Drew Barrymore is returning to the dating scene, with some advice from Austin Butler.
The talk show host revealed Wednesday on The Drew Barrymore Show that she’s going on her first date “in a long time,” to which Callum Turner — who appeared alongside Butler to promote their new Apple TV+ series Masters of the Air — said he was “excited” for her.
“I’m not,” quipped Barrymore. “I dread these things because, yeah, they’re awkward!”
Barrymore said she excitedly accepted the invite after “the gentleman” in question offered to pick her up for a “long dinner,” but that her single friends suggested she have drinks instead of a meal. Barrymore rued the potential mistake, only for Butler to cheer her up.
“I like the dinner,” he said. “Then you know if it doesn’t work. You get to actually talk.”
Barrymore asked what to do if there are “weird vibes right out of the gate,” however, to which Turner suggested an excusatory restroom trip to arrange “a surprise call” with a friend before returning to her table. Ever the gentleman, Butler once again offered to help.
“I’ll be your friend,” he told Barrymore, adding, “Yeah, just send me a text and I’ll call.”
While their chat included plenty of laughs and seemed rather breezy, Barrymore admitted she was serious about these fears and gets “very nervous” about dating. The former child star has certainly been more than candid on her show about those struggles before.
The Never Been Kissed (1998) star previously decried online dating and commiserated about the subject with Chelsea Handler. She once teared up on her show about dating as a single mom and said in 2022 that she hadn’t had sex since her 2016 divorce from Will Kopelman.
Barrymore was previously married to Jeremy Thomas and Tom Green and shares two daughters with Kopelman. Whether her newfound courage to resume dating was inspired by psychedelics is unclear, though Barrymore certainly pondered their benefits in 2023.
“I’m curious to examine why I’m not open to a relationship,” she told New York Magazine at the time. “I really think I have some serious shit buried. And I don’t know if it’s like I need to try an MDMA treatment or psilocybin as a way to … see things in a different way.”
Whether her date goes well remains to be seen — with only Butler’s inbox serving as proof.
The full interview airs on The Drew Barrymore Show YouTube channel at 3 p.m. EST.