Drew Barrymore is a girl’s girl. She’s beautiful but not in an obvious packaged way. She wears her heart and her messy past on her sleeve and she seems like she might be struggling – like the rest of us – to keep it together. She’s not the kind of girl that most guys get overly excited about. But despite that, likely because of it, she’s carved out a niche for herself as one of the film industry’s biggest starts, telling stories that women can relate to because they can see themselves in her.
Today her directorial debut Whip It opens in theatres. Not surprisingly, Whip It, the story of an indie-rock loving misfit who throws in her small town beauty pageant crown to join the roller derby, is all girl. Tough girl. “Babe Ruthless” and “Smashley Simpson” may be sporting stylish uniforms and cute names but the women of the derby are ferocious skaters and phenomenal athletes who are very real.
Screenwriter Shauna Cross adapted her own book and based much of the film on her experiences with the L.A. Derby Dolls, where she skated under the moniker of “Maggie Mayhem.” And although the film stars Ellen Page, Eve, Marcia Gay Harden, Juliette Lewis and Barrymore, the real star of the film is the roller derby with its spirit of be your own hero.
