Drew Barrymore says she can go years without sex

Drew Barrymore has given fans an insight into her sexuality and revealed that she can go years without getting down and dirty.

The Never Been Kissed actor, 47, made the revelation on The Drew Barrymore Show during a discussion about Andrew Garfield admitting he went celibate for six months to help prepare for the role of a priest.

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"I was like, 'Yeah, so?'" Barrymore said of Garfield doing what's known as method acting - a practice where a performer uses real world experiences to inform their practice.

Ross Mathews replied: "That's the headline: 'Drew can go six months, no big deal.'"

However, she went on to clarify that she can actually go years without sex.

Barrymore asked her audience: "What's wrong with me that six months doesn't seem like a very long time?"

The actor went on to explain that she's used method acting herself.

"There are lots of actors who have, Christian Bale, Jared Leto, Matthew McConaughey, you do want to transform and fully commit, so I understand that," Barrymore said.

"I definitely [did], on certain projects, like when I did Grey Gardens, this film I did where I played beloved real-life woman Edie Beale.

"I was so nervous I didn't really chit chat with everybody on set, I just really stayed in character."

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Garfield, 39, made his own bombshell revelation on the podcast WTF with Marc Maron.

He explained that in order to play a 17th century Jesuit priest in Silence, he spent a year extensively preparing for the role, and this also involved studying Catholicism and fasting.

"It was very cool, man," Garfield said. "I had some pretty wild, trippy experiences from starving myself of sex and food at that time.

"There [have] been a lot of misconceptions about what method acting is, I think," Garfield said.

"People are still acting in that way, and it's not about being an asshole to everyone on set. It's actually just about living truthfully under imagined circumstances, and being really nice to the crew simultaneously, and being a normal human being, and being able to drop it when you need to and staying in it when you want to stay in it."

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He went on to explain that method acting is a deeply personal thing, which we'd imagine when it involves going celibate.

"It's also very private," the actor said. "I don't want people to see the fucking pipes of my toilet. I don't want them to see how I'm making the sausage."