Drew Barrymore was made late for work by a herd of elephants when shooting her latest movie 'Blended'.

The 39-year-old actress - who plays single parent Lauren Reynolds in the romantic comedy - struggled to get to the set of the film in South Africa when her car's path was blocked by the huge mammals.

During an interview with John Stewart on 'The Daily Show', she said: ''I was late for work one time because there was a herd of elephants blocking the road ... it was so the dog ate my homework. What were we supposed to do infuriate them? We were way outnumbered here in our small car ... there's 10 elephants. I'm going to wait until they pass.''

The Golden Globe-winner - who has two daughters, 21-month-old Olivia and one-month-old Frankie, with her consultant husband Will Kopelman - described the ''extraordinary'' moment she got introduce her then six-month-old daughter Olivia to the herd.

She said: ''I did take her out every weekend to see different animals and I also realised that all of my stress was inevitably leading to this extraordinary life experience where I'm standing with my kid and there's fifty elephants rolling by and I'm like, 'Wow! I was not thinking about this option when I thought about all the hard gnarly things that could occur. This is cool!'''

'The Daily Show' airs in the UK tonight at 11.40pm on Comedy Central Extra.