Xavier Collin / Image Press Agency / MEGA

Actress and talk show host Drew Barrymore was born into a famous acting family, but quickly came into her own at age 6 when she enthralled audiences as Gertie in “E.T.” But along with fame came all sorts of trouble, which she has been able to overcome. Quips Drew, “I’m certainly not known for being boring.” Here are Drew’s 10 favorite roles and what the 50-year- old says they mean to her.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

“I believed E.T. was real. I would go and take my lunch to him.” Yet she believed in director Steven Spielberg even more. “He’s really the only father figure I’ve ever had. It proves that you can find family along the way, and it can stay. He is just in my life.”

Poison Ivy (1992)

“Once people started seeing footage, they were coming up to me on the set, going, ‘How does it feel to be a sex symbol?” I was like, ‘Me?!’ I might be a sensual person, but I don’t look at myself in the mirror and go, ‘Yea, baby, you’ve got it going’ on.'”

Boys on the Side (1995)

On working with Whoopi Goldberg: “What she really instilled in me is you can be as wild, rebellious, have a past, get married over a weekend, whatever it is, but the kindness, the goodness — that is the consistent through-line in life.”

Scream (1996)

“You kind of always have this tension, but you kind of know that your hero is going to make it. And I thought, ‘What if I die?’ Then all bets are off, anybody could get killed in this movie and would take away that cliché safety net of ‘the girl always gets away.'”

The Wedding Singer (1998)

Drew had a funny feeling working with Adam Sandler. “I told him, ‘I have a premonition. It may sound crazy, but I believe you and I are supposed to work together numerous time.’” And they did, making two more films together.

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Charlie’s Angels (2000)

On finding lifelong friends in Lucy Liu and Cameron Diaz: “I learned that women can be the greatest support for each other, and that women can do anything that they want. We go through real stuff with each other.”

Music and Lyrics (2007)

“I don’t think you can work from a place of fear and I don’t think you can work from a place of what people will expect from me. Because if you live your life trying to please other people, I think you’ll have quite a miserable one.”

Grey Gardens (2009)

“I’ve always brought my own emotions and experience to the characters that I play. And this was unique. The anguish that I feel over the relationship with my own mother Jaid Barrymore is incredibly intense.”

Santa Clarity Diet (2017)

Playing a zombie amid a divorce from hubby Will Kopelman, “I felt like maybe I was dead inside. I was in a place in my life where I had gained a lot of weight, and been in a place of fear and sadness, and I felt stuck. I don’t think that’s so much unlike her.”

The Drew Barrymore Show (2020)

“I was scared when I started. But it’s given me a lot of courage and time to ask people questions, to listen, to learn. I was to hear from everyone, ‘How do you live a life?’”