drew barrymore nia long© Photo: Getty Images

Drew Barrymore and Nia Long have difficult conversation on her show surrounding rejection

The Drew Barrymore Show played host to Nia Long

Ahad Sanwari - New York
Senior WriterNew York
January 28, 2023

A recent episode of The Drew Barrymore Show proved to be an eye opening one as host Drew dove into some tougher conversation topics.

The actress was joined by fellow Hollywood star Nia Long on Thursday's episode, where she promptly asked her about an experience they potentially could've had together.

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Drew questioned Nia on what had happened during the 1999 casting process for Charlie's Angels, from which the latter had been turned down.

"We were so excited to meet you," Drew gushed, given she and friend Nancy Juvonen were also producers through their Flower Films production company.

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She explained that after auditioning for the role of the Angel that would eventually be played by Lucy Liu, she got rejected for rather superficial reasons.

"But the feedback was my eyebrows were too sophisticated, and I looked too old next to Drew," Nia said, which left the host and room momentarily stunned.

Nia opened up about her thoughts with the experience of auditioning for Charlie's Angels

"I think what was happening during that time was that people were having all these conversations about diversity, but no one was pulling the trigger," she continued.

"I think this is just a result of the fear of really putting a Black woman into a film that never cast anyone Black, it was a first time for them."

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The NCIS: Los Angeles star further elaborated on her experience at the time overwhelmingly auditioning for roles that weren't written for Black women that proved to be "exhausting."

She did celebrate the fact that things were changing and got a supportive hand from Drew, who she praised for being a "sensitive" producer who was ready to have such conversations.

© Photo: Getty Images

The 2000 movie starred Drew, Lucy, and Cameron Diaz

"I was mortified when I first heard that, because [Nancy] and I would never speak like that," Drew clarified as the audience cheered them on for tackling an important subject.

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