Drew Barrymore hated the idea of her children becoming actors.
The 44-year-old actress has daughters Olive, six, and Frankie, five, with her ex-husband Will Kopelman, and has said that when her tots were born, she was adamant they wouldn’t follow in her footsteps because she believed acting was "some calling from the devil".
She said: "When I first had my kids, I think I was so obsessed with doing everything differently with them, I almost thought that acting was some calling from the devil. I was thinking, ‘My daughters will never be actors! God, no!’ "
But Drew – who started her own acting career young with roles in ‘E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial’ and ‘Firestarter’ – had a change of heart when she realised her family has been in the entertainment business for "multiple generations".
She added: "And then I’m, like, wait, it’s a great family trade. I’m a Barrymore. My family has been doing this for hundreds and hundreds of years, and multiple generations."
The ‘Santa Clarita Diet’ star still wants a "very normal and safe" upbringing for her daughters though, and says she’s already told her eldest daughter that she’d like her to wait until she’s 18 before she decides on her career path.
Speaking during an appearance on the ‘Today’ show, she said: "[What] I really wanted for them was something very normal and traditional and safe. I feel like I’ve accomplished that or I continue to sort of have that be my intention every day.
"Olive knows that I would prefer she wait until she’s 18, and then it’s really her life and her decision. I think there’s a way to give them a normal childhood that’s totally protected, and yet feed their love of how much they love to express themselves. And when they were first born, I just didn’t know how to rationalise it. Now, I do."
Drew Barrymore didn’t want acting daughters
