Catherine Shuttleworth
Sep 16, 2023
What's Trending / VideoElephant
Actress and talk show host Drew Barrymore released a now deleted apology video after it was announced that she planned on continuing The Drew Barrymore Show despite ongoing writer strikes.
Earlier this week Barrymore announced on her Instagram in another now-deleted post,that the show would be retuning. "I am also making the choice to come back for the first time in this strike for our show, that may have my name on it but this is bigger than just me," she wrote.
Her announcement caused a wave of backlash, with WGA spokesman Jason Gordon telling Vanity Fair: "The Drew Barrymore Show is a WGA-covered struck television show. It has stayed off the air since the strike began on May 2, but now has (unfortunately) decided to return without its writers."
In attempts to explain her decision Barrymore uploaded a four-minute video to her Instagram. She started by saying "I believe there's nothing I can do or say in this moment to make it okay," referring to resuming her show during the strike.
"We aren't going to break rules, and we will be in compliance," Barrymore said. "I wanted to do this because as I said, this is bigger than me, there are other people's jobs on the line."
"I've been through so many ups and downs in my life, and this is one of them," an emotional Barrymore says to the camera.
The 48-year-old added, "I deeply apologise to writers, I deeply apologise to unions."
"I wanted to accept responsibility, and no, I don't have a PR machine behind this. My decision to go back to the show - I didn't want to hide behind people, she says about halfway through the video. "I won’t polish this with bells and whistles and publicists and corporate rhetoric. I’ll just stand out there and accept and be responsible.”
The video, however, was not received well.
Many took to calling Barrymore a "scab", a term used to describe someone who works despite a strike, and other stressed not to cross picket lines:
@yashar Whatever! \n\nDon\u2019t Cross Picket Lines!!!— Terrence Daniels (Captain \ud83c\udf40 Planet) (@Terrence Daniels (Captain \ud83c\udf40 Planet)) 1694809960
A writer would have told Drew Barrymore that apologies really only work if you commit to changing the behavior you're apologizing for. \n\nStand with writers and against scabs.— sarah maclean (@sarah maclean) 1694807981
This is so lame. Just say you\u2019re a scab. We don\u2019t need all the throat clearing— Molly Jong-Fast (@Molly Jong-Fast) 1694801237
Others couldn't comprehend why she was carrying on with her plans to resume the show, even after acknowledging all the hurt she's caused.
This is really funny because she's like this is terrible I'm so sorry i feel absolutely awful there are so many people hurt by my decision to scab and i'm going to do it anyway— eve6 (@eve6) 1694812040
This is great. She wants to "own the decision" and "take full responsibility" and says "nothing I can do that will make this ok, I fully accept that" and "my intentions have never been in a place to hurt anyone" before insisting she's going to do the show anyway.— jordan (@jordan) 1694802591
Actor Bradley Whitford, best known for The West Wing, gave a sarcastic response to Barrymore's video saying, "this has been, like, a super tough week for her."
Drew Barrymore would like you to know that undermining union solidarity at the most crucial moment in Hollywood labor history makes her the victim. This has been, like, a super tough week for her.— Bradley Whitford (@Bradley Whitford) 1694810846
Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter
Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
Top 100
The Conversation (0)