Shailene Woodley

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Yearbook pictures of Shailene ranging from 2005-2008 (credit: SplashNews)

 

 

 

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Shailene photographed by Miguel Reveriego for the July 2014 Cover of Vanity Fair

 

 

 

Shailene Woodley tells Vanity Fair senior West Coast editor Krista Smith she nearly quit acting after her supporting role in The Descendants earned her laurels from Hollywood and sudden success. “Somebody came to me and said, ‘I can’t wait to see what you do next.’ I took that as pressure—that I had to live up to somebody else’s expectations,” she recalls. “There were a few months where I was like, ‘I don’t want to act anymore.’ And then I got over it and realized it’s none of my business what other people think of me.”

 

The headstrong young actress adds that George Clooney, her co-star in The Descendants, has helped reaffirm her beliefs amid the distractions of Hollywood. “He has been an angel in my life for many reasons,” she tells Smith. “He knew everyone’s name on set,” she says. “He treated everyone as an equal and everyone got his warmth.”

 

For Clooney, the adulation is mutual. “Shailene can do whatever she wants,” the actor tells Smith. “If she wants to be a movie star, she has it. If she wants to change the world, she will. Her talent and kindness go hand in hand.”

 

Though Woodley has a reputation as an actress with a conscience, she tells Smith she realizes that not everyone wants to hear about it. “As much as this industry is a platform for talking about big issues, there’s also so many fuckin’ issues. You could talk about Russia, or Argentina, or fracking, or G.M.O.’s. Maybe the only thing that I’m supposed to do is just show up and be me in every moment. Because I do feel like one of my gifts is to be open and lovely—simple things like smiling at strangers and having kind, small interactions. I think that is what’s going to ultimately shift things.”

 

Her refreshing sensibility has helped her deal with the disappointments that follow a career in acting—case in point, her reaction to her role as Mary Jane Watson being ultimately cut out from The Amazing Spider-Man 2. “For a few hours it was literally like, ‘Oh, my God, was I awful? Why did they cut me? What are people going to think?’ I woke up the next morning and I was like, ‘O.K., it makes total sense.’ I’m a pretty spiritual person, so I can just sit back and trust that everything happens for a reason, even if my ego doesn’t like it.”

 

Woodley also confides in Smith that her commitment to saving the world could get in the way of her love life—at least when it comes to dating a fellow actor, which she’s hesitant to do. “I’m never going to say never. I love acting, but I also really love nature and most actors don’t want to get dirty.” She tells Smith she considers herself lucky not to have had to work with any, as she puts it, “dicks,” and shares a special camaraderie with Miles Teller, her co-star in last year’s The Spectacular Now and Divergent. “I look at Miles and, like, I’m sort of Julia Roberts in the same way she is to George. Their relationship I could see being our relationship in 20 years, and that really is special.”

 

The last word on Woodley comes from the male co-star who perhaps knows her best. “We’ll be talking about Shailene Woodley 40 years from now,” Clooney says. “I’ve never seen anyone so young that has so much together.”

The full story is available June 12 in the digital edition.

Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbK2l5z9YkM

Edited June 10, 2014 by ofbarbs

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Shailene in Modern Luxury Magazine

Stargazer

Done with The Descendants and being Divergent, Shailene Woodley shines in The Fault in Our Stars this month.

“Let’s get in our comfies!” declares Shailene Woodley at the end of her extensive five-hour photo shoot. The 22-year-old actress, who stars as the teenage cancer-patient protagonist in this month’s The Fault in Our Stars (based on the best-selling young adult novel and romantic heart-wrencher by John Green), is speaking to no one—and everyone—on the set.

And while her sentiment is meant to address the 5-inch heels that further accentuate her already long, lean, nearly 5-foot-9-inch frame; the painstakingly applied makeup she would normally eschew; the pixie cut that is rarely so perfectly coiffed; and the never-before-worn, form-fitting designer duds she’s donned instead of her standard secondhand treasures, it’s also an affirmation of Woodley’s mindset and general life orientation. Call it an impromptu, casual cri de coeur, California-style!

