Actress and talk show host Drew Barrymore recently opened up about the viral interview she did with Vice President Kamala Harris earlier this year, calling it the “scariest conversation I’ve done.”
Barrymore made the comments during a Paley Center for Media event on Monday, telling the audience how, ahead of the April interview with Harris in which she called her “Momala,” she was so worried about messing up the interview and making Harris look bad.
“All I kept thinking was, if you do one thing to screw up this woman’s path — and you are the clown to do it — and if you do one thing that makes her look bad, or becomes a gap…” she recounted, before describing doing interviews as “such an art.”
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Drew Barrymore said she was so scared of making Vice President Kamala Harris look bad ahead of their interview last April. (Drew Barrymore Show screenshot)
Barrymore’s interview with Harris on The Drew Barrymore Show last Spring went viral on social media after the actress implored the vice president to be the “Momala of the country.”
During the sit-down, she faced Harris directly and said, “I keep thinking in my head that we all need a mom. I’ve been thinking that we really all need a tremendous hug in the world right now. But in our country, we need you to be Momala of the country.”
Prominent accounts on X expressed discomfort at seeing clips of Barrymore’s emotional plea to Harris, with many calling it “cringe.”
Barrymore told the Paley Center attendees that she had feared the interview above all others she had ever done prior to doing it.
“How do you get so personal? I’ve never… that’s the scariest conversation I’ve done on the entire show’s history,” the actress said, detailing that she agonized over how she would handle the conversation.
Barrymore’s interview with Harris last April went viral after the actress urged the vice president to be the “Momala” of the country. (Getty Images)
“I was like, if I tarnish this woman… I wanted to see her be fun and disarmed, but I was like, what if I do one thing that’s goofy and she plays along, and I’ve led her down a bad path?” she added.
However, Barrymore told the crowd that she believed the interview went well, saying, “And it was an electric connection. It was one of the most ignited, exciting experiences of my life, and it was about something that she lives every day, which is how to not get it wrong.”
Her interview with the vice president wasn’t the first one for which she’s been criticized as cringeworthy. Barrymore went viral in March 2023 for her emotional interview with trans woman Dylan Mulvaney during which she got on her knees to show solidarity for the activist whose self-esteem was affected by backlash after she became a Bud Light spokesperson months prior. Barrymore told Mulvaney, “Do you want to know, ironically, who dislikes me the most sometimes? Myself.”
The exchange led to a hug between the two as they continued the segment, kneeling and sitting on the floor. This display was quickly attacked by Twitter users for the female Barrymore apparently debasing herself to the biologically male Mulvaney.
Gabriel Hays is an associate editor for Fox News Digital.
