Here, Woodley and her mother get personal with BAZAAR.com in an exclusive interview about discovering, identifying, and treating their own mental health challenges; their approaches to therapy; and what tools they’ve developed to combat anxiety both before and during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Together, they’re hosting a free virtual event on Thursday, May 14 to screen Angst, a documentary about living with anxiety, and to host a panel about coping with anxiety in the time of COVID-19. The mother-daughter team will speak on the panel alongside a clinical psychologist, youth leaders, and friends such model Cara Delevingne. Woodley in an interview with The New York Times, said that she missed out on a lot of early roles because she was “very, very sick”, reports variety.com. Woodley — who starred as Jane Chapman in “Big Little Lies” and most recently played a leading role in “Endings, Beginnings,” a drama set to release in May — expressed gratitude for coming out “on the other side” of the illness.
“I always sit down and talk with the director, the other actor. We always have conversations of, ‘How are you planning on shooting it? And I’ve never been in a situation where those things haven’t been honored.” She chooses realism over modesty. “Oftentimes in movies, you see two people having sex and the woman has her bra on, and in real life, I don’t think I ever did that, sex with a bra — or very, very rarely,” she says. “It made me learn the incredibly difficult life task of not caring what people think about you very quickly,” she said. “The more I paid attention to the noise that was surrounding me, the longer it was taking my body and my mind to heal because I wasn’t focused on myself, I was focused on an image of myself via the lens of everyone around us.”
“I’m on the tail end of it, which is very exciting, but it’s an interesting thing, going through something so physically dominating while also having so many people pay attention to the choices you make, the things you say, what you do, what you look like,” she said. “It spun me out for a while. You feel so incredibly isolated and alone.” Starting in 2015, Woodley took a break from filming for nearly a year, stating in a later interview that she “had hit a wall with acting.” From 2017 to 2019, Woodley starred as a sexual assault survivor, alongside Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon, in two seasons of the HBO drama series Big Little Lies.
One other crucial tool for me to combat anxiety is to stay off my phone. I guess I believe that if something is going to happen, it’s going to happen whether I’m on my phone that second or I’m not on my phone. So at the end of the day, I can put my phone away and take time for myself instead of feeling that I have to go through hundreds of text messages or scrolling on Instagram or listening to every voicemail or replying to every single email. Shailene Woodley detailed how a personal health concern impacted her everyday life. In 2014, Woodley starred as Beatrice “Tris” Prior in the film Divergent, an adaptation of Veronica Roth’s best-selling young-adult novel of the same name, and the first installment in The Divergent Series. Shailene Woodley with her Big Little Lies co-stars”And I definitely suffered a lot more than I had to because I didn’t take care of myself.
“But because of that work, I feel very grounded and rooted in who I am and very clear about everything in my life, whether it’s my career or my relationships or my own internal worth. I feel very grateful to have walked that line of fire, because now I know what I don’t want to ever go back to.” “Now I’m on the other side of it, thank God,” said Woodley last year. Although Woodley told The New York Timesin 2020 that she was “very, very seed & sage jewelry sick” in her early 20s, she since feels “very grounded,” “rooted,” and “clear.” Still, she remembered “struggling” while doing “the ‘Divergent’ movies” and having to say “no to a lot of opportunities” which ended up going to her peers. Even once questioning if she was “going to survive” what she felt at the time, and if she would “ever be healthy,” she eventually chose to “surrender and let go” of her career until she got better.
Woodley then discusses her engagement to Aaron Rodgers, with the Green Bay Packers quarterback announcing it in February during his NFL MVP acceptance speech. Woodley tells the mag that her health is improving, but that the experience has left a lasting mark on her. You have to make therapy a priority and I hadn’t made it a priority. But then it just got to a point where I felt like my life was stunted and I needed help. No matter where I was in the world, no matter what my career looked like or required, therapy was going to be something that I was committed to week after week after week. Notifications can be turned off anytime in the browser settings.
But at the end of the night, a lot of people like to have dinner, a lot of people like to talk, a lot of people want your attention, and if I can’t give it to them, then I don’t give it to them. I say no thank you, and I go to bed at the time I need to go to bed. In 2019, Woodley starred in the romantic drama Endings, Beginnings alongside Sebastian Stan, Jamie Dornan, and Matthew Gray Gubler. In 2021, she starred in the real-life Guantanamo Bay drama film The Mauritanian alongside Jodie Foster, Tahar Rahim and Benedict Cumberbatch and also had a small supporting role in the critically acclaimed film The Fallout. She also starred in the romantic drama film The Last Letter from Your Lover alongside Felicity Jones, based on the bestselling book by Jojo Moyes. In October 2012, Woodley was offered the role of Mary Jane Watson in The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
She portrayed a 16-year-old cancer patient who meets and falls in love with Augustus Waters , a similarly afflicted teen from her cancer support group. Green said via Twitter about Woodley; “There were so many amazing auditions for the role of Hazel, but Shailene’s love for the book and her understanding of Hazel blew me away.” The film was a blockbuster success, grossing over $307 million worldwide. On November 14, 2014, she received The Hollywood Film Award for Hollywood Breakout Performance – Actress for her depiction of Hazel. The Big Little Lies star suffers from a condition she has never publicly named and very rarely speaks about, but in a new interview she admitted battling the illness has impacted her mental health, as it has forced her to turn down projects she really wanted to take part in. In addition to the pain, she had to turn down quite a bit of acting work so that she could care for herself.
“I said no to a lot of projects, not because I wanted to but because I physically couldn’t participate in them. And I definitely suffered a lot more than I had to because I didn’t take care of myself,” Woodley said. “The self-inflicted pressure of not wanting to be helped or taken care of created more physical unrest throughout those years.” After years of “physical unrest,” Shailene Woodley can finally say she is on “the tail end of , which is very exciting,” via The Hollywood Reporter. In fact, the actress attributed learning “the incredibly difficult life task of not caring what people think” as the main reason behind her healing process.
Degree in sociology from Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. “I definitely suffered a lot more than I had to because I didn’t take care of myself,” the actress recently revealed in an interview. When Shailene is ready to tell the world about the full extent of her health journey, she will. You can catch the Big Little Lies star in more than a few upcoming projects on the horizon, such as The Last Letter From Your Lover, an adaptation of Jojo Moyes’ 2008 novel of the same name.
