The one-hour nationally syndicated series The Drew Barrymore Show is bringing the actress’ blend of optimism and inspiration to the daytime space, sharing her point of view with audiences while sharing compelling human interest stories. The format will include celebrity guests, happy news and lifestyle segments, all with a funny and informative approach.

During a virtual press conference to promote the launch of the show, host/executive producer Drew Barrymore and showrunner/executive producer Jason Kurtz talked about what viewers should know about The Drew Barrymore Show, why it’s important for her to have her own voice and message, what makes the show uniquely hers, what allows for a good talk show experience, lining up her first episode, and why being good people and taking care of one another will go a long way in making a good show.

Question: What should viewers know about The Drew Barrymore Show?

DREW BARRYMORE: We’ve really tried to build a team. I like to call it an orchestra because each person is more than a crew. They really are our audience and our collaborators. We talk sometimes, right on the fly, about what we should do in this moment. I always thought it was weird that there’s one person out in front for a show like this. It is every single person involved in the process – the making of, the journey to, the execution, the ideas. It all comes to life by each member of this orchestra and we all have instruments. Sometimes we play in perfect symphony, and sometimes we’re playing jazz. It’s super fun. So, I really want the show to incorporate everyone that’s involved, ironically in the times when we’re all separated. It’s even more pertinent to peel back the layers and show how this all functions. I hope it’ll be an unorthodox but exciting aspect to this show because I really respect everyone who’s come on board. We’ve carefully chosen each other, and we’re all bringing our notes and tones to the table.

JASON KURTZ: I’m passionate and I believe in [Drew] and the show, and in the journey it’s gonna take the audience on. I can’t wait for everyone to see what we’ve been working on, and what we’ve been building and creating. It’s something so special.

Why is it so important to you to be out of character, be yourself, and lead your own team while also having your own voice and message?

BARRYMORE: I feel like I control nothing and if I’m trying to control, that’s not the energy I wanna put out there. I’m always checking myself with that. I will never call this my show. It’s our show. It’s we. I love showing that how passionate I am about that, by including everyone who is in the process here. That is just bottom line to me. [Being a storyteller] is the background I come from, in my life. The work I’ve invested myself in my whole life has been storytelling and I feel like that’s a very welcoming world to all people. It’s about a collective experience. It’s about relatability. It’s about finding life affirming moments or ways out of breaking cycles, and everything in between. I’ve lived my life adjacent to all of these characters that I’ve played, and there’s always a sense of me in there because you can never fully get yourself out. Believe me, I’ve tried. I’m just excited to be able to live the real existence that I do when you don’t see me working, and this is so true to who I am. I’ve gone through a real excruciating, uncomfortable metamorphosis doing a show like this. I’m really glad I’ve met this moment in my life and not another, and timing really is everything. I’m relieved this is happening now. When you have your kids, it’s different. You get asked to be the best version of yourself and that was something I didn’t take lightly.

What is going to make the show uniquely yours?

KURTZ: Outside of the obvious – her spirit, her intelligence and her layers – I feel strongly about Drew’s News. I feel strongly about that as our crown jewel. It is a chance to look at the world through a different lens that’s a positive, optimistic lens that makes you feel good and that informs you a little bit but always leaves you with a smile. It’s a chance for the audience to connect directly with Drew. And that will be the portion of the show that’s live, that Drew fought for. It’s important for it to be live, for many reasons. The world can change overnight and we wanted to be responsible and be able to react to what’s going on in the world. I think the Drew’s News segment will be our flag in the sand.

BARRYMORE: Thank you. It’s really hard to talk about myself. It’s hard because sometimes I really am actions speak louder than words. I hope to not give you a bunch of cheap talk, and do my job and see what you think of it a few weeks in. I do know that we have really challenged ourselves technologically. To think that an old boho hippie like me was gonna pick that up and run with it is shocking, even to myself. I love design, so I wanted to provide a destination and a resting place for people that I thought was really elevated and a beautiful place to be. What I really have as a goal, and what the team and I talk about every single day, is how we mix a lot of different genres, tones, spices and variety into one show, cohesively. I’m not one person. I’m not one mood. I’m not one thing. I’m such a mixed bag, myself. I want a show that represents all of the different things that we are interested in, have to tackle and think about, love and wanna accomplish, and need to laugh and get out of it. I hope that I can, in some ways, keep you guessing on what’s going to happen next and try to fulfill a lot of different desires. I know I have them for myself, so I’m hoping maybe someone out there is greedy too.

Drew, how did you learn to be a good talk show guest? What does it mean to be a good guest, and what are you looking for in a guest?

BARRYMORE: That is a great question because there are two parts to it. How did I try to be a good guest? I tried to not. I was naughty, actually. Me, naughty, can you believe it? I was naughty because I never wanted to do a pre-interview. I never wanted to know what questions were coming my way. Spontaneity for me was crucial. I like to go in blind and play because life is just too short not to. I wanted to be spontaneous and be myself, and not pretend to be anyone else or try to hit a comedic story but use the time as if my heart and excitement were on the line and not be there to sell something.

