Secret Behind Shailene Woodley’s 28-Year Acting Career Is 1 Rule Her Parents Made Her Follow as a Kid
- Shailene Woodley is best known for her role in The Divergent Series.
- She has been acting for 28 years, and one rule set by her parents has played a huge role in that.
- She had a rather unpleasant experience while appearing in a play when she was younger.
Shailene Woodley might have outgrown her childhood clothes, but she has certainly not overgrown one rule that her parents had her follow as a young kid. She has been in the acting game for almost three decades and is in her early 30s. So, she has spent a lot of time in the entertainment industry.
Woodley is most widely known for her lead role in the Divergent film series, and these days she is busy appearing in a Broadway show. A lot of things have changed between then and now, but that one rule she followed as a young girl is still very much the same, and she had no hesitation revealing what it is.
Shailene Woodley opened up about the one rule she has followed practically all her life
Shailene Woodley was 5 when she began booking roles in commercials. In 1999, she began her screen acting career with a minor role in the television film Replacing Dad. She had guest roles in several TV shows and even played a young Kaitlin Cooper in The O.C. and was cast as the titular character in the TV film, Felicity: An American Girl Adventure.
In 2008, Woodley starred in the ABC Family series The Secret Life of the American Teenager. She appeared in the show for 5 seasons till 2013. A year later, she took on the role of Beatrice ‘Tris’ Prior in the Divergent film series, based on Veronica Roth’s eponymous novel series. She was well on her way to becoming the next Jennifer Lawrence had the film series enjoyed the same kind of success as The Hunger Games trilogy.
Since then, she has starred in a lot of amazing movies and TV shows, and throughout all this, she has followed one of the three rules her parents set for her (via The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon).
They had three rules growing up in order to be an actor: I had to stay the person they knew I was, do good in school, and have fun. I’m so thankful for that last rule of having fun because it still applies to me today. It’s so easy to get lost in career or success or these notions that we put in our mind of what success means and lose the fun in it.
Woodley claimed that her parents never forced her into acting and further said she is grateful that they made her follow that rule of having fun. Jimmy Fallon agreed that it was indeed a good rule to live by and that he intended to follow it.
Shailene Woodley on what she thinks made her quit doing plays for a long time
Woodley has recently made her Broadway debut with Cult of Love, a play about a dysfunctional family gathered for the holidays. She plays the role of a young mother named Diana who is also the youngest member of the family and has an angelic voice.
However, what many might not know is that this is not her first stage play. During her chat with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show, she recalled that she had a supporting role in a run of Oliver Twist.
I did Oliver Twist, and I got the wonderful background role of one of Fagin’s boys. I got head lice from wearing the caps that all the kids shared, and I think that maybe turned me off from doing plays until now.
That definitely does not sound like the best experience to have. No wonder she had blocked out the memory of ever being part of a stage play. Hopefully, her new play can give her lovely memories that she can cherish in the future.
