Goodness gracious! Jesse Williams took time out this week to teach Firestarter star Drew Barrymore… well, how to start a fire.
The Hotel Costiera actor was discussing the importance of teaching his two children survival skills when he did a demonstration on how to ignite a flame using only a wooden log, kindling, and a stick on The Drew Barrymore Show.
“We have a big family in Maine and we do a lot of kind of woodsy, survival stuff,” Williams explained on Wednesday’s episode. “And also, in California, with the fires and running around, I just like for them to have the basics, to be prepared, feel comfortable.”
The Drew Barrymore Show
Williams, who shares a son and daughter with his ex Aryn Drake-Lee, added that those skills include knowing how to start a fire, set up a shelter, and “the basics of how to navigate and know where you are” in a given environment — or, as he said, “Just some things to help them feel calm and not get frazzled.”
Impressed by Williams’ teachings, Barrymore remarked, “Where were you when I was young?” She then stood up and went behind the interview couch to procure all the ingredients necessary to spark up a fire. “I was dropped off at Studio 54, and I don’t regret it. My mom was like, ‘You want to go to school or the club?’ I was like, ‘What do you think?'”
The pair briefly got derailed talking about their kids and social media — a topic that Barrymore, who has two daughters, is extremely passionate about — before Williams acknowledged how strange it was to be chatting while she was casually holding a huge stick.
“It’s all a little menacing talking about this with you waving, like, a firestarter kit,” he teased, to which Barrymore excitedly replied, “I am Firestarter! I will blow your you-know-what up.”
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The actress was making a sly reference to her 1984 thriller Firestarter. Barrymore was only 9 years old when she starred as a young girl with pyrokinetic powers named Charlie in the film, based on the Stephen King novel of the same name.
Williams proceeded to pack a pre-carved hole in the log with kindling before placing the stick into it. “You want to spin and you want to be able to move down,” he explained, repeating the motion several times as the audience laughed.
The Drew Barrymore Show
Endlessly resourceful, Barrymore then produced a candle lighter, which she used to help speed up the process. “I can feel it coming. I can feel it!” Williams joked as he pulled away to reveal that a small fire had been set upon the log. “And then you want to give it some oxygen.”
The little flame was then promptly extinguished. “Well done,” Williams praised Barrymore.
Barrymore has spoken about her experience shooting Firestarter on her talk show before, and even had an emotional reunion with the family who looked after her during filming back in February of this year.
“You were the first traditional family I ever lived with,” a teary-eyed Barrymore told Gayle and David Ward at the time. An equally emotional Gayle responded, “You are our daughter!”
The Drew Barrymore Show airs weekdays on CBS.