I always went into this show knowing that, if anybody wants to come here and do that, I would love it, and I would love to try to give people a refreshing approach, if they want. I would love to go in the back door of conversations and talk more about your life experience or your upbringing rather than the thing you’re working on now and promoting. I know that’s an essential aspect and we’ll certainly, professionally, hit that button. But I love when Barbara Walters and Howard Stern interview people and the journalistic integrity of research and interesting questions and disarming has been something I’ve always loved as a citizen of the world.

I wanna have a different approach to conversations, something more casual and a little more disarming. But then, I’m also like, “Do you wanna come here and play a character you loved being and own that character?” Come do that. Let’s do sketch comedy. Let’s try something completely different. Sometimes that menu of options isn’t always there. There are people like [Jimmy] Fallon and James Cordon whose approach to talk shows are so limitless but those tend to be in the evening. I wanna bring that to daytime. I wanna have fun. I wanna be sunny side up. I wanna tackle comedy. I’m really convinced that all of this work I do on myself is the same thing that everybody else is going through. We are trying to reach enlightenment, we are trying to grow, we are trying to figure things out, we are going through uncomfortable changes in our lives. I want to talk about that stuff. I’m totally into the conversation. So, I just would love for it not to be topical and surface, whatever we do.

What kinds of questions did you always hate being asked, when you were on a talk show?

BARRYMORE: I think that’s why I avoided the pre-interview. It was always like, “We want an anecdote,” as if they’re gonna rest it all on this story. And I thought, “What if I’m not telling the story the right way? Why am I trying to hit a mark that may or may not work?” I’m more about flow. I’m very grateful to anyone who will do our show because I know how it felt for me. I didn’t want to go in over-prepared. I thought that was gonna become a little more manipulative and a little less organic, and neither of those words are pleasant. So, just play and find it.

For your first episode, you have people on the show that you know very well, which seems natural to want to start a new venture with people you are comfortable with. Once you found out you had the show, did you go to them early or did you recruit them fairly recently?

KURTZ: It was very recent. We took a moment and we didn’t wanna rush the decision because every booking is meaningful to us and has purpose. We wanted to make sure that we were stepping into this world with more than a booking but a feeling, and we came to the understanding that we wanted to project friendship and support and love. That’s what was important to us, that tone. And that was what made it such an easy decision to bring in Cameron [Diaz] and Lucy [Liu].

BARRYMORE: There’s always the onus and pressure of that first guest, and we all kept collectively wanting to go with our guts and hearts. That’s been the leader for us, with every single person who’s on the show. That is where we work from. Certainly the mind and intellect and creativity but we wanna work more on feelings. In fact, someone said the most incredible Maya Angelou quote to me this weekend, and I’m paraphrasing this, “It isn’t about what people think of you, it’s how you make them feel.” I held onto that as a human being and thought, “God, that really is what we’ve been trying to talk about here.” And Cameron and Lucy felt not stunty, ironically. It felt like two women that I have been in a majority of my life with, who are my friends and who I have done some of my proudest work with. We’re all still really close and we’re all moms now.

That, to me, felt like the authentic right foot out. I’m honored anyone will come on the show. It’s because I’m not an assuming person. I’m going to be as excited as any person who is in an audience looking at that person. I know I’ve been in this industry my whole life, but I’m not insider baseball. In fact, I’m the exact opposite. I’m just as excited to be around people of note, as anyone would be. But Jason and I and the whole team have really tried to keep in balance everybody’s story here. This is not the fabulous lens of a show, this is about real life, the real world, what is going on and stories we feel are important to bring to the forefront, and that is a very mixed mosaic.

Considering that there’s so much competition from streaming and other outlets, what do you think it is about the talk show format that remains so popular and why was it something that you wanted to do?

BARRYMORE: I have a lot of different interests. It’s why I really loved directing because I could go to work and think about the music I loved, casting, production design, editing, writing, art, literature, travel, wonderment, imagination, comedy, chemistry, romance. I could put it all into this one job. That’s exactly what a talk show has the opportunity to do. The one thing that’s different about movies is that you’re telling a story. I will never know what it’s like to be in a concert connecting with an audience and we’re not even gonna have an audience here. I’m with the crew, which I love. I’m loving the way that things are going because they have to be that way. We’re making the most of it and really enjoying it and not making compromises. We’re trying to launch with a show that we would launch with regardless, as far as what we see fit for this moment. It’s about connecting with people, and that’s been such a big part of my life since I was seven years old. That’s probably a better training ground to do a talk show than anything I’ve ever done in my work life.

Over the course of your life, what daytime talk shows or even late night talk shows have you taken things from, that you might bring to your talk show?

BARRYMORE: That’s a great question. I wanna high-five all the people that have talk shows, that have planted their flags in the sand. When you lift others up, you’re going up with them. I think there’s enough room for everyone and I can’t wait to support everyone out there. I thank them for welcoming me into this space. That is honestly how I feel. It’s how I’ve always felt. Especially in the Hollywood industry, I just love having each other’s backs and feeling really encouraging of everyone and lacking competition.

