How Drew Barrymore's famous last name helped her recruit Anjelica Huston for Ever After

Drew Barrymore is remembering one wickedly good opportunity she didn't let pass her by.

On Tuesday, the daytime TV show host recalled the impassioned speech she gave to Anjelica Huston about their shared family history that got the The Addams Family actress to sign on as her wicked stepmother in the 1998 classic Ever After during the film's 25th anniversary reunion on The Drew Barrymore Show.

"I was in my kitchen and we were talking about who could play this very infamous role. There weren't all these retellings at that point — this was a very sort of unapproached kind of genre — and so who could step in as the famous stepmother?" Barrymore told costars Melanie Lynskey, Megan Dodds, and Dougray Scott. "And I really wanted it to be Anjelica Huston."

20th Century Studios Anjelica Huston and Drew Barrymore in 'Ever After'

However, Barrymore, who played Danielle (aka Cinderella) in the period drama, explained that there were mixed messages of whether or not Huston "could work it into her schedule" or even wanted to star in the film as the evil Baroness Rodmilla. So, Barrymore took matters into her own hands.

"I remember going, 'Screw it, I'm gonna find her phone number and I'm gonna call her,'" she said. "I got her on the phone somehow and I said, 'You know what, for your father, John Huston, and my grandfather, John Barrymore, who you know partied here on Earth and are somewhere up in heaven keeping it going. Barrymore, Huston! Huston, Barrymore!'"

"'We've gotta do this, just for the men in our life who have set such a tone for what we're supposed to be doing here on Earth. Let's honor those two men by being those two women together. Are you with me?'"

She continued, "And, well, she did the film, so…"

The Huston and Barrymore family connection extends even beyond those partying days (and John Barrymore). Huston's father, director John Huston, directed the 1948 film Key Largo, which starred Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, and Drew's granduncle Lionel Barrymore.

So, in the end, the pair were able to pay tribute to their ancestors by sharing the screen together and Barrymore got her happily ever after, after all.

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