Posterized: Shailene Woodley
Friday, March 20, 2015 at 1:00PM 
Shailene breaking glass againWith the excruciatingly titled The Divergent Series Insurgent upon us -- and already garnering terrible reviews even before one of those shameless audience-hating cash-grab two-parters -- it's probably time to talk about the slightly mystifying rise of its leading lady Shailene Woodley. While she's certainly easy to look at (but aren't most actors?) that doesn't really explain the career. I've been mostly quiet about this because I'm aiming for positivity in 2015 but I believe I'm developing a severe allergy.
Let's discuss why and her six major performances (How many have you seen?) after the jump...
And no, it's not because of her repeated dissing of feminism. Lots of people (including myself) have said and ocassionally still say excruciatingly stupid things. Foot-in-mouth disease is especially prevalent in human beings when they are adolescents or early 20somethings before they've had to really, you know, grow up and experience the world and suffer the consequences of saying stupid things that other people hear. They say that fame freezes your emotional development in whatever age range you become famous, which is bad news for child and teen stars (and history is full of tragic stories there) since there's no really impetus for getting educated and no ability to see the world as it is since that distorting bubble of celebrity (fame, money, "yes people") is powerful.
Shaileene doesn't like the word "feminist" because she doesn't like "Labels" and yet she insists on me calling her "Moron" constantly.
— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) March 18, 2015
But Shailene's embarrassing and damaging dismissal of feminism isn't the reason for the allergy. I didn't understand the fuss when The Descendants nearly netted her an Oscar nomination though I concede she had some good moments. But mostly I remain shocked to this day that her listless entitled deeply unsympathetic work in The Secret Lives of The American Teenager in which she only mustered about three expressions over 121 hours* launched a significant career. But I've been trying to learn to love her since it appears she's here to stay. The Spectacular Now, by roughly a billion times her best performance, did force me to reconsider and she was good if not award-worthy in The Fault in Our Stars. Will she improve as she goes? Do you enjoy her or loathe her (she already seems polarizing)
How many of her six** Insurgent-previous performances have you seen?
* I did not watch all 121 episodes of this show but The Boyfriend bingewatched it for inexplicable reasons a year ago so I saw many episodes at least in the background and every single time I paid attention I was horrified that she was performing every scene in every episode in every season the exact same way.
**She actually made her film debut much earlier than The Descendants in a festival flick called "Moolah" but it was never released as far as I can tell.
Reader Comments (53)
Part of it, for me at least, is that there seemed to be so many 'but she deserves better' notices when Divergent was released last year, all on the basis of one very good performance (I agree that The Spectacular Now is her best performance by some way). Don't young starlets usually have more of a 'rise'? Does anyone even really remember The Descendents now? Shaileen seems to have just been thrust upon us. At least Jennifer Lawrence had Winter's Bone behind her, a big romantic comedy and a charm offensive that worked on 99% of the population before becoming a huge star.
I don't know what it is about her, but I find her extremely unlikable. :/
Yeah, part of me thinks Shailene Woodley was engineered in a lab to make me like Jennifer Lawrence more than I should.
I really liked her in that non-Hollywood Reporter Actress roundtable with Blunt, Aniston, Chastain and who else was there?
I thought she was swell.
Apart from that I've only seen her in The Descendants so I'm not allowed to say a word.
I've only seen her in The Descendants and thought she was good in it. I don't feel like I can really judge her talent as an actress but I can say I find her a bit insufferable as a celebrity.
I thought she was pretty great in The Descendants but that is the only one I've seen. I do want to check out The Spectacular Now and White Bird in a Blizzard though.
Whoops! I forgot I saw The Fault in Our Stars and thought she was very good in that too. ;)
I like her (as an actor... I don't really read many interviews with actors which probably helps preserve my affection for any number of talented cloth-heads). She's very good at suggesting interiority without appearing to do much and capably anchors the emotional beats of any given story while sometimes gently complicating them. She's also pretty good at showing thinking.
I don't really get the animus toward her beyond her comments on feminism, and her rise is hardly a mystery - she gave a performance lots of people liked in an oscar-nominated film followed by a really fantastic performance in a well-reviewed film, then scored the lead in two giant hits. It's basically the same route Jennifer Lawrence took. Who you or I happen to like more or find more interesting is immaterial.