Born in Ventura County’s Simi Valley, Woodley bears many attributes often associated with those who make the Golden State their home. To start, she’s permanently peripatetic. “I’ve never lived in the same place, let alone the same house, for more than seven years,” says Woodley, the eldest of two children born to an elementary school principal (dad) and a middle school counselor (mom), who moved twice within California prior to returning to Simi Valley before her 10th birthday. To this day, she remains perpetually on the move. “I live in my car,” she jokes, pointing at her ride, which has a patina that makes clear its familiarity with the state highway system.

Woodley is also eco-conscious, Gaia-aware, prone to practicing alternatives to Western medicine, a ready explorer of the unconventional and a clear proponent of positivism. “I’ve always been an optimist, an adventure-seeker, a believer that we’re all born perfect and feel perfect until society teaches us otherwise,” says Woodley, who is clearly fond of embraces, as this writer experienced at our interview’s beginning and end. “You’re a good hugger,” she pronounces.

But here’s the deftness in Woodley’s magic: Her serious beliefs are not just skin-deep; they’re carefully considered, often extensively researched, nuanced as opposed to naive, and frequently presented with a sense of humor that squarely targets herself. They also reflect an openness, curiosity and rigor that she says have kept her both whole and happy, “recognizing, of course, that not every day is rainbows,” while propelling her to the front of the queue in a profession rarely conducive to emotional stability or inner peace.

“I find a sacredness in meditation, and in a tree, but I’m also aware it’s just a meditation and just a tree. It’s both ways,” Woodley says, emphasizing duality, perspective, fluctuation and, above all, a balance that must be continually recalibrated. Rose-colored or not, it’s an attitude that works for her, at least judging by her productivity, earnest enthusiasm and absence from TMZ—and all at an age when many a college senior consider a drinking game the shortcut to self-awareness.

As many young actors dream, Woodley got her first break in acting class. Unlike most of these acting students, she was only 5 years old. “I was in an after-school program, and a friend of the teacher called my mom and said she wanted to represent me,” Woodley recalls. “Mom was like, ‘What’s an agent?’” Nevertheless, seeing their daughter’s enthusiasm—“Acting for me was always just pure fun,” she says—her parents were supportive, and they remained so over the next five years, as one commercial grew to 40, and as small and recurring TV roles on shows such as Replacing Dad, The District and Crossing Jordan started to appear.

“We had three rules if I wanted to keep acting,” she says. “I had to stay the person I was; I had to stay in school; and I had to have fun.” An even-keel formula, it remained balanced despite the general waves of adolescence as well as trials more specific: her parents’ divorce when she was 14, followed the next year by a diagnosis of scoliosis. “I never saw either as ‘poor me’; I figured I’d just adapt and move forward,” she says.

In terms of acting, that forward direction led to Woodley’s breakout TV role on The Secret Life of the American Teenager, a five-season stint she started at age 15. “I got my GED, but I also wanted a hard diploma,” says Woodley, who for half of her junior year and her entire senior year picked up schoolwork from Simi Valley High School once a week to complete and return. She notes, “It was as normal as it could be. I went to prom; I had good friends and a first kiss; I got to do the whole program.”

Post-diploma, Woodley also received a major graduation gift: the chance to co-star with George Clooney in The Descendants, her feature film debut and professional watershed, which won Woodley numerous awards and nominations as well as concentrated industry attention. Not that she was overly fazed. “It’s hard to tell from when different projects were released, but after The Descendants, I didn’t work for two and a half years,” she says, adding that she had no problem resisting advice to move quickly, compound gains or strike while the iron was hot. “If I’m not passionate about something, I’m not going to do it,” she maintains.

