Drew Barrymore was almost “too ugly” for College Attitude

The studio was afraid she was overdoing it and urged her to tone down her “unattractive look.”

It was the favorite game of romantic comedies at the time: transforming an “ugly” duckling into a princess. A genre memorably embodied by She's so greatso often mocked in cinema, but also by College Attitude the same year (1999). In Never Been Kissed (original title), Drew Barrymore played Josie Geller, a young 25-year-old journalist who has never had a real romantic relationship. She is responsible for infiltrating a high school to understand today's youth and will relive her adolescent traumas, 10 years older… fortunately saved by a handsome teacher (played by Michael Vartan) who will be able to see her true beauty behind his frumpy style.

That is the aim of the game, but the studio obviously did not want Drew Barrymore goes too far in making his character ugly. She, who was also a producer of the film, recounts today in her podcast that she was pressured by the studio so that she did not do too much:

“I was very stressed throughout the whole movie. I was so scared during it because I knew if it didn't work we wouldn't get another chance. We had fun making it but I I had a pit in my stomach all the time because I was getting calls from the studio saying, “I'm sorry, but you look so ugly. You're not attractive enough in this role. ” I answered in vain: “Well, that's good…” They insisted: “No, no, no, you're going too far.” So I had to tone down Josie's look a little, because otherwise, I would have gone further than that…”

If Drew Barrymore ended up accepting, it was because she understood the studio's concern. The message of the film was in danger of being lost in favor of comedy : “It was a good argument actually. So I backtracked a little bit. And so Josie, what you see in the film is that I delayed and it came out like that and it worked. We were really lucky and I'm very, very grateful.”

College Attitude grossed over $80 million worldwide.