Santa Clarita Diet Is About More Than a Flesh-Eating Realtor, Says Drew Barrymore

Sarah Shoen
Updated

Drew Barrymore’s Santa Clarita Diet character faces the same problems as the rest of us: fighting the uphill battle of raising a teenager, navigating the nuanced tribulations of careers and marriage, sating her ravenous craving for human flesh. But make no mistake: this show is a comedy.

“This is not a horror-genre show,” Barrymore said Monday of the series, which is about to premiere its second season on Netflix. “It’s about a family that is trying to make daily life work.”

The Santa Clarita Diet cast, along with creator Victor Fresco, was speaking with Vanity Fair executive digital director Mike Hogan, whom they joined at New York City’s 92nd Street Y to discuss how the show attempts to redefine zombies while giving viewers a family they can root for.

“We prefer to call them the undead,” Fresco joked during Monday’s panel. “We feel like the term ‘zombie’ is derogatory.”

Sheila (Barrymore) and her on-screen hubby Joel (played by Justified star Timothy Olyphant) are faced with an entirely new challenge after Sheila’s undead diagnosis, one that involves a lot of gore—and a lot of trust in one another. Their unique circumstances lead to even stranger situations, including careful victim selection and cleaning up blood and guts with a hose.

“I like seeing a show about a surviving team and family,” said Barrymore, who is a mother of two herself. “We’re in a decaying society of people not being able to make it work, so this show offers some optimism.”

See the video.

After the birth of Barrymore’s daughters, the actress intended to leave on-screen work behind. It wasn’t until after her 2016 divorce that she was approached with the opportunity to appear in Santa Clarita Diet. Barrymore says that she was initially hesitant to accept the offer—but she ended up taking the job regardless, and now says that it awakened her.

“Sometimes, what seems like the worst timing ever in your life will ultimately pull you out of the worst devastation you’ve ever had,” Barrymore added.

Even though her role as an undead suburban mom is meant to evoke laughs rather than shrieks, Barrymore is no stranger to horror films; some of her most notable earlier roles came in movies such as Firestarter, Cat’s Eye,* and Scream. At the panel, she recalled a particularly claustrophobic moment during the filming of Firestarter, when the then-9-year-old actress was wrapped in wax with two straws up her nose for breathing purposes.

Barrymore says her biggest horror influence as a child was When a Stranger Calls, which screwed her up “more than any film.” Seeing that movie inspired a younger Barrymore to ask Scream producer Harvey Weinstein if she could be cast as the victim in that film, rather than the heroine.

“[Weinstein] was a different person to me back then,” Barrymore said of the disgraced producer, who experienced a swift Hollywood downfall last October when he was accused of sexual misconduct by dozens of women. (Weinstein has denied all allegations of nonconsensual acts.)

“Harvey never fucked with me. He was just a co-worker at the time,” she added.

When asked what advice she would offer aspiring actors, Barrymore said she would ask them to remember that like the rest of us, celebrities are just doing their job.

“Who in the hell thinks they’re better than anyone else?” Barrymore asked the audience. “I’d like to eat that person.”

The second season of Santa Clarita Diet premieres on Netflix March 23.

The Most Fascinating Celebrity Godparents

This godparent-godchild duo came to be after country crooner Billy Ray Cyrus first recorded his hit “Achy, Breaky Heart” in the early 1990s. In the process, he got to know the legendary Parton, and eventually made her his daughter's godmother. Since then, Parton has dubbed herself Miley Cyrus’s “fairy godmother.” The two have even performed Parton’s hit “Jolene” together. “I’m just real proud of her. She does not need my advice, but she’s often asking for information and advice, and I tell her what I know, but I think the girl’s doing all right without me,” Parton said of her goddaughter, in a 2012 CBS interview.
Culkin was a close friend of Michael Jackson when the actor was just a young child star. Jackson named Culkin godfather of his daughter, Paris, now 18, who, in December 2016, shared a photo after she gave her famous godfather a pedicure.
Gaga is godmother to both of Elton John’s young sons, Elijah and Zachary. “She’s a great role model, she’s young, [and] she’s been a great godmother to Zachary. . . . We’re all bonkers in this business, but we’re human beings at the same time,” John told Glamour U.K. after he and husband David Furnish named the singer their second son’s godmother in 2013.
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie selected Bono as the godfather of their twins, Knox and Vivienne Jolie-Pitt, when they were born in 2008. According to reports from Digital Spy at the time, Pitt had admired the U2 front man for years, and the couple had gotten to know him well.
Depp, Tim Burton’s constant star, is also the godfather to his son with ex Helena Bonham Carter. Though Depp was close to both members of this couple, Bonham-Carter told Playboy, via Vanity Fair, when they split that Burton could have custody of Depp. “They get the same poo jokes. Nothing will separate them,” she said.
Gyllenhaal’s godparents are nothing short of Hollywood royalty. His godfather was Paul Newman, and his godmother is actress and child of Hollywood herself, Jamie Lee Curtis. Curtis, who is close with Gyllenhaal’s parents, said she keeps an eye on her godson in the show-business world, too. “So, when he actually started in show business, I said, ‘Look, I’m your celebrity godmother,’” Curtis said, per Entertainment Weekly.
Just call Steven Spielberg godfather to the stars—Barrymore and Paltrow, both from entertainment families—are goddaughters of the famous director. Barrymore, who starred in Spielberg’s E.T. at age seven, became Spielberg’s goddaughter when she was a teen, reports the New York Daily News. As Paltrow’s godfather, he has treated the actress, who made a small appearance in his 1991 film Hook, to trips on his yacht around the Mediterranean, [reports U.K. publication Stylist](http://www.stylist.co.uk/people/surprising-celebrity-godparents.
Howard’s father, actor and director Ron Howard, made his Happy Days co-star his daughter’s godfather, and the actress knows she lucked out with that selection. During an interview with The Talk in August 2016, she said, “He’s just the most wonderful man. It’s great as a kid to have adults who you can go to who are mentors. They don’t have the ability to ground you, but they do have the wisdom of being someone who loves you and who cares about you and is aware.” When it came to choosing her own child’s godfather, Dallas Howard chose actor and The Book of Mormon breakout star, Josh Gad.
British royalty Collins was named Delevingne’s godmother when she was born in 1992, but as Dame Collins told Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live, she was 1 of 16 godparents to the model. “I asked [Delevingne’s parents], ‘Why do you have so many godparents?’ ” she said. “And they said, ‘Well, in case any of them die.’ ”