Who have you regularly watched, over the years?

BARRYMORE: Inspirationally speaking, I loved The Daily Show, I love John Oliver and Samantha Bee, and I love Saturday Night Live. For me, that was a big training ground. I hosted when I was seven years old in 1982. I’ve hosted six times. It’s been incredibly informative to me. There’s a process to that show that’s really invigorating and it’s a very collaborative, exciting energy. I would love for us to benefit from the wisdom of those experiences, bring that revitalized approach to the show, really collaborate with everyone on the team and be an idea factory. We always talk about how wanting to come to work and think that our job is so full of possibilities, where we get to try to play and imagine, and see what’s working or not.

That’s the kind of atmosphere that makes you feel even luckier to have a job like this. I loved Carson. I loved Phil Donahue and Sally Jesse Raphael and Oprah. I loved Susie Orman. I love the daytime space. I love Ellen [DeGeneres]. I love Kelly [Clarkson]. I love everybody who’s out there working right now and crushing it. I’ve also really loved late night. I’m not gonna lie, I do wanna try to bring a little late night to morning because I wanna start the day that way. I love comedy. It’s been a huge calling card for not only the things I wanna do in the work that I’ve done but my own personal lack of ending up in a straight jacket. I need comedy. Comedy is medicine. I can’t take everything so serious all the time. I wanna be silly. I’m a silly person. I’m an imperfect, messy, silly person who’s desperate to figure it out and not get to the end of my life not having worked really hard on myself but I cannot be heavy about it. I refuse to be.

Why are you doing the show from New York?

BARRYMORE: This is where I ended up finding myself in life. Ironically, when they called about the show, they were like, “There’s one caveat. It needs to take place in New York.” I was like, “Oh, I just moved here, so that’s cool.” I’m very excited with that Saturday Night Live training ground and credo and ethos running around inside of me for this show. New York has an energy, there is no question about that. It’s a city that’s seen everything and has an incredible humanity to it. It has an electricity to it. I’m very honored to be doing a show here. It’s humbling to do a show in New York. I hope to bring the pride and respect it deserves.

KURTZ: Yes we’re in New York but we also built a three-dimensional green screen studio in Los Angeles where we can legit beam someone in like it’s the future. New York gave us the opportunity to be live on the eastern seaboard which is super cool but we are gonna be bringing in people from L.A. It’s the best of both worlds.

Of all the wonderful people that you’ve worked with over the years, who are you most looking forward to getting to catch up with on the show?

BARRYMORE: I would really love this show to be balanced in people of different occupations, locales, interests and backstories. That seems like I’m evading your question but it’s too hard to encapsulate it in one person.

What do you hope people learn about you, through this show?

BARRYMORE: One thing we wanna say on this show is that I am who you think I am. I don’t really know how to expose myself any more, as a human being. I struggle, I fail, and I think one of the most important things I wanna teach my own kids and myself, as I grow with them, is that change is so important – change in the world and change in yourself. I am a self-examiner and I’ve never pretended to be anyone I’m not.

KURTZ: One of the first bonding moments we had was our empathy for others. Drew grew up in this business and has done so much. I grew up in the daytime business. I started as an intern and really worked my way up. Because of that experience, I have true empathy for everyone that works on the show because I’ve walked the walk. We wanna make sure that we’re a loving, supportive environment. It’s something we talked about in our first meeting and we just share that value. That value will be seen on this show because we’re living in our truth and our honesty.

BARRYMORE: And no one’s pretending to be anyone they’re not. If we lead with honesty and openness and candor, then we’ll be able to get down to the business of our jobs. All we wanna do is make people feel good. There’s an altruism. People try to do a good job and be well-intended. My gut and my heart says, “Shut up, keep your head down and just be a good person. Do the work. Talk is cheap, action is where it’s at.” So, we’ll just try to make a good show and be good people and take care of one another. We’re all so lucky to have a job right now and we never forget that. We wanna do a good job, so that we can keep our jobs but we’re here every day and pushing up the hill.

At the end of the day, a lot of people who try to make things don’t ultimately make them for themselves. We’re not doing this necessarily always for us. We’re doing it to put it out there. That’s our job here, on a daily basis, and we feel so lucky to have the opportunity to do so. It’s crazy, I’ve never felt more humble and grateful in my entire life than I do right now. To be alive, to have two kids that are healthy, to be amongst this crew and this team and getting this opportunity, I don’t know how I ended up here but I’ll never lose sight and I never have lost sight of how lucky I am. I’ve lost my job. When you’re blacklisted at 12, I appreciate every job that I have. I know what it’s like to lose and work for things and be so lucky and have the opportunities that I have, and everything in between. I don’t think there’s much to hide, at this point.

The Drew Barrymore Show airs Monday through Friday in syndication. For more information on where/when to watch, go to www.thedrewbarrymoreshow.com

Christina Radish is a Senior Reporter of Film, TV, and Theme Parks for Collider. You can follow her on Twitter @ChristinaRadish.