn’t good or whatever it is, there’s always a reason to be grumpy, and the entire crew will go with whatever the vibe is. And they all look to one person and usually it’s the biggest head-honcho on set and that was usually her and she was always so positive and it set the tone for the whole rest of the shoot. [Drew starts to blush] There she goes!

DB: Thank you, thank you. I was so excited because Ken told me that maybe this could happen, there was a schedule conflict with The Office, which was a little bit terrifying, it may or may not happen. He called me in the San Francisco airport and I started running up and down the halls I was so happy and so excited, because I really…

JK: She was like, “Steve Carell’s going to be in our movie!?” [laughs]

DB: I do love him, but I was so excited about you! I was! And I was like, “Oh good, I just think that Adam and Rachel, I just hoped that they would be just these certain kinds of people while he was struggling with where he wanted to his life to and she was doing the things that she wanted to do, I just wanted them to be good people and exude a good energy. And so I was so excited about doing this with John because I love his acting and I just think that he’s a good person, and you believe in that. And it’s true. So I was like, “Oh please, this is ideal.” This is how this film would be, that this story could get told.

JK: I just have to get over that kicking puppies habit and I’d be…

DB: Oh no! [laughs] We both had our dogs up there too, and our dogs love each other, it’s so cute.

John, can you talk about the project that you were working on with Matt Damon and now Gus Van Sant is going to direct it.

JK: Absolutely, as far as my brain has been able to process it. It’s a pretty incredibly exciting thing. Yeah, I had this idea for a script and I worked on it with David Eggers, who came up with me on the story and actually came up with a first draft of a script with me, and I brought it to Matt who wanted to direct immediately. The script sort of fell apart because of an issue that was happening at the time, which wasn’t sort of going to be a strong enough issue later on. So we had to sort of rewrite the script and he’s been an incredible friend and collaborator on the whole thing, and then, just before Christmas, he realized that it’s very similar to doing three or four movies over five years and then having them all come out in the same year. Everyone believes that you shot them all last year, and it’s the same thing with booking movies. I would assume that I’ve never been that in demand, but with Matt Damon it’s like there’s a lot of things that he had agreed to all of a sudden everybody was calling him and saying, “The only time we can do it is here and the only time we can do this…” and all of a sudden he looked at his schedule and there was just no way to do everything. And he’s a very, very talented guy and incredibly smart guy, and he didn’t want his first opportunity to direct, he takes it very seriously, and he didn’t want to be hindered in any way, shape or form

And so it really was purely scheduling. He’s doing Liberace in June so he would have had to shot our movie, go shoot another movie, and then go back and edit, and that’s just not the way you want to do your first movie. And so I was incredibly bummed, to say the least. It was a very hard night, he called me around 7:30 and I remember at 1:30 the next day he called again and said, “So, Gus Van Sant’s doing our movie?” And I flipped out. I think that Gus is one of the most talented directors there is or ever has been. He’s an incredible storyteller and for our movie in particular he’s going to be unbelievable. So I’m thrilled. I’m really, really thrilled and to be able to, you know, it’s my first script – my first original script, I adapted a screenplay, which is very, very different because that was all David Foster Wallace – but this is the first script, so to have this experience, I should just call it quits after this.

So how soon will that go?

JK: It’s going to go in April.

DB: I’m so happy for you! It’s exciting.

Drew, can you talk about not getting jaded with this whole Hollywood system?

JK: Yeah, how do you not do that? I’m already jaded [laughs].

DB: I mean, it’s just a choice, I suppose. I don’t know. I think that if you feel lucky all the time and you don’t take things for granted – and I’ve also experienced in life that it really can all go away, so that was a really wonderful thing to experience, because then you really do appreciate what you have and so I’ve experienced a bit of both, which is really such a blessing and it always confirms to you that you really are lucky to have what you have and you have to work to keep it going, but you really need to appreciate it as much as work for it. The two work hand in hand. So I feel really lucky, I genuinely do. It’s no B.S.

John, would you be interested in directing again?

