Drew Barrymore Reveals Whether She Would Ever Return to Acting Amid Talk Show Hosting

Drew Barrymore‘s talk show, The Drew Barrymore Show, premiered in September, and the host is clearly loving her new role, so much so that she may not return to acting. Speaking to Andy Cohen on SiriusXM’s Andy Cohen Live on Wednesday, Barrymore discussed her career, sharing that her first priority is her children.

“If I’m being honest, the answer is no, I don’t want to be on a film set right now, but that could change when my kids are older,” she said. “I stopped doing these when my kids were born because I’ve [acted] since I was in diapers, at 11 months old is when I started, and it was a no-brainer to me to put making movies on a back burner so that I could be present and raise my kids myself. I didn’t want to be on a film set asking the nanny how the kids were. I was like, ‘That is not my journey.’” The 46-year-old shares daughters Olive and Frankie with ex-husband Will Kopelman.

“When you step away from it, it’s a lot less scary,” she continued, listing the other projects she has been able to work on including the launch of her beauty brand, Flower Beauty, writing her book Wildflower and her Netflix show, Santa Clarita Diet. “I have to say, I was so knee-deep into mothering my kids that I was like, ‘I don’t know who I am anymore,’” she recalled. “I think I went way too far the opposite direction, and if I can’t remember that I’m an individual with a skill set I might die.’” Barrymore added that the series “saved” her.

“I had gained a lot of weight, I had lost my way,” she said. “I was going through a really difficult divorce in that it just was the worst thing and everything I didn’t want to happen and that’s what made it difficult. And I just got to remember, ‘You are a person with a history. You’re not just a lost mother. You are a human individual and you can go and get lost into something and find yourself again.’”

Barrymore added that while she’s currently not planning on filming a movie, her time on Santa Clarita Diet reminded her not to “ditch who you are for your kids.” She also expressed her wish to continue with her talk show, telling Cohen that “second to my children and my best friends being healthy and happy,” keeping the show going is “my greatest wish. I’ve invested so much into this the last two years.”