The Mark of a Heroine:
Behind the Scenes with Shailene Woodley of DIVERGENT: ALLEGIANT
By Evy Baehr, Executive Managing Editor
In the middle of fancy Beverly Hills, MOVIEGUIDE® met with and talked to the down-to-earth Shailene Woodley, who told us more about her new movie in THE DIVERGENT SERIES, called ALLEGIANT.
Shailene sees acting as an art, so each movie she does is for a purpose, for a connection to the piece that “fills her passion.”
Her role as the heroine, Tris, in THE DIVERGENT SERIES is a part she’s enjoyed for the past four years. ALLEGIANT is the first part of DIVERGENT’S big finale, which ends with ASCENDANT in June 2017. ALLEGIANT shows Tris and her friend longing to go beyond the walls encircling a dystopian, rundown Chicago, to work with another group of people in creating a better future for everyone.
When asked if she feels like a role model to girls, Shailene focused her reply on her character:
“I see Tris as a role model. She was definitely a role model to me when I read this story four years ago. Wow! Four years ago. That’s a long time ago!”
Shailene continued, “Tris was a role model for me and [for] her courage. She wasn’t somebody who started out as an intrinsic hero. She became a hero through the process of becoming brave and learning to face her fears. I think in that way her story can be paralleled to the lives of many of us who are trying to be brave in the modern world.
“She was this young girl who had fallen into this mission,” Shailene concluded, “and if she didn’t accomplish [it], she and the rest of her community would die. So, in that respect she is a hero, because a hero is. . . someone who steps up in the face of fear and does something in a selfless manner to help those around them. And, Tris does do that.”
The most important thing to note regarding our all too short time with Shailene, however, is that even though she has done some heavyweight and existential movies like THE DESCENDANTS, when she heard something about ZOOTOPIA, she ecstatically exclaimed: “I am so excited to see ZOOTOPIA. Oh my …!!!”
Make sure to check out MOVIEGUIDE®’s review of DIVERGENT: ALLEGIANT when it opens Thursday night.
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