Mocked at school for being skinny and falling into acting by accident , Hollywood ’ s newest uncut diamond is a hard act to pin down . Khashiya Adegbite casts the runes over an oddball star on the rise
SHAILENE W
12
For someone who wanted to marry Anais Nin , and yet turned down the role of Anastasia Steele in Fifty Shades of Grey , Shailene Diann Woodley wears conundrum ’ s cloak lightly . After all , she cites the Delta of Venus author as one of the writers who changed her life . The other was George Orwell .
So far , so bookworm . As she says , she likes nothing better after a long day on-set , than to curl up with a good book . Like Orwell ’ s 1984 , or Nin ’ s Henry and June ( which chronicled Nin ’ s three-way love affair with Henry Miller and his wife ).
Nin ’ s 1930s affair with the author was recorded in graphic detail in her Unexpurgated Diary which revealed a woman breaking out into wild sexual discovery . And in 1990 , it was a filmed as Henry and June by Philip Kaufman , starring Uma Thurman , Fred Ward and Maria de Madeiros , with Kevin Spacey in a supporting role .
Notoriously , it was the first movie to be released in the United States with an NC-17 rating , a higher category than X , to signify more graphic sexual content .
Nin ’ s original diary didn ’ t make it into print until 1986 as Henry and June : From A Journal of Love : the Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin ( 1931 – 1932 ). Apart from her tormented pursuit of June Miller , Nin ultimately inspired Henry Miller to publish his groundbreaking pornographic novel Tropic of Cancer .
Anais Nin would later achieve fame in her own right , with her Delta of Venus in which she conjures up a glittering cascade of sexual encounters . Creating her own “ language of the senses ”, she explores in vibrant prose the essence of female sexuality , winning acclaim as one of the finest writers of female erotica .
Such was the author who inspired Shailene Woodley . And these days back at the studio , things are bubbling along just as nicely . The nature-loving leading lady of Allegiant , the third in the Divergent series , now in cinemas , first made an impact with her TV role as Amy Juergens in The Secret Life of an American Teenager ( 2008-2013 ).
That was followed by her big-screen breakthrough opposite George Clooney in The Descendants ( 2011 ). Her role as Clooney ’ s troubled elder daughter brought critical acclaim .
Mocked at school for being skinny and falling into acting by accident , Hollywood ’ s newest uncut diamond is a hard act to pin down . Khashiya Adegbite casts the runes over an oddball star on the rise
The New York Times said : “ Ms . Woodley ..[ gives ].. one of the toughest , smartest , most credible adolescent performances in recent memory ”. And Variety described her performance a “ revelation ”.
Rolling Stone euthologised : “ A sublime actress with a resume that pretty much proves she ’ s incapable of making a false move on camera ,” wrote critic Peter Travers . The film was topical because of the popularity of John Green ’ s novel and boosted Shailene ’ s profile , making $ 48,002,523 in its opening weekend ( June 2014 ).
But Woodley doesn ’ t let such numbers turn her head . “ I fell into this business by accident ,” she says . “ It ’ s evolved into an insane passion , a creative outlet . Nothing more . The day it becomes a job , a career , I will quit .”
Shailene Diann Woodley was born on 15th November 1991 in SIMI Valley , California where her father was a middle school counsellor and her mum a school principal . She has one brother Tanner , and began modelling when she was four years old .
Acting roles followed and she made her screen debut in the TV series Replacing Dad in 1999 . Her parents were very supportive of her striking out for fame – on three conditions : she had to have fun , stay the person she was , and do well at local high school .
She took their advice and fell in love with books on the way . And she even had a private tuition at home when she was away from school on-set filming The Secret Life of an American Teenager ( 2008 ).
She was just 15 , when illness struck . She was diagnosed with scoiliosis , a twisting of the growing spinal column .
She was forced to wear a chest-to-hips plastic body frame , and during her partial immobility was able to further indulge her love of reading .
While still at high school , she became a nature lover after reading about the environment and US corporations ’ control of the food chain . “ I was on a quest to find out what healthy really meant ,” she recalls . “ People were saying veganism was healthy or that the Paleo diet was healthy , but I really had no idea . I started researching indigenous people and their lifestyles , and was fascinated they could still run in their eighties , still had amazing muscular and nervous systems .
“ So I just started adjusting my lifestyle . I realised we ’ re all indigenous creatures on this planet . We ’ re not different from nature - we are part of the Earth , so it all starts with us . If we want to save the planet we need to think about saving ourselves .”
As Woodley told Flaunt Magazine : ‘” I gather my own spring water from mountains , I go to a farm to get my food , I make everything from my own .”
And that singular focus includes knowing her own mind . Asked by a showbiz hack about the comparisons between her raw talent and that of Hunger Games franchise starlet Jennifer Lawrence , she didn ’ t miss a beat with her reply .
“ She ’ s everyone ’ s favourite person to compare me to . Is it because we both have short hair and a vagina ? I see us as separate individuals ”. And she added about her youthful insecurities : “ My whole life I ’ ve been self-conscious about being skinny . Now I don ’ t care any more . All insecurities are projected , what you think others are saying . But they don ’ t really matter at all .”
The year 2014 was when the 24-yearold really hit stardom with The Fault in Our Stars which was released in the same year as the Divergent series . Her roles in both were widely different , but she handled them with consummate skill .
In the Divergent series her character Tris is an all-action heroine . But in The Fault in our Stars she showed her versatility , playing a vulnerable girl so convincingly , that it instantly won the sympathy of audiences . And she ’ s uncompromisingly plain speaking to reporters . When asked if she could track down her favourite author and