Shailene Woodley
Shailene Diann Woodley (born November 15, 1991)[1] is an American actress. Born in San Bernardino, California, she was raised in Simi Valley, and started modeling at the age of five and began acting professionally in minor television roles. She first gained prominence for her starring role as Amy Juergens in the ABC Family teen drama series The Secret Life of the American Teenager (2008–2013). She subsequently starred in the films Divergent (2014) and The Spectacular Now (2013), receiving a nomination for her first Golden Globe Award for the former.
Shailene Woodley
Actress
1999–present
Woodley achieved wider recognition for her starring role as a teenaged cancer patient in the romantic drama The Fault in Our Stars (2014) and as Beatrice Prior in the science-fiction trilogy The Divergent Series (2014–2016). She played a sexual assault survivor in the HBO drama series Big Little Lies (2017–2019), for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and a Primetime Emmy Award. She has since played supporting roles in the films Snowden (2016), The Mauritanian (2021) and Ferrari (2023), and starred in Adrift (2018) and The Last Letter from Your Lover (2021).
Woodley is also an environmental activist. She is a Greenpeace Oceans Ambassador and has helped the organization lobby for certain environmental policy proposals, notably the High Seas Treaty and the Global Plastic Pollution Treaty. She is a member of the Conservation International's Leadership Council and GoodLeap's Advisory Council. She also serves as a board member of the political action committee, Our Revolution and a co-founder of the nonprofit organization All it Takes, which focuses on youth development.
Early life[edit]
Woodley was raised in Simi Valley, California. Both her parents are psychologists. Her mother, Lori (née Victor), is a middle school counselor, and her father, Lonnie, is a former school principal and a family therapist. Woodley has a younger brother, Tanner.[2][3] Her parents separated when she was fourteen.[4]
Woodley was discovered by an agent while she was taking a local theater class,[5] which was part of a $700 program she begged her parents to enroll her in after accompanying her cousin to a theater class in her hometown.[4] At the age of five, she began working in commercials, including advertisements for Leapfrog, Hertz and a Honda minivan, appearing in more than sixty TV spots before she turned eleven years old. She told The Hollywood Reporter that her parents only agreed to allow her to work professionally if she promised to adhere to three rules: "I had to stay the person they knew I was; have fun; and do good in school". Woodley was a 4.0 student, who took AP classes and graduated at Simi Valley High School. In order to graduate with her class while starring in an ABC Family TV show, which she booked in the middle of her junior year, a teacher would go to her house once a week and bring all the work she missed at school, which she would do at home or in her trailer on set, in-between takes.[6][7][8] She considered studying Interior Design at New York University (NYU) but never had the chance to, as her acting career became more demanding since she signed on to star in The Secret Life of the American Teenager.[9] During a hiatus from her TV show, Woodley took a job at American Apparel in New York City. Two days into the new job, she got a call to meet with director Alexander Payne and after two months, she had to quit the job after joining the film The Descendants.[10][11] She also took acting classes from Anthony Meindl.[12]
At fifteen, she was diagnosed with scoliosis and was put in a chest-to-hips plastic brace for two years. Woodley told Us Weekly that "It's like wearing a tacky, disgusting, plastic corset for 18 hours a day. In the beginning, it was hard to eat or breathe. And I had to give up cross-country running. But I needed to have it to realign my spine".[13] Her condition did not affect her work on set as she "would [just] take the brace off during filming and put it back on during breaks".[8]
Artistry and public image[edit]
Earlier in her career, she admitted to being uneducated about the film and TV industry, particularly in terms of directors, producers, actors and good films.[87][88] According to her, she is drawn to "human scripts" which "are raw, and real, and risky" with her playing "vulnerable scary" characters.[89] She stated, "I'm such a happy, optimistic person in real life for some reason, I have a great time taking out my alter-ego, dark side on screen".[90]
Acting since the age of five, Woodley is not a method[91] nor a classically trained actor.[92] She insisted, "I'm not a good actor, just a professional listener".[93] Over the years, Woodley has altered her acting style[94] by incorporating the method of whoever she's working with.[95]
Personal life[edit]
In 2018, Woodley confirmed she was dating Australian-Fijian rugby union player Ben Volavola.[96][97] In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, she said: "I fall in love with human beings based on who they are, not based on what they do or what sex they are".[98] In April 2020, the relationship with Volavola reportedly ended.[99]
Woodley was reported to be in a relationship with NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers in 2020.[100][101] In February 2021, Rodgers referred to his "fiancée" during his acceptance speech for the league's MVP award at the NFL Honors ceremony, confirming that he was engaged, but not to whom.[102] Woodley confirmed she was engaged to Rodgers in a February 22, 2021 appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.[103] In February 2022, it was reported that Woodley and Rodgers had ended their engagement.[104]