JK: Yeah, at some point. I had the best time, but I was also surrounded by the most amazing people. John Bailey, who actually shot this movie, shot my movie. He did a couple tiny movies like Ordinary People and he won the Oscar for As Good As It Gets. So when you have a great team around you to make you look really, really good, if I could ever assemble that group of people and harness that sort of courage that would be fantastic, but it’s a little like walking down a street with landmines and then before the end of it people are like, “You know there are landmines all down that,” and you’re like “What?!” And now that I’ve seen it I’ll be looking out for them and that’s a lot more difficult than just blindly running down the street thinking that it’s really, really…not easy in any way, but it was really, really fun. I had a blast directing…

You might have scared off Damon.

JK: Yeah, exactly. I told him it was the worst decision of his career. Ha, no. But I want this one [points to Drew] to direct really soon. Whip It was amazing.

DB: Thank you!

JK: I hope she does it again soon.

CinemaBlend.com

“Drew came to our film festival last year in LA to co-host a movie that [her great-uncle] Lionel Barrymore was in,” Tabesh says. “She was fantastic, knew her stuff so well. Not only her family’s films but classic movies as well. She and Robert had a great conversation. And she said she would love to co-host The Essentials”.

Barrymore and Osborne will cover a wide range of films, both classic and contemporary. “Dinner at Eight” from 1933 features her grandfather, John, and great uncle, Lionel. Romance figures prominently in “Alice Adams” (1935), starring Katharine Hepburn and Fred MacMurray, “Wuthering Heights” the original 1939 adaptation of the Emily Brontë novel starring Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon, and “To Have and Have Not” (1944), which features the first-time pairing of Bogie and Bacall. They’ll also get around to Carol Reed’s mystery “The Third Man” (1949), and Charles Vidor’s film noir “Gilda” (1946) with sex bomb Rita Hayworth.

It will be interesting to hear what Barrymore has to say about Martin Scorsese’s rare feminist drama, “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” which was made in 1974, the year before she was born and won Ellen Burstyn a Best Actress Oscar in a role turned down by Shirley MacLaine. A more humdrum choice is “Kramer vs. Kramer” (1979), the somewhat dated Robert Benton divorce drama that won Oscars for Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep. The odd couple will even dissect Rob Reiner’s hilarious Rob Reiner glam-rock mockumentary “This is Spinal Tap” (1984).

NYPost.com

Wednesday, February 1st: THE ELLEN DEGENERES SHOW, syndicated
Thursday, February 2nd: THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO, NBC

“He’s a wonderful man,” Drew said of her fiancé, Will Kopelman, as Shaun admired her ring.

“He bought her a flashlight to put on it,” Drew’s “Big Miracle” co-star John Krasinski — who plays a news reporter in the film — chimed in, referencing the sparkling qualities of Drew’s diamond. “It’s very sweet. Practical.”

Drew got engaged over the holidays while she and Will were in Sun Valley, Idaho.

“He is a very romantic and creative person,” Drew told Shaun of Will. “He’s wonderful.”

Drew said she loves the stability of her relationship with Will, something she opened up about in the February issue of InStyle magazine.

“It’s funny, when I was younger, I used to say I’d hate a flat line—that I want the ups and downs, the rollercoaster. But I’m actually really enjoying the flat line,” she told the mag.

When asked about her quote, Drew expanded on her original thoughts, telling Shaun that she loves how her life has turned out.

“I think that you want so much sort of craziness and excitement when you’re younger and then it’s actually just being with friends and family and having that quiet weekend together that is just the most ideal way to spend your time,” she said.

“Totally,” John chimed in with a smile. “And he called and asked my permission first (laughs)… He’s really sweet.”

Also sweet is Drew and John’s film, which allowed the actress to play a whale advocate who tangles with multiple governments on an emotional journey to save three whales.

“I like going to work and having to cry. I like having to go to work and be strong or feisty, and I got to do so many things as this amazing woman” Drew said of her character, Rachel. “I got to fight for something I completely love and believe in.”

And the story, in general, motivated the actress as well.

“I just loved the story. I like family oriented movies, I like if there’s something for children, but I like if there’s something for adults too, and this is environmental, and it’s political, and it’s heartfelt, and it’s emotional, “ she said. “It’s uplifting. I don’t have a sad umbrella over my head. I want to see things that are inspiring.”

“Big Miracle” hits theaters on February 3.

AccessHollywood.com