Shailene Woodley
Shailene Woodley
Shailene Diann Woodley is an American actress. She first gained mainstream attention playing Amy Juergens on the ABC Family television series Secret Life of the American Teenager, later she gained critical success playing Alexandra "Alex" King in a Golden Globe-nominated performance in The Descendants, Aimee Finecky in The Spectacular Now, Hazel Grace Lancaster in The Fault in Our Starsand Beatrice "Tris" Prior in The Divergent Series. She will play Lindsay Mills in Snowdenand Jane Chapman in the upcoming HBO miniseries...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMovie Actress
Date of Birth15 November 1991
CitySimi Valley, CA
CountryUnited States of America
When I started acting, my parents gave me three rules: I had to stay good in school, stay the kid they always knew I was, and I had to have fun. If I wasn't doing those three things, then I couldn't do acting anymore.
When I read a script or I see a character, I don't necessarily see the arc of her, that by the end she is this person, she's different from she was in the beginning. I guess it's more a subconscious understanding of that arc.
I would like to do something dark or small. I love independent films. I love emotional scenes. I love people who are struggling with something. I think it's just the juxtaposition to my incredibly happy, positive demeanor.
To be honest, I never went to school for acting, and I never learned to break down a script. I took acting classes my whole life, but they never taught me anything about acting. They just taught me about myself.
There's been times when I've had heartbreaking moments and I'm like, 'I can't believe you said that,' or 'I can't believe you did that'. And it hurts, it still hurts, and it'll always hurt, but I've never had somebody that I truly cared about just walk out on me, whether it was a boyfriend, or an aunt, mom or dad.
You forget that you do choose your life and there are so many things to be grateful for and I feel like society has gotten to that point where we're always looking for the next and the better and we lose sight of what's actually in front of us.
I would love to act for the rest of my life, but I also know that it could be taken away in a day. It's something I've always loved, but it's nothing I've ever revolved my entire life around. I have many other passions as well.
I was always the frugal kid growing up because I was saving for college. Or I was always that kid that was like, 'I'm going to save my babysitting money so I can eat an expensive dinner when I go to Europe.'
I really respond to human scripts, scripts that are raw and real and risky. I love playing scary characters - not horror film scary, but vulnerable scary.
I had never been to Hawaii, and now I say that my body is from L.A. but my heart is from Hawaii, because I'm in love with it and it's home on every level, from a spiritual, soulful place.
I think the best way to become a character is by osmosis as opposed to thinking directly about stuff. The more material that you have and understand and have a going in, then the more complex your character and the understanding of your character will be.
I think you get the most honest performances when an actor shows up to set with their lines memorized. That's a very important thing that a lot of people seem to forget.
You have a pre-conceived notion of what you want the scene to be, but once you get there, that goes out the window and it turns out to be a way that you never imagined.
When you're on set and you professionally listen to what the other actors have to say, then the emotion is naturally evoked.