Cindy Pearlman
NYT Syndicate
Shailene Woodley is a wanderer. The 25-year-old actress has plenty of money, but she still doesn't have a conventional house, nor any plans to get one. Sitting for an interview at a Beverly Hills hotel, she said that she can fit most of what matters to her into a single suitcase.
"I can almost fit everything in there except some kitchen items," Woodley said."Otherwise, everything I own and use is in a carry-on case."
She's well-suited, then, for the life of an actress-for-hire who spends most of her life on far-flung movie locations.
"I love the wanderlust life ” plus, when I'm home, I don't want to be alone," said Woodley, who was dressed in a black, form-fitting dress, with her hair pinned up in a loose bun."I want to be with friends and family."
She reached into her purse to pull out a tube of lip gloss, the only makeup visible on her flawless face.
Even so, she was far more glamorous than Jane Chapman, the character she plays in HBO's new limited series 'Big Little Lies,' that premiered recently.
Jane is a dressed-down, single mother who arrives with her young, somewhat-strange son in upscale Monterey, California, to start a new life.
Based on the best seller by Liane Moriarty, the miniseries centres on a murder in a ritzy town and the three leading suspects, all mothers of first-graders.
The town's Queen Bee, Madeline Martha Mackenzie (Reese Witherspoon), befriends Jane. So does Celeste Wright (Nicole Kidman), the local beauty harboring marital secrets. It's hate at first sight, though, between Jane and Renata Klein (Laura Dern), a hard-driving career woman whose daughter Jane's son might have"accidentally" tried to strangle on the first day of school.
"Jane can't believe it," Woodley said."She tells her son that he's good."
Amid the immaculately maintained homes and manicured lawns, the down-to-earth Jane is a fish out of water.
"Jane is told that she's too nice in a town where the moms aren't always that way," Woodley said."Everything about her is different. She doesn't dress like the other moms. She has a job, unlike most of them. She doesn't fit."
Or, as another mom describes her:"She's a dirty old Prius parked outside Barneys."
"I can't tell you much more," Woodley added,"because it's filled with twists and turns."
The miniseries, produced by Kidman and Witherspoon, among others, was written by David E Kelley and directed by Jean-Marc Vallee, best known for Dallas Buyers Club (2013) and Wild (2014).
It was Dern, a friend, who first approached Woodley about the miniseries. Scheduling issues stood in her way, but Dern was insistent.
"Laura said, 'You better do this project,'" Woodley recalled with a laugh."It was a lot of fun because Jean-Marc Vallee, who did Dallas Buyers Club and Wild, directed. I felt like we were making one long movie, but with so much character development that you can't do in many films.
"There was also something about having this really fluid French energy around that was really nice and completely different," she added."Plus the cast was just phenomenal and made me feel very creatively stimulated."
After playing the onscreen daughter of everyone from Molly Ringwald to George Clooney, Woodley got her first chance to play a mom in 'Big Little Lies.'
"I can't wait to have children of my own," she said, smiling."This was a practice run, with a little genius child, on screen. It was a good learning experience."
Having worked with the likes of Clooney and, on the 'Divergent' series, Janet McTeer and Naomi Watts kept Woodley from being unduly intimidated to find herself acting alongside the likes of Dern, Kidman and Witherspoon.
"They're amazing women," she said."I keep hearing, 'What was it like to go up against them?' The key thing here is that we worked together and not against each other.
"This show broke down those barriers and broke the glass ceiling when it came to camaraderie amongst women and how we relate to each other," Woodley added."Plus no one would ask five men what it was like to go up against each other on screen."
The young actress hopes to split her time between indie films, interesting projects like this one and big-budget fare like Divergent (2014).
"I want to explore emotions," she said."On some movies, sometimes, you don't get to explore the depths of the character's relationships because there is so much story that has to take place. On the smaller, indie films, I don't learn as much about action or the technological side of filmmaking, which I also find fascinating.
"Both types of projects are rewarding in different ways."
A native of Simi Valley, California, Woodley is the daughter of a middle-school counsellor and a school principal. Photogenic from infancy, she began modelling at 4, and acting roles followed. She made her small-screen debut in the television movie 'Replacing Dad' (1999), then did a two-year stint on 'The District' (2001-2003), a year on 'The OC' (2003-2004) and then 'Crossing Jordan' (2001-2004).
Woodley was starring as Amy Juergens on the popular series 'The Secret Life of the American Teenager' (2008-2013) when she was cast as the outspoken daughter of a troubled father (Clooney) in The Descendants (2011) and earned raves for her performance.
She achieved international stardom playing the tough Tris in 'Divergent' and its two sequels, then scored another hit as the cancer-stricken Hazel in The Fault in Our Stars (2014).
Her future will not include the final instalment in the"Divergent" series, however. After the box-office disappointment of Allegiant (2016), the last chapter will be made as a television movie. Stars Woodley and Miles Teller both have opted out.
"No, I'm not going to be on the television show," she said.
Woodley won't be short of things to do, though ” she has a slew of other projects in the works.
"I feel like I'm always working, which is good," she said.
She also believes in fighting for causes that move her, including getting arrested for criminal trespass while protesting the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline.
"I don't like to say that I'm fighting against things," she said."I fight for things. I fight for social justice and human rights. Unfortunately, in the world we live in today, all of those things find themselves with labels like feminism or environmentalism."
Otherwise, Woodley tries to live a quiet life when she's not working. One of her cardinal rules: Don't read about herself on the internet.
"You can't really control what other people say or do when it comes to you," she explained."You can't control what labels other people deem to position upon you to understand better who they think you are.
"So for me to waste any of my time worrying about that is just going to create more stress that is completely out of my control," the young actress concluded."I can only control my own actions and what I choose to say and do."
To many, especially younger girls, she is something of a role model. It's not a status that she cares to embrace.
"I think we're all really messy people and we all make mistakes and have to learn," Woodley said."If I could tell younger people one thing, it is to listen to their gut. When I meet someone and my gut tells me not to trust them, it's not necessarily that I don't trust them ” it's just that I trust my gut more."