In 2008 Woodley was cast in the lead role of Amy Juergens in The Secret Life of the American Teenager (2008) and in 2011 she had her big screen breakthrough when she appeared in Alexander Payne's The Descendants (2011), opposite George Clooney. Her performance in the role of Alexandra King brought critical acclaim and recognition by the movie industry. She won an Independent Spirit Award and the 2012 MTV Movie Awards Breakthrough Performance Award, as well as a Golden Globe nomination
Was considered one of the 55 faces of the future by Nylon Magazine's Young Hollywood Issue.
She revealed on Ellen: The Ellen DeGeneres Show (2003) that she is a huge fan of the young YouTube sensation Greyson Chance.
As a teenager she was diagnosed with scoliosis. She was put in a chest-to-hips plastic brace to straighten her spine.
Her parents gave her three rules when she fell into the acting
business: she had to stay the person she was, have fun and do well in
school.
In order to graduate with her high school class while starring on the hit ABC Family teenage soap opera The Secret Life of the American Teenager
(2008), her principal sent a teacher to her house once a week to give
her school work which she would do, in-between takes, on set. Then, she
was able to graduate with her class on time.
Her parents divorced when she was 15 years old.
Was considered for the role of "Katniss Everdeen" in the 2012 film adaption of the book, The Hunger Games (2012), but Jennifer Lawrence was cast, instead.
Her breakthrough role was when she starred, alongside George Clooney, as his troubled teen-aged daughter "Alexandra King" in the 2011 film adaption of the novel, The Descendants (2011).
Auditioned for the role of "Cosette" in the 2012 film adaption of the musical, Les Misérables (2012), but was beaten out by Amanda Seyfried.
Dyed her hair red for her role of Mary Jane Watson in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014).
Was originally cast as Mary Jane Watson in The Amazing Spider-Man 2
(2014), but all her scenes were deleted from the final cut. She worked
on the movie set for three days and shot about four short scenes.
Shailene's father is of British Isles descent. Shailene's mother
is of Creole (African, French, Spanish, German, English, Swiss)
ancestry.
Her favorite sport is Basketball.
Her favorite movies are Dirty Dancing (1987), Moulin Rouge! (2001), Rent (2005), and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003).
Personal Quotes (34)
I fell into this business by accident. It wasn't something I ever
aspired to be: an actress. It just happened. It has evolved into an
insane passion...a creative outlet. But nothing more. It's my hobby...
one of the ways I express myself as an artist. And the day it becomes a
job... a career... I will quit.
All it takes is to pick up that one piece of trash you pass
everyday on your way to work. Or to turn the water faucet off when
you're brushing your teeth from afar. Or to compost. Or to buy 100%
post-consumer recycled paper. Or to utilize vintage stores and
secondhand markets. Or to fully devote yourself to only buying
vegetables from local sources. It is remarkably easy to incorporate
sustainable choices into our everyday, busy lives.
I was an environmentalist in high school - or, I guess, a
self-proclaimed environmentalist - and I started reading about the food
system in America and how it's owned by all of these corporations. I was
on a quest to find out what healthy really meant because people were
saying that veganism was healthy or that the Paleo diet was healthy, but
I really had no idea. So I started researching indigenous people and
what their lifestyles were like because I was fascinated by the fact
that they could still run in their eighties and still had amazing
muscular and nervous systems, whereas in America now, by the time we get
to our thirties, it's really hard for us to lose weight and maintain a
healthy body and composition. So I just started adapting my lifestyle to
that of indigenous people, and what I realized is that we're all
indigenous creatures on this planet. The whole concept of re-wilding
came about through some really good friends of mine, and it's basically
about adapting to your current situation. If you're in the city, then
you can't go back to hunter-and-gatherer times, so you have to adapt to
the lifestyle that's out there. Herbalism is part of that, and knowing
how to heal our bodies naturally and knowing about organic farming. It's
so important and essential to the Earth, to Gaia. We want to continue
to live on this planet, and I think we need to break down the
associations that we have that we're different from nature - that we
need to protect the Earth and save the Earth - when we are, in fact,
part of the Earth. So it all starts with us. If we want to save the
planet, then I think we need to start saving ourselves in order to do
that. I believe that organic farming, among many other practices, can
really start that shift.
