Category: Articles and Interviews

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Shailene for S/ magazine

July 20, 2019

Another day, another new photoshoot! Shailene is featured this time on the cover of lifestyle and fashion publication, S/ magazine. In addition to a brand new set of photos, she discusses the second season of Big Little Lies and her campaign efforts to help the environment.

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Magazine Scans > Scans from 2019 > Summer | S/ magazine
Photoshoots and Portraits > Photoshoots and Portraits from 2019 > Session 09: S/ magazine

S/ MAGAZINE – Domestic abuse. The hardships and blessings of motherhood.Psychological damage as a result of sexual violence. This is just a sampling of the heavy, real-life topics explored throughout HBO’s TV phenomenon Big Little Lies.

An adaptation of Australian author Liane Moriarty’s 2014 bestselling book of the same name, the award-winning dark comedy-drama is set in the affluent oceanside town of Monterey, California, and revolves around five mothers struggling with ethical and emotional issues. The women suddenly find themselves right at the centre of a murder investigation that rocks the quaint, but rather toxic, beachfront community.

Peppered throughout with scenes that flash back and forward, the murder-mystery narrative of season one—which premiered in 2017— pulsates constantly with secrets, parenting insecurities, and competitive streaks between working, stay-at-home, and tiger moms. All these elements have become Big Little Lies’ indispensable pleasures, making it a tale that has left viewers disturbed and hooked on the seven-hour whodunit quest to the season’s finale.

But engrossing rivalries and feuds aside, there is more surrounding Monterey’s grudge-holding club of mothers. The show, which was created by American writer and producer David E. Kelley and directed by Montreal’s Jean-Marc Vallée, also turned out to be a powerful onscreen depiction of female strength, compassion, and, most importantly, solidarity.

“I love that we have the opportunity to explore the psychological relationships between women, because often we see [the] presentation of females as being either completely for or against one another,” says Shailene Woodley. The American actor stars as one of the leading characters, alongside Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman (Witherspoon and Kidman executive produce in addition to starring), Laura Dern, and Zoë Kravitz. “In this show, you really get to explore the inner dynamics of jealousy, insecurity, comparison, real friendship, forced friendship, and loneliness. All the aspects that make up real-life relationships are at the core of this show.”

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Articles and Interviews Magazine Scans Photo Updates Photoshoots and Portraits

Who What Wear | Welcome to Shailene Woodley’s Saturn Return

May 22, 2019

Looking incredible in a brand new (and sustainable) photoshoot, Shailene is the cover girl of this month’s edition of Who What Wear. The issue also features an exclusive interview where she discusses the challenges of finding her own personal style, mental health and her Big Little Lies co-stars.

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Magazine Scans > Scans from 2019 > May | Who What Wear
Photoshoots and Portraits > Photoshoots and Portraits from 2019 > Session 11: Who What Wear

WHO WHAT WEAR – Shailene Woodley and I are on a cross-country phone call talking about our impending “Saturn returns.” As common a Southern California expression as “June gloom” or “pilot season,” Saturn return describes an astrological event that takes place when Saturn moves back to the position in space where it was when a person was born—approximately 29.5 years later. “I’m not one for dogma or doctrine of any kind,” Woodley qualifies when I ask her how closely she adheres to astrology or spiritual ideology of any kind. “But I deeply believe that if things have been around for thousands of years, then there must be some wisdom in there.” Woodley and I, both 27, seem to agree that while the planets may not be directly impacting our destinies, there is an undeniable change that occurs in one’s late 20s. At this age, we seem to move past all the aimless tumult we experienced at the beginning of adulthood—a time of professional unpredictability, financial instability, and the awkwardness of still not having your look quite figured out. Woodley describes 27 as the start of her pilgrimage back to a more relaxed, almost childlike state. “I feel a resurrection of the freedom that I experienced when I was about 17—this beautiful 10-year cycle,” she continues. “Despite the raging hormones and not-so-great boyfriend I had at the time, I still had a sense of wonder. I feel like I allowed that wonder to be crushed. But it’s being brought up from the ashes at the moment.”

