Steven Spielberg ‘Changed Both of Our Lives’

Drew Barrymore and Catherine Zeta-Jones reminisced about a man who changed the course of their lives and careers: Steven Spielberg.

Barrymore, 50, interviewed the 55-year-old Wednesday actress for the season 6 premiere of The Drew Barrymore Show. In a preview clip of the interview — which will air in full on Monday, Sept. 8 — Barrymore brought up Zeta-Jones’ star-making role as Elena Montero in the 1998 film, The Mask of Zorro.

“I mean, The Mask of Zorro,” Barrymore said. “Whoa, hello, somebody walked onto the stage and changed everything forever as we know it.”

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Asked if there was any moment from the film that “jumps out” for her, Zeta-Jones said, “Oh my gosh, so, so much, but I remember being in the TV series of Titanic, which is not the Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet one, but it was okay. I needed the job.”

“And, Steven Spielberg happened to be watching TV on a Sunday night and went, ‘Oh, who’s she? Maybe she should be good in Zorro.’ I get a call the next week [to] go and meet the director Martin Campbell,” she added.

Within just a few days, she said, “I was on a plane to Mexico.”

“Next few days, I was screen testing with the gorgeous Antonio Banderas and my old home country icon Anthony Hopkins, who directed me in a play when I was 18 years old, and there I was and I thought to myself, ‘If this ends right now, this has just been a dream come true.’ And then I got the job and it changed my life,” she said.

At that, Barrymore replied, “So are we saying that Steven Spielberg changed both of our lives? Okay, thank God for Steven Spielberg.”

Barrymore was just 7 years old when she famously starred in Spielberg’s 1982 film, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.

Spielberg’s decision to cast her in The Mask of Zorro changed Zeta-Jones’ life in other ways, too, as her now-husband, Fatal Attraction star Michael Douglas, has said he immediately knew she was the one after watching her in the 1998 film.

During a 2016 appearance on The Jonathan Ross Show, the actor shared that he had his publicist set up a date. Although their first meeting didn’t quite go as planned, the pair eventually welcomed a child and tied the knot in 2000.