Drew Barrymore Draws Crowd
at Barnard
for Her Film on Voting
by Dorothy Davis
Youth voting has been a hot issue this campaign
season. Since only 37 percent of 18--24 year
olds voted in 2000, groups to register them have sprung up
around the nation. But most of those we spoke to in the capacity
crowd at Barnard College one recent Sunday evening to preview
Drew Barrymore’s film on the importance of voting said
they came to see Drew Barrymore.
Lucy Danziger, the energetic
Editor-in-Chief of Self Magazine, celebrating its 25th Anniversary
issue and sponsoring the event with MTV and Barnard, told
the crowd, “When
I was in college and someone invited me to go somewhere on
Sunday night it never involved a movie star!” She introduced
Drew, who had been chosen by readers as one of “25 Most
Inspiring Women” and as “box office royalty.”
The star breezed in
to enthusiastic applause and responded to it with a brilliant
smile. She wore a clingy beige dress and was beautiful, poised,
charismatic, and articulate. Everything you’d expect
in a movie star, or in a political candidate.
Despite her connection
to Self Magazine, Barrymore was sometimes refreshingly self-effacing. “I didn’t
go to college,” she admitted, “so it is very exciting
to be presented at a college!” (In her film she revealed
she’d never graduated from high school.) “I was
the person at the dinner table,” she continued, “who
went introverted when politics was discussed.”
“I got invited to a rally to speak about
encouraging young people to vote. I fell on my face. I felt
so irresponsible going out in front of people to speak about
something I didn’t know about.”
Her gutsy response to that humiliation was to
spend a year traveling around the country with a video camera
and a film crew, all of them working for free, trying to learn
about politics firsthand.
The result, “The Best Place to Start: on
the Importance of Voting,” a 45-minute film culled from 80 hours of footage,
is funny, intelligent, moving and ultimately profound.
In it, Barrymore talks to high school kids cutting
classes; to Wesley Clark, who gives her a kiss-off interview
on his campaign bus during the Democratic primaries. She gets
candid and often hilarious comments from such political personalities
as Hillary Clinton, Henry Waxman, James Carville, Bill Maher,
Jon Stewart, Ralph Reed, Michael Moore and others. She visits
the site of the bloody Selma Alabama Freedom March.
The film, which will
be shown on MTV, doesn’t
take sides and steers clear of divisive issues. The election
it focuses on is for student body president. As a result it
will be relevant for a long time. Barrymore is working on making it available
to schools. Let’s hope she succeeds, because this entertaining,
educational film is a must-see for all young people. (Older
ones will enjoy it too.) The Barnard audience gave it a rousing
response and peppered Drew with questions. She answered them
with intelligence, humor and passion.
Judith Shapiro, Barnard’s President, said
in her welcoming remarks that the college “has an interest
in seeing that women participate as voters, as candidates,
and one day as President of the United States. We have already
had a movie called ‘The American President’ starring
Michael Douglas. Isn’t it time to have a movie called ‘The
American President’ starring Drew Barrymore?”
Drew Barrymore gave a solid performance at Barnard.
In time, instead of being the star of such a movie, she may
be the real life candidate.#
For
further information about Self Magazine and to access its
online voter registration go to www.self.com; for MTV’s
Choose or Lose Campaign and its online registration go to
www.mtv.com; for Barnard College and further information
about the Barrymore event, Barnard’s Civic Engagement
Program, and to register to vote go to www.barnard.edu.
