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Drew Barrymore: “I Don’t Think I’m a Good Actor”

Drew Barrymore attends an event on January 28, 2014
Drew Barrymore claims she's a bad actress in a recent New York Times article.

She's been acting since age 3, hails from a long line of Hollywood legends, and has around 65 acting credits to her name, but Drew Barrymore certainly doesn't have a high opinion of her dramatic gifts. In a recent New York Times article about the TCM show The Essentials, which she co-hosts with Robert Osborne, the Golden Globe winner, 39, opened up about her career and mentors. 

Related: PHOTOS: Drew's wild style

The pregnant-again star named her E.T. director and godfather Steven Spielberg as her top advisor throughout her career. 

"Steven told me, 'Don't act your characters. Be your characters," Barrymore revealed. She became a breakout child star when she worked with Spielberg on the classic flick at age 6. 

Related: PHOTOS: Drew's hair evolution

"I don't think I'm a good actor," continued Barrymore, who shares daughter Olive, 17 months, with husband Will Kopelman. "I feel like it's fake and yucky and it doesn't ring true. But if you research and you study and make it personal, you just become that person, and it's your truth and everything else around you falls away. Then you're telling the truth, it's not lying, it's not fake."

Related: PHOTOS: Drew's love life

And the legendary director's words of wisdom stuck with the Blended actress for the next 33 years. 

"At 6, I guess I was comfortable and more humorous than I would have remembered now," she mused. "But once I got older and kept continuing acting, I don't know if I would have succeeded without that advice, because that's the thing that saved me. I'm not an actor, I'm a pretender." 

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