Following that tandoori-oven dry spell, inspiration fully overtook Woodley. In the course of a year, she’s starred in four films. Running the gamut of both budget and genre, the cinematic quartet includes indie coming-of-ager The Spectacular Now; the low-budget thriller White Bird in a Blizzard, by controversial independent filmmaker Greg Araki; the Chicago-filmed blockbuster Divergent, the success of which has guaranteed the franchise as well as Woodley’s return as protagonist Beatrice Prior in three more films, with Insurgent soon to be filmed in Atlanta; and finally, The Fault in Our Stars, a story of romance, redemption and renaissance as told by the 16-year-old with cancer played by Woodley. “Nothing teaches you as quickly about the unfairness of life, as well as the importance of living fully and presently, as kids with cancer,” she says, adding that the book (one of her favorites) and its author, John Green, also reminded her of how important it is to overcome fear. “Fear is taught to us when we’re young, by society, which teaches us we’re not perfect [and] compares us to others, and by a media that compares us with fantasy. I say, ‘Enough,’” says Woodley, with the same resoluteness of the teenage heroine she portrays, a character inspired by a real-life friend of Green’s who died of cancer at 16. “Screw fear,” she scoffs.

Living large, not as in bling but in being, is indeed on Woodley’s mind. It’s a cornerstone of her acting process. “I’ve [long] taken acting classes, but I’ve only had three teachers, and none of them spoke about method or technique,” she says. “What they talked about was truth, being truthful and grounded, and then using that to see the world through the eyes of another person.” It’s also a cornerstone of her personality. “I never thought of acting as something I did in addition to something else; I never thought of it as a career. But it obviously is, as it takes up all my time.” Breaking eye contact, her big browns wander, making them all the stronger. “But when it’s no longer fun, I’ll quit doing it,” the star avows.

After the interview, we hug for the last time and I make the sensible observation that after five hours on her feet among a battalion of stylists, photographers and a demanding writer, she must be tired. “Tired?” she says, as though she’s never before heard the word and doesn’t like the sound of it. “I’m ready to start my day!” Clearly, this actress is just getting started.

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Pictures from Vanity Fair's instagram

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Shailene Woodley – Vanity Fair USA July 2014 (credit: fashionscansremastered.net)

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Here's a HQ scan of her cover from Women's health.

 

 

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Shailene talks to Women's Health Magazine

On her favorite foods: Sweet potatoes are unreal. I eat chocolate every day. Raw chocolate, hands down, the best gift to human beings. My favorite dish to cook…any sort of pot roast. In a ceramic enamel pot. You just can’t go wrong with the flavors. That’s always my go-to. But what I do most often is generally an egg dish with whatever vegetables are in season because it takes 10 minutes, and you have the tastiest meal ever. You got your protein, you got your veggies, you got a little carbs in there.

On her proudest physical feature: I guess I’m proud that I’m very fit. That’s not a physical feature but I’m very proud that if somebody was like, ‘Alright, we’re walking to Central Park right now. I’d be like, ‘let’s run to Central Park right now.’ I’m really proud of my ability to be fit or stay fit and honor my body in that way. In a fight or flight situation, I consider myself a fighter, and so regardless of whether I would win or survive or anything, I want to know that I can give it my all. When I feel fit and when I feel strong, I feel like I can empower and fight back.

On her dream gig: I would love to play Stevie Nicks. She’s just such a fascinating woman who’s lived such a life and is still living such a life. Her music was really profound for me in my life. Yeah I think it’d be an adventure to play Stevie Nicks. I love that there is no other Stevie Nicks in this world. She is so fully herself, and undividedly herself. That in itself is such a powerful lesson to take in and be like, ‘wow.’ No one is going to be the next Stevie Nicks and Stevie Nicks was next the next anyone. And I think that’s such beautiful advice for all of us. You do you, we do we. She does she in such a beautiful way. I think it’d be great to sing in a film. I love to sing. I guess another dream movie would be a movie like Once. It’s so romantic and sensual and musical but doesn’t feel like a musical necessarily.”

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Make sure you vote for Shailene at the Teen Choice Awards! She's nominated in these categories:

 

CHOICE MOVIE: DRAMA

American Hustle

Heaven Is For Real

Million Dollar Arm

The Fault in Our Stars

Veronica Mars

 

CHOICE MOVIE ACTRESS: DRAMA

Emma Watson, Noah

Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle

Kristen Bell, Veronica Mars

Sandra Bullock, Gravity

Shailene Woodley, The Fault in Our Stars

 

CHOICE MOVIE: ACTION

Divergent

Edge of Tomorrow

Godzilla

Maleficent

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones

 

CHOICE MOVIE ACTRESS: ACTION

Emily Blunt, Edge of Tomorrow

Lily Collins, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones

Elle Fanning, Maleficent

Angelina Jolie, Maleficent

Shailene Woodley, Divergent

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She's so flawless in the new photoshoot. Thanks!

