Drew Barrymore, Hilary Duff candidly share their rejection experience

Drew Barrymore and Hilary Duff, from their days as child stars, have a fair amount of experience with rejection.

On Monday’s episode of The Drew Barrymore Show, the two celebrities bonded over the lessons they learnt from losing out on multiple roles they auditioned for.

“There’s been so many times when I felt like a loser or I didn’t get the job or I’ve been sitting stagnant,” the How I Met Your Father star, 36, recalled. “But I had to fill my life with things that were real and that was enough at that moment.”

Barrymore, 48, said of her own shared experience: “I had such a bizarre relationship with rejection so early in my life that I appreciated what it gave to me, which was thinking there was enough room for everyone and that being competitive was unnecessary because there really is enough room for everybody.”

“Still a hard one sometimes,” Duff chuckled in response to Barrymore’s comment regarding competitiveness.

“And people have a competitive spirit. That’s a healthy thing. I get that,” the talk show host continued. “But it is weird to be a kid that you find out it’s not going to be you and you’re like, ‘OK, I have to figure out how I function through that.’”

Duff added, “When people ask you, ‘What job did you not get?’ I’m like, ‘There’s been so many, I actually can’t remember. I can’t tell you. It wasn’t worth holding on to it. So I dumped it back there somewhere.’”

Echoing her sentiment, Barrymore shared, “I won’t ever admit it because I don’t want the person who ended up doing it to feel weird.”

“You’re like, ‘That was mine’ and you’re still stewing on it” the Lizzie McGuire alum quippingly added.

“Yes, exactly! I’m like I won’t tell you!” Barrymore exclaimed as they both laughed. “But I’ll admit like things I auditioned for and then I guess they might find out that way.”

“I think the rejection thing is kind of coming full circle to me right now because I don’t think I’ve quite processed how much rejection you have to deal with as a child actor, or just even in this business in general,” Duff said.