"I want people to be blown away when I do what they don't expect"
About this Quote
The subtext sits in the second half: “what they don’t expect.” Barrymore came up as a child star, a label that tends to harden into a narrative cage. Once the public thinks they know you, they stop watching closely; you become a brand, a meme, an anecdote. This quote is a quiet refusal of that fate. She’s naming the game: expectations are the real opponent, and the win condition is rupture. Not scandal for its own sake, but a strategic pivot that forces reassessment.
It also frames artistic range as a kind of joyfully competitive sport. She wants the audience to feel the pleasurable shock of recalibration: Oh, she can do that, too. There’s a pop-cultural confidence here, grounded in the long arc of her career - from messy tabloid mythology to romantic-comedy warmth to producer power and talk-show sincerity. The intent is clear: keep moving, keep surprising, don’t let the story fossilize. In a celebrity economy built on predictability, unpredictability becomes a statement of autonomy.
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Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Barrymore, Drew. (2026, January 17). I want people to be blown away when I do what they don't expect. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-want-people-to-be-blown-away-when-i-do-what-52883/
Chicago Style
Barrymore, Drew. "I want people to be blown away when I do what they don't expect." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-want-people-to-be-blown-away-when-i-do-what-52883/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I want people to be blown away when I do what they don't expect." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-want-people-to-be-blown-away-when-i-do-what-52883/. Accessed 19 Feb. 2026.