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Shailene Woodley Talks About Her Character Hazel in 'The Fault in Our Stars' - Teen Vogue

 

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Shailene Woodley Is the Sweetest Person Ever—Here's Proof!

Read an excerpt from Shailene's July/August 2014 cover story.

 

 

 

For someone who has studied herbalism, eschews silverware, makes her own lipstick, and forages for food, Shailene Woodley is far from being off in her own world. Instead, she is warm and fun and present and self-deprecating. And, OK, a little loopy, but in the most charming way.

 

Also: She hugs everyone. I got three during our time together—one at first, then two at the end—but she also merrily hugged everyone who came up to us asking for a photo on the streets of New York City's East Village. ("Hi, I'm Shai!" she said to two already hyperventilating teen girls the night before, they'd seen her in Divergent, based on the wildly popular YA book series.) Her energy is unusual—she's hungry for life, for things, for learning and motion and people—and I haven't met anyone quite like her. I'm not the only one who's fallen for this unexpected superstar wearing high-top Converse sneaks, gray skinny jeans, and a leather jacket: Hollywood's clearly swooning. 

 

In addition to appearing in Divergent, the 22-year-old native of Simi Valley, California, starred with George Clooney in The Descendants (earning herself a Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe nom) and now is in what might be this year's most buzzy movie—The Fault in Our Stars, based on John Green's best-selling novel about two teens with cancer who fall in love. Then this fall, she's in the drama White Bird in a Blizzard. Which prompts the question: Do movie stars really have time to go foraging?! Not anymore, really. "But," Shailene says, "I have friends who do, and they send me stuff!" 

 

So, how to reconcile the self-proclaimed "hippie-dippie" with the successful Tinseltown starlet? It's somehow pretty easy. One way: Shailene's worn five-toe running shoes at an awards-show after-party! And that's just the beginning.

 

To read the full interview with Shailene, pick up a copy of the July/August issue of Women's Health, on newsstands June 24!

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Shailene Woodley and the Next Wave of Hollywood Stars
Shailene Woodley belongs to a new breed of Hollywood star for whom the only sane reaction to 24-7 scrutiny is being completely themselves. With Woodley carrying this month’s much-anticipated The Fault in Our Stars and filming the second Divergent movie, Krista Smith learns how she deals (George Clooney helps), while Miguel Reveriego photographs her and a posse of her peers.
 
 
 
Hometown: Simi Valley, California. Age: 22. Up next: The Fault in Our Stars, with Ansel Elgort. Favorite sneakers: Vibram FiveFingers. Favorite movie to watch with parents: “Y Tu Mamá También or FernGully.” Favorite jeans: Overalls. Last TV binge watch: Top Chef.
 
If you ever lose your way in the hills above Los Angeles, or elsewhere, you’ll want Shailene Woodley by your side. “See all of that beautiful stuff?” the 22-year-old actress says, pointing at a patch of green vegetation just off the hiking trail in Fryman Canyon Park. “It’s called miner’s lettuce. If you’re ever stranded in the wild, you can eat all of that.”
 
Dressed in a white T-shirt and high-waisted skinny jeans, with a cell phone tucked into her back pocket, Woodley would look like any other millennial were it not for her perfectly lithe figure, her increasingly famous face, and, perhaps, her choice of water container. In lieu of a designer bottle, Woodley clutches a glass Mason jar. She stops to admire the vistas and picks up bits of trash left behind by other hikers—a plastic cap, a wrapper—and squeezes them into the pockets of her jeans.
 
Woodley isn’t your average twentysomething starlet. She’s part of a new breed, epitomized by Jennifer Lawrence, who pride themselves on, well, being themselves. But whereas Lawrence is the endearingly clumsy southern gal, Woodley is like a forest sprite who might be doing something more wholesome with her life if filmmakers weren’t so eager to give her one starring role after another.
 
