A new alpha female
Is Woodley a Hollywood player?
BEVERLY HILLS Shailene Woodley picks something off the floor of the sunny patio; it’s a stray Armani designer tag, apparently ripped off a stranger’s blouse.
“When at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills ... ” she says wryly.
Woodley is the new face of a potential billion-dollar franchise, but it’s hard to tell. Today, the actress made her own lunch, sips from a glass jug of coffee she brought from home, and admits to living “out of my suitcase” in a temporary apartment rented by the studio.
She’s one of the newly anointed in a class of stars breaking the mold of what, exactly, a star needs to be. The female film icons of today are no longer Barbies, damsels in distress or sweethearts-in-training. They are like Woodley: funny, game, tough — and pragmatic about fame.
Currently hailed as the next Jennifer Lawrence, Woodley heads the latest dystopian sci-fi blockbuster-to-be, Divergent (in theaters Friday), based on the popular young-adult book series by Veronica Roth. Divergent is tracking strong, with boxoffice experts estimating that it will earn $55 million to $70 million this weekend.
“People are like, ‘ How does it feel to be doing all of this craziness?’ ” Woodley says, pouring a gooey vitamin-C packet into a glass of water. She shrugs, sips. Life is not so different — yet.
Woodley, like Lawrence, was nurtured in the indie world, springing to fame as George Clooney’s daughter in Alexander Payne’s The Descendants and wowing critics in the low-budget love story The Spectacular Now (all while earning her keep on ABC Family’s The Secret Life of the American Teenager). Born in Los Angeles to a middle school counselor mom and a former high school counselor father, she has been in the biz since she was 5, when she began booking commercials.
Now 22, she’s in franchise territory. Divergent takes place in a futuristic Chicago ravaged by war, where the surviving population has been divided into five factions, as determined by strongest personality traits: Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Dauntless and Erudite.
Woodley plays Tris Prior, a teen who must pick her future faction based on the results of a state-driven hallucinatory test.
Tris meets her fate on Choosing Day, after her exam comes back inconclusive, meaning she is divergent, a dangerous mutant in this military-like environment, held under the thumb of powerhungry Erudite Jeanine Matthews (Kate Winslet).
Tris, who was born to the selfless Abnegation faction, is pulled to the fearless, tattooed Dauntless, a choice that forever rips her from her family.
“Tris goes from being a really ordinary person to being something much more powerful, and Shailene has that girl-next-door quality,” says director Neil Burger
“The paradigm has shifted. ... That’s something the studios are taking notice of.”
Paul Dergarabedian of Rentrak
( Limitless). “There’s an unassuming quality about her, which I thought was perfect for Tris.”
In Hollywood, where franchises of this size have typically been anchored by men — and targeted to men ages 18 to 24 — putting powerful young women first has suddenly become a billion-dollar business.
“The paradigm has shifted,” says Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst for Rentrak. “In this brave new world we live in, where younger females can exercise their clout, their influence, their taste, and they can exercise that with dollars? That’s something the studios are taking notice of.”
The initiation process to join Dauntless, viewed as the protectors of all the factions, means Tris must learn how to fight her fellow initiates, jump aboard racing trains and, most importantly, face her darkest fears. This, all while slowly being pulled toward her chiseled, tough Dauntless mentor, Four (Theo James). After 14-hour workdays on Divergent, Woodley opted to cook her own organic meals, making extra portions for lunch the next day. “I eat everything, I just eat it in its purest form,” Woodley says.
Off-set, the upbeat actress lives a bohemian existence, hauling her own spring water from local sources and traveling overseas and staying in hostels. She doesn’t own a TV and hugs everyone she meets.
Next, Woodley stars in the drama The Fault in Our Stars, in which she ages down slightly to play teenage cancer patient Hazel Lancaster.
“I didn’t think she was (right for it),” says director Josh Boone, who thought she was too old for the role. “I auditioned everybody in town. Shai was one of the last ... but I knew within two minutes (of her audition). She is the most talented actress in her age range.”
But first, a bit of a break is in store.
“I’m getting to know this new part of myself, which is like, a woman, you know?” Woodley says. “So it’s nice that I happen to have time off to get to experience what that means in my personal life outside of this industry.”