What I found with The Secret Life of the American Teenager
(2008) was that it was hard to talk about some of the issues because I
didn't believe in them, and on a personal level, I was not in agreement
with the things that we were preaching.
[on the actresses she admires (March 2014)] Oh man, I know I just worked with her [in Divergent (2014)], but I really admire Kate Winslet. I admire her career. I admire Marion Cotillard and Mélanie Laurent.
Freshman year, upperclassmen would call me 'anorexic', so I'd go home and cry, wishing hard for the curves to appear.
I've realized that worry is the product of a future that we cannot
guarantee, and guilt is the product of a past we cannot change. Once
that clicked in, it became easier to live this lighter life. And the
happier I am, the healthier I am and the better I look and feel.
My biggest thing is really sisterhood more than feminism. I don't
know how we as women expect men to respect us, because we don't seem to
respect each other. There's so much jealousy, so much comparison and
envy. It's just so silly and heartbreaking in a way.
I think souls know no age. The only thing that knows age is the
mind, and the minute you leave that behind some people have chemical
connections and some people don't. Love isn't limited to marriage and
sex and whatnot. Teenagers who fall in love - their love is just as
real, just as visceral and just as worthy as that of adults who fall in
love.
[on her positive reaction to the script for The Fault in Our Stars
(2014)] I always know intuitively whether a script is something I fall
in love with or not. I get butterflies. If I get butterflies, it's
something I'll fight for.
[on where she sees herself in 10 years] I'd like to be living
somewhere in the middle of the woods, flying to L.A. when I need to, and
balancing my lifestyle of living in stride with the Earth as well as
being in this industry. I think there are ways to bridge gaps between my
two worlds: My wild, muddy-all-the-time, no-makeup, no-shoes world, and
this world, which is high heels and fancy clothes.
I think it's ridiculous that the boundaries have been crossed
between cinema and fashion. They're both their own separate art forms. I
did not start acting in order to wear something beautiful and wear lots
of makeup. That's not why I do this. I do this because I really love
being on a film set.
[When asked about her feeling on being compared with Jennifer Lawrence.]
Well, comparisons always lead to despair. As women, we are constantly
told that we need to compare ourselves to a girl in school, to our
co-workers, to the images in a magazine. How is the world going to
advance if we're always comparing ourselves to others? I admire Jennifer Lawrence,
but she's everyone's favorite person to compare me to. Is it because we
both have short hair and a vagina? I see us as separate individuals.
And that's important. As women, our insecurities are based on all these
comparisons. And that creates distress.
[Interview for Toda Teen, March 2014] I would love to do comedy, but nothing too silly. Something like Little Miss Sunshine (2006) or another movie by Alexander Payne. I'd love that someone could redo rom-coms exactly like those from the 80s and 90s, like Dirty Dancing (1987) or Notting Hill
(1999), movies that they don't do anymore. Movies today are too big,
female characters are idiots and the male characters are rich, it's so
difficult to identify with these films.
I'm not one of those actors who feels like they need to get in
character, to do any sort of method acting situations. For me it's all
about learning my lines, showing up on time, and professionally
listening to what others are saying, and then authentically and
truthfully reacting off of their expressions. So, it's easy to drop
roles, because I don't feel like I acquire them to begin with.
I just find the whole f word, this whole 'fan' word, so completely
fascinating. I think it's one thing to be a fan of a particular
movie-growing up, I was a huge fan of The Goonies and certain bands or
musicians. [But] I look back at my favorite childhood films, and I don't
remember being obsessed, or necessarily being a fan of a particular
actor. I was excited to see what they were going to do next, but... Now I
feel like there's this odd sort of obsession with certain people. So,
for me, I try to separate myself from my project; and I hope that people
support that project. But when people are solely supporting me, it
feels odd; it's something that I haven't quite gotten used to and I
don't think I ever will.
I think people in this industry make it harder on themselves than
they need to. It's easy to be happy. It's easier to be happy than to not
be.
I think everything about my lifestyle is fairly alternative. I
gather my own spring water from mountains every month. I go to a farm to
get my food. I make everything from my own toothpaste to my own body
lotions and face oils. I could go on for hours. I make my own medicines;
I don't get those from doctors. I make my own cheese and forage wild
foods and identify wild plants. It's an entire lifestyle. It's appealing
to my soul.