Hollywood was built on the backs of young actresses, from Shirley Temple to Judy Garland to Elizabeth Taylor and beyond, but today’s generation has to contend with a media environment that is far more complicated—and precarious—than the ones the studio chiefs of the 20th century manipulated for their own purposes. In an era when any false move can be broadcast by one fan to millions of others in the blink of an eye, authenticity isn’t just a pose—it’s a requirement.
 
Like Lawrence, whose first two Hunger Games movies have grossed a combined $800 million, Woodley has her own post-apocalyptic young-adult franchise, Divergent, based on the best-selling series of novels by the 25-year-old writer Veronica Roth. The first installment, which came out in March, has already earned $145 million and will spin off three more. This month, Woodley will carry another much-anticipated film, The Fault in Our Stars—based on John Green’s beloved young-adult novel, which has been on the New York Times best-seller list for more than 120 weeks—into cineplexes worldwide. The preview is the most-liked trailer in the history of YouTube.
 
“Shai,” as she is called by her friends and family, grew up in Simi Valley, California (home of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library), and started acting at around age five. “But it took a long time,” she remembers. “I had 500 nos before I had one yes—and it was a Honda commercial.” She went on to star in about 40 commercials before landing her first lead role, in the ABC Family television series The Secret Life of the American Teenager, in 2008. (In the meantime, Woodley was diagnosed with scoliosis. “I wore a back brace 18 hours a day for two years straight,” she says.)
 
An even bigger break came when, after an exhaustive search, director Alexander Payne cast her as George Clooney’s daughter in the Oscar-winning The Descendants. The part earned Woodley a Film Independent Spirit Award and a Golden Globe nomination for best supporting actress. At first, Woodley wasn’t sure she was ready for her newfound success and mused aloud about quitting acting to become an herbalist, exploring her interest in medicinal plants. “Somebody came to me and said, ‘I can’t wait to see what you do next.’ I took that as pressure—that I had to live up to somebody else’s expectations,” she recalls. “There were a few months where I was like, ‘I don’t want to act anymore.’ And then I got over it and realized it’s none of my business what other people think of me.”
 
The other big takeaway Woodley got from her first film was Clooney himself. “He has been an angel in my life for many reasons,” she says of Hollywood’s perennial Everyman. She credits the actor for reaffirming everything she was taught to believe in. “He knew everyone’s name on set,” she says. “He treated everyone as an equal and everyone got his warmth.”
 
The admiration is mutual. “Shailene can do whatever she wants,” Clooney says. “If she wants to be a movie star, she has it. If she wants to change the world, she will. Her talent and kindness go hand in hand.”
 
Despite her chosen profession, Woodley didn’t grow up in front of the television or watching movies. “My parents were like, ‘Great, we have a free weekend. Let’s go camping!’ So I grew up outdoors, not really ever sitting on the couch.”
 
Woodley’s parents are psychologists who work in education, and she credits them with giving her perspective on the constant disappointment that comes with being an actor. “I never saw it as rejection,” she says. “I saw it as an opportunity to get better. Also, I learned over time that it obviously has to do with your acting, but it has a lot to do with luck.” Her parents divorced when she was 15; she remains close to them and to her brother, Tanner, 20, who briefly dabbled in acting and is now in college.
 
Woodley’s grandmother, a practitioner of alternative medicine, provided another kind of perspective: it was she who initiated her granddaughter’s commitment to Mother Earth and health. “She kind of opened my mind to it,” Woodley says. “And then when I was 14, it was a really windy Southern California day, and I looked up and the pine needles were swirling in the air and it was gorgeous. I looked down and there was all this trash swirling around. I was like, ‘Do I want to be a part of that beautiful pine-needle world or this really tragic trash scene on the floor?’ ”
 
Read more of the article here!
 
Behind the scenes pictures:
 
 
 

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Shailene for Women's Health Magazine

 

 

 

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Some of her movie clips....

 

 

 

 

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Giampaolo Sgura for InStyle June 2014 - HQ/MQs/no text

 

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Shailene for the June 2014 Issue of You Magazine

 

 

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In Conversation: July Cover Star Shailene Woodley

Behind the Scenes with Our July 2014 Cover Star Shailene Woodley

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New clips from White Bird In A Blizzard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2_L1wzdVnE