By Kate Rodger
After a long career in front of the camera, actress Drew Barrymore has given the director's chair a try, and the result is roller derby chick-flick Whip It.
Juno star Ellen Page is in the lead role, with Kiwi stuntwoman turned actress Zoe Bell also on her team.
For a girl who never finished high school, Barrymore has done okay. After a Bafta nomination before she was 10 for Spielberg classic E.T. and a Hollywood career actors twice her age would be proud of, she is now trying something new: directing.
Whip It is the story of a young Texan misfit who stumbles on a team of crazed roller derby skaters and finds her own inner skatergirl..
She says she knows what it takes to be a good director after spending so many years in front of the camera.
"Keep drama away from the actors and allow them to do their job, don't be a tyrant director on set. Also be very prepared," says Barrymore.
Barrymore cast Oscar-nominee Page in the lead role of Babe Ruthless, and also takes a backseat role onscreen as Smashley Simpson.
Kiwi Bell also has a starring role.
"I love Zoe so much," says Barrymore. I really like her attitude and spirit, her athletic capability, in casting the team I wanted to believe they were all on a roller derby team."
Was there much call for doctors on set – were there many bruises and breaks?
"God yeah," says Barrymore. "We had first aid guys, ambulances waiting, icepacks, lots of arnica."
Barrymore's needed more than a few icepacks in her time, offscreen as well as on. Her role in E.T. propelled her into child stardom and into the tabloids with wild tales of drug-taking and rehab, and with a love life packed with rock star romances, multiple engagements and a couple of marriages.
Her movie career not only survived but flourished – a string of romcoms and hits like Charlies' Angels gave her considerable box office cachet, and some cult cool came her way for her outing in Donnie Darko.
Now 34, the actress can call herself an actress, producer and now of course director, a title she certainly likes the sound of.
"Waiting for the next job to come my way," she says.
And there's plenty coming her way, and ours. Whip It skates into Kiwi cinemas this week.
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