Shailene Woodley opens up about her acting career.
Shailene Woodley opened up about a terrifying physical situation she experienced in her early 20’s at the pinnacle of her acting career while making the Georgia-filmed “Divergent” movies. In an interview with the New York Times‘, Woodley says she was “very, very sick,” forcing her to “let go” of her acting career and leading roles.
“I haven’t spoken much about this yet publicly, and I will take one day, but I was very, very sick in my early 20s. While I was doing the ‘Divergent’ movies and working hard, I also was struggling with a deeply personal, very scary physical situation,” she said. “Because of that, I said no to a lot of opportunities because I needed to get better, and those jobs ended up going to peers of mine who I love. They went on to a lot of success, but there was a mix of people saying, ‘You shouldn’t have let that go!’ or ‘You shouldn’t have been sick!’”
Woodley is currently starring in the romantic drama “Endings, Beginnings,” which went straight to Video-on-demand this weekend. Following critically acclaimed roles in “The Descendants” and “The Spectacular Now,” she landed the leading role in three “Divergent” movies. The actress has since worked on indie productions and TV shows, including “Big Little Lies.” That said, according to her interview with the NYTimes, it did not come easy.
She explained passing on projects while taking care of herself “combined with my internal process of, ‘Am I going to survive what I’m going through right now and ever be healthy, or even have the opportunity to work on projects I’m passionate about again because of the situation I’m in?’ I was in a place where I had no choice but to just surrender and let go of my career, and it brought out this negative voice in my mind that kept spinning for years and years afterward.”
She says she is in a better place now. “Now I’m on the other side of it, thank God.” Her next big production is with Benedict Cumberbatch in the war drama “Prisoner 760”. She will also appear in “The Last Letter From Your Lover,” starring Felicity Jones.
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