Drew Barrymore and Catherine Zeta-Jones are both looking back at the pivotal role Steven Spielberg played in their Hollywood journeys.
For the season six premiere of The Drew Barrymore Show, Barrymore welcomed the Wednesday star and revisited Zeta-Jones’ breakthrough moment in Martin Campbell’s 1998 swashbuckler The Mask of Zorro. “I mean, The Mask of Zorro,” Barrymore exclaimed. “Whoa, hello, somebody walked onto the stage and changed everything forever as we know it.”
Zeta-Jones recalled how a chance television appearance unexpectedly put her on Spielberg’s radar. “I remember being in the TV series of Titanic, which is not the Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet one, but it was okay. I needed the job,” she said. “And Steven Spielberg happened to be watching TV on a Sunday night and went, ‘Oh, who’s she? Maybe she should be good in Zorro.’ I get a call next week to go and meet the director, Martin Campbell.”
From there, events unfolded quickly. “The next few days, I was screen testing with the gorgeous Antonio Banderas and my old home country icon Anthony Hopkins, who directed me in a play when I was 18 years old, and there I was, and I thought to myself, ‘If this ends right now, this has just been a dream come true.’ And then I got the job, and it changed my life,” Zeta-Jones said, remembering how she was flown to Mexico almost immediately after her audition.
Barrymore, who was just seven years old when Spielberg cast her in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, then connected their shared experience. “So are we saying that Steven Spielberg changed both of our lives? Okay, thank God for Steven Spielberg,” she told Zeta-Jones.
Spielberg’s casting decision not only transformed Zeta-Jones’ career but also altered her personal life. After her performance in The Mask of Zorro, Michael Douglas saw her on screen and felt an instant connection. He later admitted during a 2016 appearance on The Jonathan Ross Show that he even asked his publicist to set up a meeting. While their first encounter wasn’t perfect, the two went on to marry in 2000 after welcoming their first child together.
