Opening up to people can be tough – especially if that person isn’t Drew Barrymore intimately and tenderly interviewing you on The Drew Barrymore Show. Here’s how you can be vulnerable with the people in your life, even though no one in your circle looks at you with half the amount of love in their eyes as Drew does when she looks at every single guest on her show:
Sit super close to them.
If you’re not going to be talking to Drew, try your best to emulate the “Drew” experience by sitting as close as humanly possible to the person you’re talking to. They’ll be uncomfortable, but you’ll be so close to their face that it will be hard to clearly make out their features and you can pretend it’s Drew’s face. If all goes well, you’ll be able to speak candidly with your mom for the first time in your life.
Ask if they would mind taking off their shoes and curling their feet underneath them in a manner that is simultaneously too-intimate and kind of welcoming.
This isn’t weird! Drew does it and it’s nice. How are you going to get into the weeds about your inability to love if the person you’re talking to doesn’t look like they’re about to curl up and go to sleep? You’ll probably be talking to this person inside your home, not a television studio, so this shouldn’t be that big of an ask. If you’re at a coffee shop or some other public space, well, then this will be a great opportunity to see how much your boyfriend really cares about getting to know you.
See if they could work a little harder to channel the enthusiastic energy of a charismatic talk show host.
Your friend is making eye contact with you, nodding, and generally engaging with what you’re saying? Not enough! They need to be throwing themselves back on the couch in surprise, gripping your hands in a borderline romantic display of solidarity, and relating to all of your stories by telling you one of their own from when they were a well-known child star. If they don’t dance when they enter the room, how are you ever going to feel safe enough to tell them that you haven’t yet come to terms with your own mortality?
Remember: it’s okay to open up to the people in your life, even though they’re not Drew Barrymore interviewing you for network television. Your boyfriend may not have a talk show, or Drew’s “tell me your trauma” eyes, but he’s still a good person to talk to about your career anxiety. Plus, if all else fails, you can always look up Drew’s producer on IMDB and beg them to let you be on the show!