[on criticism of her Valentino Couture Oscars dress] A lot of
people didn't like it. They were like, 'She's 20, she's covering herself
up, why is she doing that?' But to me it felt classy and elegant and
that's what I think of when I think of the Oscars. It felt simple and
elegant and it still represented who I am. Most of my clothes come
through friends - this cardigan is two years old and these jeans are my
friend's boyfriend's.
My mother was a school counselor, and my father was a high school
principal. I grew up with not, 'Go say you're sorry.' It was, 'How does
that make you feel?' or 'If you were in his shoes, how do you think that
would make him feel?' It was all very cerebral, and there was a lot of
analyzing, a lot of breaking down situations from a place of compassion
and empathy. I think that made me who I am today.
Everyone says to me, 'What does it feel like to be part of the
Hollywood life now?' And I want to say, 'It's fabricated.' None of it's
real. We all go to these events. We put on makeup and clothes that
aren't ours. We give them back at the end of the night, and then we go
home and burp the same garlic burps as everyone else. You still have to
do your laundry, and your dishes are everywhere. It's just life.
[on losing the role 'Lucy' in I Am Sam (2001) to Dakota Fanning]
My father looked at me and said, 'You need to send that Dakota girl so
much love and so much happiness because this is the best day in her
life. One day, you're gonna have a best day in your life, and you're not
gonna want people to be angry at you for doing something that they
wanted to do.
One of my goals in life is to start a giant organic, biodynamic
farm, and have it run like a community, but sell the produce for less
than conventional prices.
When you're on a film set, you're not thinking about what other
people are going to think - you're not thinking about magazines, you're
not thinking about interviews, and you're definitely not thinking about
Oscars. At least for me. I'm just thinking about how grateful I am to be
on the set and to work with such phenomenal people and to have the
opportunity.
[on what she thought about teenagers] For so long they were-and
still are-depicted in movies and TV shows as codependent whiners or
rich, beautiful, diamond-clad daughters or dumb cheerleader types. But
teenagers are so smart. I was probably smarter as a 16-year-old than I
am today. There is a zest for life that you have at that age that is so
beautiful.
I always say that I'll never win a physical battle, but I can
always win a mental battle. I mean, not really, because I never really
argue with anyone.
[on George Clooney]
He's such a phenomenal superhuman, and I know it probably sounds weird,
but he's one of the greatest men. He has so much to offer, not only in
his performances, but as a human being. He's so generous and humble and
passionate and grateful and appreciative and brilliant, and I just think
the world of him. Every time I see him, I'm constantly absorbing and
soaking in new information; just learning more about life and how to be a
better human being because of him. I think gratitude is a big thing
that a lot of people lose sight of and that man, he fully encompasses
it.
[on Alexander Payne]
On a personal level, he's one of my top five favorite human beings.
He's just such a dynamite man. Being on set with him, he makes you feel
so comfortable and he gives you the freedom to do whatever you want
within his unspoken words and guidelines. And that's a beautiful thing
for an actor. That's why everyone wants to work with him because he does
give you the freedom that a lot of movie sets don't allow.
Everyone today is like, 'Shailene, you're getting so much buzz.
How does the feel?' It's the most odd question because it's like asking a
kid who got into Cornell how it feels to be the top of your class at
one of the Ivy League schools. How do you answer that? You just go, 'I
don't know.' I used to say that this is just the maraschino cherry on
top, but decided maraschino cherries are awful. So I'm going to start
now preaching the Bing cherry on top.
The thing with privacy is I'm just going to make sure that
whatever I hold sacred stays sacred. What I hold dear to my heart is
nobody's business in the same way whatever you hold dear to your heart
is nobody's business, unless you're willing to share that.
[on her fears] I'm one of those people that sort of gets off on
fear-like heights and stuff. I enjoy things that make my adrenaline run.
But mine would probably be being in a submarine submerged thousands of
feet underwater, or being in space. Those two things are fucked up. No
way.
My whole life I've been so self-conscious about being skinny. And
just recently I don't care anymore. All insecurities are projected
because of what you think others are saying about you, but they don't
really matter at all. My only real insecurities in high school were
having such long legs and thick hair-things I'm so very grateful for
now.
Some people have crooked teeth, some people have broken fingers, and I've got a back that has my initial on it.
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