The social media consensus is: Don’t come for Drew.
Drew Barrymore and the transgender TikTok star dylan mulvaney she had a vulnerable moment on TV talking about dealing with hate online. In response, the actress-turned-daytime talk show host received an onslaught of online hate directed at her, but Barrymore’s fans didn’t buy it.
“There’s so much hate and drama and things get messy, but meeting my role models, including you today, is the best part,” Mulvaney said. in Monday “The Drew Barrymore Show.”
Mulvaney, a Hollywood-based comedian and musical theater actress with a resume that includes “Book of Mormon” and “Spring Awakening,” has been sharing her journey of transition for the past year on the episodic TikTok series “Days of Girlhood.” “. She has over 10 million followers on the app and in October she sat down for a high profile talk with President Biden.
“Let me ask you about the negativity, how have you dealt with it?” Barrymore asked.
“I still read the comments,” Mulvaney said. “But there is so much hate directed at the trans community right now, it is everywhere. And I think the best weapon that I can bring to the table is trans joy and comedy and talking about difficult topics and really intricate moments of a transition, and (I) try to let everyone see that I’m not a monster, I’m not someone who I’m trying to do something other than be myself and be happy.”
Mulvaney later told Barrymore, “I look at someone like you and I can’t imagine anyone disliking you.”
Then, when the exchange turned sweet, the two moved their candid conversation from the show’s pink satin armchairs to the carpet on the set of “The Drew Barrymore Show.” In a recent profile of Barrymore’s For Real With Amy Kaufman, the “ET” star told The Times that kneeling or sitting on the floor next to her guests is a personal preference.
“Oh please,” Barrymore said on her show, kneeling next to Mulvaney, who was still seated, and taking her hand. “You want to know, ironically, who dislikes me the most sometimes? … Myself.”
“Oh, me too,” Mulvaney said with a sigh before joining Barrymore on the floor in front of the chairs. “You asked me what I would do to combat hate, but what do you do? You’ve been doing it a little longer than me.
Barrymore compared receiving hate through social media to reading movie reviews. She said that regardless of which movie gets panned, there’s a 50-50 guarantee that some will love it, some won’t. “So you have to be willing to put in the effort and prepare for it,” she said.
“Sometimes I think the biggest response can be in the next joyous video,” Mulvaney said. “Or the next win you have, because that just shows you keep going and whatever those people are projecting onto you, it’s not really pervasive.”
Mulvaney then turned to the audience and exclaimed, “I just realized I’m sitting on the floor with Drew! This is crazy!”
“Thank you for joining me on the floor,” Barrymore said. “The floor always feels safer.”
But the increased intimacy and specifically the act of sitting on the floor instead of staying in your chair outraged some social media users who put their own spin on the moment. Allegations were made that Barrymore was “kneeling” at Mulvaney’s feet.
When tweets calling out Barrymore for “adoring” Mulvaney began flooding Twitter, his fans were quick to follow, rejecting the negative comments.
User @HeyDsLady posted a photo of Barrymore kneeling on the floor next to the chairs of many past guests, including Brendan Fraser and Tyler Perry, wearing the subtitle, “Drew Barrymore is an icon of empathy and compassion, let alone an iconic Hollywood sweetheart. Hateful people are going to spew ignorant and judgmental stuff no matter what. More people should be like #DrewBarrymore.”
“Drew Barrymore and Dylan Mulvaney had a sweet connection moment on television. The criticism says everything about the small minds of the transphobes and nothing about the big hearts of Drew and Dylan”, the multimedia journalist Alex Berg. tweeted.
and writer Brian Krassenstein tweeted, “No one will look back 50 years from now and say ‘How dare Drew Barrymore hug this transgender woman?’ However, they will point out all bigoted tweets about it.”
