AceShowbiz - Drew Barrymore was full of confidence when she took charge on her directorial debut "Whip It!" - because she has been "training" to become a filmmaker since she was six years old. The actress has been producing films for the last decade since her hit 1999 movie "Never Been Kissed", but stepped behind the camera for the first time to work on the 2009 comedy.

And although Barrymore saw helming a movie as "new territory", she's convinced her work as a kid with her godfather Steven Spielberg stood her in good stead to successfully direct. She tells the Press Association, "I handled my godfather's (Spielberg's) scripts when I was six years old. I've been training for this my whole life, and I'm OK with 'slow and steady wins the race'."

"After producing for 15 years, working with all the filmmakers I worked with, learning what I like and don't like and really immersing myself in the process, I felt much more prepared to go walk that plank because I knew what I was walking into. You still have to be humble and know you're on a learning curve because directing is a whole other animal, no matter how good a producer you are, or how much you've been watching people. To become the captain of a ship is just new territory."