Drew Barrymore's calling the shots now

Drew Barrymore, the onetime "E.T." moppet, wild child and scion of Hollywood, has over the last 15 years made herself the poster child for post-feminism girl power. Through a series of shiny comedies ("Charlie's Angels," "Never Been Kissed," "He's Just Not That Into You") in which she starred -- and increasingly produced with her business partner and best friend Nancy Juvonen -- the 34-year-old Barrymore has preached a bouncy, politics-free, up-with-girls, follow-your-dreams mantra. Undoubtedly, it helped that she happened to be adorable too, with that giddy smile that never quite papers over the shadow of heartbreak.

Now comes Drew Barrymore: The Directorial Debut. Stepping behind the lens for the $15-million "Whip It," Barrymore saw her film unspool at the Toronto International Film Festival to largely sparkling reviews. It is the tale of a small-town Texas indie-misfit girl (Ellen Page) who yearns to make it as a roller-derby star -- regardless of the misgivings of her overbearing mother, a beauty pageant devotee. Lively and bright, "Whip It" plays almost like a tour of the inside of Barrymore's head.

"If you think about it, it's very close to me," Barrymore says. "It seems pretty obvious in a way. I have a tumultuous relationship with my mother, so obviously that story had a deep emotional interest to me -- about women who are empowered and can be athletic and capable and kick ass out on the track and be their own heroes, and I think finding your tribe is everything. I certainly found it with my company. Every aspect of this story including first love and rite of passage, and being able to rock out in the car with your best friend, these are all themes that are crucial to my life. I was able to tell my story," she says of the Fox Searchlight film releasing Friday.

Barrymore practically spits out her words, gritting politely through an interview when she's obviously exhausted. Those limpid greenish eyes -- the signature of the Covergirl's elaborate Lash Blast campaign -- appear to be propped up solely by force of will. It's the day after the Emmys, where Barrymore was nominated for her riveting dramatic turn as "Little Edie" Bouvier Beale, onetime debutante-turned crazy cat lady in the HBO film "Grey Gardens." If she's upset that her costars and the film won their categories and she did not, she's far too professional to say, but last night's rose-colored, many-tiered Monica Lhuillier dress has clearly evaporated into memory. Yet it wasn't just a night of celebration that has sapped her famed effervescence but the last weeks of crisscrossing the country, taking her film practically by hand to cities such as Detroit and Dallas and Boston, doing meet-and-greets at roller derbies, and the three years of nonstop work before that.