Barrymore, Collette insist ‘Miss You Already’ is not a ‘downer cancer movie’

TORONTO – It seems that when Drew Barrymore and Toni Collette play best friends, they play for keeps.

Their relationship had been limited to mutual professional admiration before they came together to portray lifelong best friends in “Miss You Already” — and soon, life would imitate art.

“We actually became real friends and our kids became really good friends. So we’ve actually stayed together and been travelling. We’ve taken our kids together on family vacations all over the world,” offered a bright Drew Barrymore during September’s Toronto International Film Festival.

“I guess we just have this openness and a connection that just grew and got better and better and better,” added Collette.

“Our families hang out together. Our kids love each other. Our husbands play tennis. We’re lucky.

“How rare is that?”

And to think, Barrymore almost didn’t let it happen.

The Golden Globe winner had just given birth to her second daughter, Frankie, when director Catherine Hardwicke and Collette came calling — in Collette’s words, “begging” — with a role they felt was perfect for her.

Barrymore would play the supportive but no-nonsense friend of Collette’s narcissistic wild child PR executive, who had just been floored by a grave cancer diagnosis.

The 40-year-old Barrymore knew filming the movie would be “inconvenient,” but it was when she thought of her daughters that she ultimately decided to do it.

“I wanted to do something for them — like a story about two women that I thought, when they’re older, they could watch, that would be meaningful,” said Barrymore, noting that the film was written, directed and produced by women.

“Miss You Already,”which opens Friday, aims to bob along at a buoyant, lively pace even while staring intently at the reality of a cancer diagnosis.

Collette’s Milly flashes bartenders and commandeers cabs for impromptu roadtrips, while also dealing frankly with hair loss, life-altering surgery and sudden bouts of nausea.

Hardwicke recalled when her father had cancer he still made “wicked jokes, even at the last minute.” She and Collette talked to cancer survivors to ensure they were getting other details right, and they were validated by the response of those who have seen the film.

Still, Collette cannot stress strongly enough that “Miss You Already” is not a “cancer movie.”

“It’s a film about friendship and love — all you have to do is be human to relate to it,” she said, her voice rising. “It’s so uplifting and it’s so life-affirming.

“I would hate for it to get out that this is a downer cancer movie. It’s not. It’s a joyous celebration of life.”

If it had been setup as a “downer cancer movie,” the elusive Barrymore likely wouldn’t have signed up.

“I really cannot stand heavy films right now at this point in my life,” she said.

“It’s too hard. I have two kids. I don’t want to go and face heavy stuff at the movie theatre — or even on my DVR for the night. I’m watching the lightest of stuff right now.

“And this one surprised me and I think it will surprise people,” she added. “It’s a love story.”