Story highlights Drew Barrymore credits her new series for helping her through her divorce

Barrymore said she can relate to the character because they were both going through an 'awakening'

(CNN) Drew Barrymore credits her new show, "Santa Clarita Diet," with helping her through a dark period in her life.

"It was a safe place for me to spend my summer while my whole life was just sort of falling apart," Barrymore said at a Netflix panel in New York on Wednesday. "I was just in a really low point. I read the script and it made me laugh and it made me feel something. It took me out of my own world that wasn't super pleasant at the time. And I thought, maybe other people want to be taken out of their [own] unpleasant times and be transported into something that's cool and different."

Barrymore's unpleasant time was her divorce from her husband of four years, Will Kopelman, which was finalized in August 2016. The couple have two children, Olive, 4, and 2-year-old, Frankie.

The premise of "Santa Clarita Diet" centers on a husband and wife, Sheila and Joel Hammond, who are living in the sleepy Los Angeles suburb of Santa Clarita, when Sheila goes through a dramatic transformation that leaves her feeling better than ever.

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