Today, Woodley is best recognized for her role on the hit HBO series Big Little Lies, in which she stars alongside Hollywood powerhouses like Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, and, as of season two (premiering June 9), Meryl Streep. The Simi Valley, California native first rose to fame in 2008 as the 16-year-old protagonist of the ABC Family TV drama The Secret Life of the American Teenager. Lead roles in big-screen blockbusters like 2011’s The Descendants, starring George Clooney; the sci-fi action Divergent trilogy; and The Fault in Our Stars positioned Woodley, with her openhearted quality of performance and charm, as one of the most prominent ingenues in mainstream entertainment. But offscreen, Woodley was cultivating a quirkier reputation. Throughout her early 20s, the actress flummoxed reporters and talk show hosts with her bohemian, profoundly un-Hollywood approach to beauty and lifestyle. Flower child–ish, Goop-esque practices like oil pulling, DIY’ing toothpaste from clay, and using spirulina as eye shadow were among the Woodley-isms that made the news. “Are Shailene Woodley’s Natural Beauty Hacks Safe?” a 2017 StyleCaster headline read. “‘Divergent’ Star Shailene Woodley Is a Queerish Hippie Who Believes in Trees,” read an Autostraddle title from a few years earlier.

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Shailene Woodley Covers Marie Claire UK

September 1, 2017

Shailene is the cover star for the October issue of Marie Claire UK where she talks activism, being arrested and helping to change the world. In addition to the interview, there’s also a gorgeous new photoshoot, featuring some incredible shots of Shailene taken in Elysian Park earlier this summer. Enjoy!

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Magazine Scans > Scans from 2017 > Oct | Marie Claire UK
Photoshoots and Portraits > Photoshoots and Portraits from 2017 > Session 04: Marie Claire UK

Most actors are calling themselves activists these days, but few would put their career on the line for a cause they truly believe in. Thankfully, Shailene Woodley isn’t most actors. In this exclusive interview, she tells Mickey Rapkin about getting arrested, giving away her personal possessions and popping her political hymen (Susan Sarandon’s words, not ours)…

Last October, Shailene Woodley found herself at the Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota, America, protesting against the Dakota Access pipeline, a controversial piece of infrastructure built atop the Sioux tribe’s sacred ground. This protest wasn’t simply about respecting Native American sovereignty, though that was certainly top of mind for the actress-turned-activist, who is horrified by 200 years of oppressive treatment of indigenous people. This was also a sustainability issue that threatened 18 million people’s drinking water.

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Articles and Interviews

Shailene Woodley: ‘Life is a game, you’ve got to have fun with it’

December 4, 2014

TELEGRAPH – When I meet Shailene Woodley, she’s holding a cup of something mud-coloured and healthy-looking. In an attempt to establish some common ground. I hazard a guess: green tea? It turns out to be nettle. “It gives energy, and is full of iron,” she tells me. “So it’s especially good if you’re menstruating.”

I quickly learn that it’s a pretty typical Woodley comment – she channels a sort of hippy-ish, California vibe (she grew up just outside LA, she’s passionate about environmentalism, she drinks nettles), that sits alongside some very genuine down-to Earth charm.

If anyone’s in need of energy-boosting beverages, it’s Woodley. The actress had three films open in 2014: dystopian thriller Divergent (a sequel, The Divergent Series: Insurgent, is out next year), dark indie drama White Bird in A Blizzard, and bittersweet teen tearjerker The Fault in Our Stars.

The latter, adapted from the John Green YA novel, tells the story of a romance between Gus and Hazel, two teenagers with cancer. Even if you haven’t actually read The Fault in Our Stars, you’ve likely read part of it. Pithy, bite-sized quotes from the book – “As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once”; “Some infinities are bigger than other infinities” – have invaded social media, testament to the novel’s popularity with its intended audience.

Despite its difficult subject matter, the film was was a breakout hit, grossing $304 million worldwide against its relatively modest budget of $12 million, and, along with Divergent, propelling Woodley to household name status. Previously, the actress made her feature film debut in Alexander Payne’s 2011 film The Descendents, playing the elder daughter of George Clooney’s character; prior to that she starred in the ABC Family series The Secret Life of the American Teenager. She was offered the role of Mary Jane Watson in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, but her part was cut from the film, after the filmmakers made the decision to focus on the relationship between Peter and Gwen.

Woodley’s performance in The Faults in our Stars drew critical acclaim – as Hazel, she’s funny, vulnerable, acerbic and heart-breaking all at once – but, perhaps more importantly, earned a seal of approval from the book’s dedicated army of young fans.

“I felt pressure from myself, not from any outside source,” she says, when I ask if it was difficult taking on something with such a hardcore fan base. “Just because the book, and the screenplay, affected me on such a cellular level.”

In fact, Woodley, who read Green’s novel immediately after finishing the script, wholeheartedly includes herself among this fan base. At 23, she’s pretty much slap bang in the middle of Green’s target audience. But her enthusiasm and lack of cynicism are refreshing.

“I’ve never read a script where I laughed out loud as much as I did when I read it,” she says. “I felt, if I do this movie, it won’t be for me as an artist… it will be me, literally protecting the integrity of John Green’s original thoughts.”

