Shailene Woodley: Twilight is so toxic, it will never help this world evolve
I realize the wall-to-wall coverage of Shailene Woodley seems exhausting. Divergent hits theaters in ten days, so the onslaught isn’t unexpected. Summit really wants this franchise to turn in Twilight-sized numbers. I completely get why Summit needs another runaway young-adult success. Who could blame them? The awkward part of this new adaptation is that their new star is dissing Summit’s previous pet franchise. Shailene covers the April issue of Teen Vogue. The headline blares, “Hollywood rebel,” which is something to consider. What makes a rebel in today’s starlet realm? Many young actresses are pretending to be different from each other, and the effort often feels counterproductive.
Shailene truly appears to be unlike her cohorts. She has yet to complain about fame. She hasn’t been caught smoking pot on a balcony or apartment stoop. She claims to be a child of nature, which is where she fashions her own homemade weapons. I’m not knocking her for that, really. Someone needs to teach me how to make homemade pepper spray. More importantly, I need to learn to not let it go off in my own pocket. I think Shailene could help me. She may not be the next Jennifer Lawrence, but she could assist in such important survival matters. Sadly, Shailene is too busy dissing Summit’s main tentpole. She walks all over Twilight in this interview. She does speaks the truth, but it’s still awkward when she’s shilling for the same studio. Here are some excerpts:
Aren’t all of Shailene’s movies about romance? “That’s crazy! I never thought about that. I haven’t had time to think about a relationship! I literally have not had a boyfriend in almost five years. I’ve never even hooked up with anybody I’ve worked on a movie with.” [Pause] Well, that might have happened on something …”
Staying true to herself: “I was once told by a studio that I needed to make my look more cosmopolitan, that I needed to create a persona. I looked at them and said, ‘You just told me I wasn’t good enough to be myself. And that is not OK.'”
About that other YA franchise: “Twilight, I’m sorry, is about a very unhealthy, toxic relationship. She falls in love with this guy and the second he leaves her, her life is over and she’s going to kill herself! What message are we sending to young people? That is not going to help this world evolve.”
On her career: “After The Descendants, everybody was like, ‘You’ve got to ride the wave!’ And I was like, ‘You ride the wave and it eventually crashes on the shore. That doesn’t work out! I’m going to just sit here and paddleboard. I didn’t do a movie for two years because I didn’t read anything that was inspiring to me.”
She said no to Divergent at first: “I said no, and everybody was shocked.”
JLaw talked her into it: “I asked Jennifer Lawrence, ‘Are you happy with your choice to take on The Hunger Games?’ And she said she wouldn’t change it for the world. She told me, ‘There are some things — don’t make a sex tape, don’t do drugs, don’t do things in public — that you wouldn’t want other people judging you for. But this is the best decision you’ll ever make.'”
[From Teen Vogue]
Shailene has repeated this same Jennifer Lawrence story in several interviews. I included it here for no reason in particular except to show that she really wants to ride the JLaw wave. As opposed to the wave she claims to have resisted riding.
I wonder which co-star Shailene is referring to when she mentions a hookup? Don’t make me crack a George Clooney joke. That’s just wrong. Surely it’s not Theo James. Summit would love it if Shailene and Theo got together. Here are some photos from the Toronto premiere. I haven’t seen the movie, but these photos show zero chemistry whatsoever.
Photos courtesy of Teen Vogue & Pacific Coast News
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