Drew Barrymore and Nancy Juvonen on their film company
Flower Films was founded in 1994 by Drew Barrymore and Nancy Juvonen, when Drew was 19. Their first production was Never Been Kissed (1999), followed by Charlie’s Angels, Donnie Darko and others.
In a Vogue magazine interview [Feb 2006], Barrymore commented, “I knew what our intentions were, but they had nothing to do with success. Doesn’t matter how far or high I go; if I can keep working, that is the most profound amount of success I in my personal life can ever find. To us, what filmmaking is all about is keeping promises. That’s our work ethic.”
Nancy Juvonen noted they esperienced the traditional “humble beginnings” for a venture: ”We started off in her [Drew Barrymore’s] laundry room. We had a little desk next to the washer and dryer. I was 26 or 27. I just said ‘Look, I don’t know how to do this.’ She had all of this empirical knowledge built up from being in so many films by just 19, but had never broken it down in any sort of, dare I say ‘academic’ way.
“We sort of looked at moviemaking like we wanted to become mechanics. We took the engine apart. We discovered directors we loved, and looked at all the things they had done, and started building a list of things that, for lack of a better phrase, ‘turned us on,’ and went from there… We both have completely different strengths, and neither one of us have any interest in the other’s strengths, so we don’t step on each other’s toes a lot.”
[From interview by The Drew Barrymore Collective drew-barrymore.org, December 1, 2004]
Nancy Juvonen is interviewed in the book How To Become A Magnet To Hollywood Success
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