When we talk about Shailene Woodley, there’s not a high-sounding name of the Hollywood side. Yet the American actress, during her almost thirty-year career, proved to be able to combine talent and versatility, passing with ease from independent cinema to blockbuster, from television to more authorial roles, maintaining firm and active her presence in successful productions.
Born in 1991 and raised in a family of psychologists in the California suburbs, at the age of five Shailene Woodley started acting mostly in commercials. As Alex Moshakis of The Guardian recalls, his career has years of experience entering the commercial circuit thanks to the television series The Secret Life of an American teenager, created by Brenda Hampton and therefore plays the protagonist from 2008 to 2013. His role was, however, those of Alexandra King in Paradise bitter, alongside George Clooney, in a story about the family and mourning. An occasion that allowed Woodley to begin to grasp the importance of interpretations rich in real elements, building authentic and recognizable characters on the screen. It is no coincidence that the relationship with Hampton has been cracked because of a divergence with the values of the actress. Alex Moshakis says he interviewed Kate Winslet, an actress who shared with Woodley the experience in the saga based on Veronica Roth’s bestsellers, remaining impressed by the actress’s maturity and readiness: “What struck me most was this sense of self-acceptance, which I had not at his age, and that we see very rarely in the young actors of today, because of the pressure to which they are subject. She managed to evade all this, simply remaining faithful to herself.”.
Just 2014 is a significant moment in Woodley’s career, not only for fame but also for his human and actress experience. She plays Tris in Divergent, the first chapter of the famous young adult franchise. The film, with its tightened action scenes and incalciating rhythm, shows Woodley’s ability to adapt to broad commercial roles, addressing themes of identity and courage and embodying the image of a new hero, even in subsequent films of the trilogy. But even here in an interview, the actress tries to clarify that the closeness with the character is more dependent on his humanity: “I really like the fact that it is not a superheroin, but it must prove its value, because the situation requires it. It is important to explore the brave side of young adults. ” Also in the same year, he takes part in Colpa delle Stelle, adaptation of John Green’s novel. Here his approach to Hazel Grace is more intimidating, attentive to the emotional details and depth of the characters, highlighting a conscious choice of authorial and narratively complex roles.
But being faithful to itself has not always been easy: “Towards the 25 years I have gone through moments of deep insecurity regarding the choices I was making, giving a little too much importance to the opinions of others, losing my way.” Recently, the actress said she was also seriously ill at that time, without ever specifying what happened. An event that, however, allowed her to reflect deeply and continue with decision the setting of her career, without fearing the Hollywood market. In this sense, his break from the most visible roles becomes an integral part of an artistic journey aimed at emotional depth and coherence between personal life and choice of films. This approach reflects his conception of acting not as a simple game or a means to get fame, but as a real exercise of life lived. In the following years, he continued this strategy: from more discrete roles for The Mauritanian with Jodie Foster, La vita dopo – The Fallout e Robots, to significant parts in films like Resta con me, Ricomincio da te, Snowden di Oliver Stone, L’ultima lettera d’amore per Netflix, up to the famous series of Jean-Marc Vallée Big Little Lies. From 2017 to 2019, Shailene Woodley plays the role of a single mother, who nominates her as the best non-star actress at the Emmy Awards and the Golden Globes.
“Sometimes it is frustrating, because many of the things I read speak of female emancipation and feminism, but the way stories are told does not portray women in a positive light. For me, emancipation simply means truth, vulnerability, recognition of good and evil, of merits and defects, of bad and of beauty.” These are Woodley’s words for Porter on the occasion of the release of 2024 television adaptation Three women. The actress thanks also to the dialogue with Lisa Taddeo reaches a greater maturity interpreting Gia, a mourning writer who tells the stories of three women. A role that allows her to investigate female desire and sexuality and represents a political and social commitment that has been in activism for years, to which the actress has approached, thanks to personalities like Susan Sarandon, becoming part of Our Revolution. From Hippie, anti-conformist to activist, Woodley has always rejected the labels, professing instead a commitment to freedom and awareness, which inevitably crosses all its occupations without dividing the actress from the person.
Today this consistency seems to find a new phase of consolidation. After the roles for Motor City in Potsy Ponciroli, presented at the Venice Film Festival last year and Ferrari, is currently engaged in numerous projects. In parallel to the success of the Paradise series, still active, Shailene Woodley is working on the biopic on Janis Joplin, of which he is also a producer, and the film on Patricia Highsmith, focused on the inspiration that led to the birth of Mr. Ripley’s Talent. In an industry often dominated by the urgency of performance and the logic of immediate success, Woodley’s figure continues to represent a possibility of balance between career, political consciousness and artistic research; the proof that, even in Hollywood, the career can be born from the ability to redefine the rules of the system continuously starting from themselves.
L’articolo Shailene Woodley: freedom, cinema and identity proviene da SentieriSelvaggi.
