Drew Barrymore on First Meeting Adam Sandler: ‘We Looked Like the Worst Blind Date Ever’

Drew Barrymore has one thing to say to Adam Sandler: Thank you.

Barrymore, 40, and Sandler, 49, have starred in three hit comedy films together, making them one of Hollywood’s favorite onscreen duos. And it turns out, that was Barrymore’s plan all along.

“[I thought] I want to be a modern weird Hepburn, Tracey old Hollywood couple,” she said in an interview with Howard Stern of when she first decided she wanted to star in a film with Sandler.

Barrymore got candid while talking about the first time she met Sandler, which she admitted was during a low point of her career. She said she called Sandler and asked him to meet, hoping that she would be able to convince him that they should star in a movie together.

But one look at Sandler when she first walked into the meeting with him, and she realized convincing him might take a little more work than she thought.

“We looked like the worst blind date you’ve ever seen,” she said. “I showed up with purple hair and a leopard coat and he was in his classic cargo pants.”

“As soon as I saw him I was like ‘Yeah you’re going to have to see past all this,’ ” she laughed.

Barrymore knew that the only way to get him to work with her was to speak from her heart. “I said, I really believe that you and I could get together and do something meaningful.”

She was right. Sandler and Barrymore went on to star in three hit films including The Wedding Singer in 1998 and 50 First Dates in 2004.

The actress openly credits Sandler for her success from that moment on – so much so in fact, that she dedicated a chapter of her book Wildflower to him titled “Adam.”

“He was hot s— and he believed in me,” she said. “It’s a little bit of a love letter to him because I have grown with this person.”

But while they have played love interests on screen, Barrymore swears their relationship has always been platonic.

“I never, we never, ever, ever, ever, nothing!,” she told Stern.

This article originally appeared on People.com