"I just wanted to have a lot of dignity and a gentle moment."
Drew Barrymore wants her fans to know the reunion with her ex Tom Green was completely unscripted.
During an in-studio appearance on Tuesday's "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," the actress, 45, explained how the comedian's appearance on "The Drew Barrymore Show" back in September -- where the exes saw each other for the first time in 15 years -- was as raw as it appeared.
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View Story"There were no questions prepared for that," Drew told Jimmy. "I had an offline conversation with him because we didn't want it to be some bougie Hollywood moment, like, 'Let's reconnect in front of the cameras.'"
"But that said, the thing that I love about Tom was he is one of the first people to have put a camera on his life, when it was a giant fat camcorder and there were no easy phones available," she continued. "His stuff was on VHS. I remember watching his VHS tapes. So it's what gave me the idea."
"I just said 'Gosh, would you want to kind of reconnect? I feel like it's been a long time, and I would just love to honour what you did. You broke down all these doors, you were a pioneer, and I would love to talk about it and have it be an excuse for us to say hello.'"
"That's the tone, I sent him a video and then he sent me one back," the star added. "And immediately, he made me laugh and that's my kryptonite -- laughter."
Jimmy called the reunion "fascinating," adding, "It was different, it was fresh and it was raw."
"I just wanted to have a lot of dignity and a gentle moment," Drew chimed in. "It was nice to hear from some people saying like, 'I'd like to have that with someone from my past,.'"
"Whether it was a specific person, a lot of people were talking about how they'd like to have that type of exchange from someone who they had a significant chapter in their life with."
Drew and Tom split in 2001 after less than a year of marriage.
On September's show, Tom told Drew, "I was so happy when you invited me on the show. It's been too long, it's nice to reconnect. We really did not talk for about 15 years I guess and this is really the first time we've looked at each other face to face in 15 years."