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Articles and Interviews Photo Updates Photoshoots and Portraits

Shailene Woodley on teen sex, violence and Marvel

October 24, 2014

I’ve added a lovely new portrait session of Shailene to the gallery. The accompanying interview can be found below–be sure to take a look.

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Photoshoots and Portraits > Sessions > Photoshoots and Portraits from 2014 > Session 18: M. Anzuoni

REUTERS – For actress Shailene Woodley, transitioning from her teen years into adulthood in Hollywood was an emotional experience.

“When I saw ‘Fault in Our Stars’ for the first time, I started crying,” Woodley said of her hit coming-of-age cancer film earlier this summer.

“I recognized that this is such a bittersweet moment, because this is the last young adult film I’d ever do, because I can no longer empathize with the teenage process.”

Woodley, 22, has carved out a career playing teen heroines, from Tris in the “Divergent” film adaptations and cancer patient Hazel in “Fault in Our Stars,” to Kat Connor in “White Bird in a Blizzard,” out in U.S. theaters on Friday.

In “White Bird,” Woodley plays a complex young girl who has to come to terms with her beautiful but troubled mother Eve (Eva Green) suddenly going missing.

Sprawled out on the floor of a Los Angeles hotel room, Woodley talked to Reuters about portraying teen sexuality, violence in young adult films and whether she’d ever enter the Marvel universe.

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Articles and Interviews Projects White Bird in a Blizzard

Shailene Woodley and Gregg Araki on Sex, Storytelling and the VOD Generation

October 20, 2014

INDIEWIRE – Gregg Araki and Shailene Woodley sat down with Indiewire’s Nigel Smith as part of AOL Build’s interview series to discuss their upcoming film, “White Bird in a Blizzard.” The film, which premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, stars Woodley as Kat Connors, a 17 year old girl both discovering her sexuality and dealing with the mysterious disappearance of her hauntingly beautiful mother, Eve (Eva Green).

Also starring Christopher Meloni, Shiloh Fernandez, Gabourey Sidibe, Thomas Jane, Dale Dickey, Mark Indelicato, Sheryl Lee and Angela Bassett, “White Bird in a Blizzard” will see a limited released in theaters on October 24.

Nils Larsen, Woodley’s manager, is good friends with Araki.
“It was at the Spirit Awards when Shailene won for ‘Descendants’ that I saw Nils again and [he said] Shailene is looking to do something, she’s been passing on everything, she’s being very particular and wants to follow up ‘Descendants’ with something super special and, you know, do you have anything? And I said I’m working on this book adaptation and Nils was like oh my god, send it and I hadn’t even finished it yet. But I finally finished it, sent it to Shailene and I guess she liked it because there she is.” – Gregg Araki

Woodley supports the film’s emphasis on teenage sexuality.
“I think it’s so refreshing to see a coming-of-age film that actually deals with sex and that has sexuality be a large theme in the film because it’s such a large part of so many adolescents’ lives right? It’s there, we just don’t really talk about and we really don’t talk about it in cinema too often with young people and you look at French films or European films and it’s not a big deal because sexuality is not something that’s sort of taboo over there. It’s more normal, it’s more accepted, it’s just a part of life and it’s part of all of our lives.”

“The image of life being so perfect with the lawn [in the film] and yet being so completely broken inside and projecting an image to others that isn’t actually the feeling that you exist within yourself I feel like is similar to sexuality in America in a lot of ways, you know, where it’s something that exists and you pretend that it doesn’t in everyday life. I thought it was really. neat. And it was truthful. It wasn’t exploitive or anything.”

But there was one element of sex was totally new for her.
“…I never had to do a sex scene looking into a camera before. That was a little bit interesting.”

Araki enjoyed the challenging of telling a story driven from the female perspective.
“…What it’s like to be a woman, what it’s like to be a young girl coming of age, what it’s like to be a mother and a wife who’s not happy and is sort of playing this role she really doesn’t want to play and the relationships between mothers and daughters…there were so many things going on in this story that I had never, even as a man, even thought about. I think that was something, as a filmmaker, that really, really excited me.”

“Divergent” pushed Woodley the most out of her comfort zone.
“It was such a big world. You know, there’s green screens and not only were you trying to act, you have to remember fight choreography and the timing of a bomb that’s going off in the corner and like make sure you don’t get hit but still be an actor. So that was probably the most challenging just in the sense that are so many elements that I had never worked with before.”

Araki loves the church of old-school cinema, but understands the wants of the generation.
“Now with VOD and Amazon and iTunes and everything, it’s incredibly cool to me that some kid in Alaska can read a tweet about ‘White Bird’ and push a button and watch it right now. The instantaneousness of that and the accessibility of that, is, as a filmmaker, super exciting.”

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