She's great in 'The Spectacular Now' and very good in 'The Fault in Our Stars' (and seriously, is whether or not something is 'award-worthy' really how we have to talk about performances all the time? I wouldn't have handed her a prize, but that doesn't mean it doesn't represent thoughtful, diligent and effective work, and I hate to denigrate things simply for not being podium finishers), and she's manages to sell the absurd social structures and emotional through-line of 'Divergent' against pretty considerable odds. She's also very interesting, moment to moment, in 'White Bird in a Blizzard'. And she's only made six films, so her hit rate to me seems pretty high so far. But then, I haven't seen 'Secret Life...', and I don't read her interviews.
I've only seen The Descendants and The Spectacular Now.
I, too, found her completely passable in Secret Life but was surprised at how well she translated onto the big screen in The Descendants. I think the only other thing I've seen her in is The Spectacular Now, and maybe her performance there won brownie points because I found Miles Teller unbearably annoying in it (and unconvincing as a high schooler, despite looking the part). I don't know, I feel like this is her KStew moment--after the franchise she can get back to doing some more interesting things. And not everyone is cut out to be an action hero.
3/6 (The Descendants, The Spectacular Now, and The Fault in our Stars). I'm not a big fan, but she was good in these films.
I think she's pretty annoying...she just doesn't seem very cultured. There's nothing worse to me than a person with privilege but no culture. And I was very happy when she missed out on Oscar morning a few years back (but mostly because I was rooting so hard for Melissa McCarthy), but I have come around to thinking she's pretty talented.
I've only seen The Descendants and she was "fine" in that. But her face reminds me of Norma Shearer, which is a major deterrent to my watching anything she's in unless I have to.
When she was cast in The Descendants, I decided to check out her work on Secret Life. It feels like a euphemism to say that she was actively terrible in it.
She was good in The Descendants, and fine, I guess, in The Fault in our Stars. Here's hoping she can do even better work in the future.
I didn't watch Secret Life but she's been great in everything actual movie I've seen her in
(even the bad ones). Her comments are ill informed (she's not actually slating feminism) but it's important to remember that the true enemies of feminism and equality are not generally 20 something actresses. A quick glance at any news website confirms this. I hope she continues to give good performances and tries to find more interesting projects.
She's a better actress than Kristen Stewart. And a better human being than Jennifer Lawrence.
I thought it was just me who found her dull and listless. I hated The Spectacular Now and if that's the best she can be I'll never be a fan. I barely remember her in The Descendants.
Will a major actress born in the 1990s ever be liked? (thinking of the resistance to JLaw, Shailene, Moretz and KSteW). Anyway, I think she will improve and more people will like her. This is how people used to talk about Keira, Scarjo, Hathaway and Portman and they are still thriving. Her early performances are better than theirs so I have hope for her future career.
I've seen two of these. The Spectacular Now and Divergent. Thought she was swell in Spectacular and fine in Divergent. The potential is def there. And you clearly r judging her about her feminism comments here.
I've only seen her in The Descendants and thought she was perfectly good in it (crying! While swimming in a pool! That ain't easy, folks). And while her comments on feminism are incredibly ignorant and irritating, the way she handles inane fashion and women's magazines is pretty hilarious and gutsy. I just love how she rejects their cliche, superficial, lazy questions, although this also translates to coming off completely over it on the red carpet. Shailene, it's really not that big of an inconvenience to throw on some beautiful clothes (they don't all have to be gowns if you don't like gowns! There's a whole world of fashion out there! Look at KStew and how she adopts her style to each event) to promote the films you're getting millions of dollars to appear in.
So there are some pros and cons with her, but I'd really like to see more of her work to get a better handle on her.
Everytime I cant stand watching her - which was every single minute in Fault - I remember how lovely she was in Spectacular. That performance eaened her a lot of goodwil ín my book. Since I'm not going to see any of the Divergent series I'll give her a couple more movies after that series hoping that she'll be magic again.
It's been awhile since I saw "The Descendants" and "Spectacular Now," but I remember thinking she displayed an exceptional raw talent in both. She was fine in "Fault in our Stars," but it's definitely a youth role typecast she needs to break out of. Perhaps the ergent series is a different side of her, but I have no plans on seeing those.
I Like her in The Spectacular and The Fault so I have no problem she got a franchise. I hope her career will go on
I don't know Shailene personally, so I'm not going to be so bold as to comment on what type of human being she is, especially compared to another actress who I don't know, but she was very good in The Spectacular Now. I can kind of take or leave everything else, but I thought she was so natural and unaffected and realistically adolescent in The Spectacular Now. I would have taken her in supporting actress over a couple of the people who ended up getting nominated that year, actually.
I don't really get all the acclaim she got for The Descendants, but I generally have a blind spot where praise for that film is concerned. I think not getting that Oscar nomination was actually really good for her career. I suspect the subsequent backlash had she gotten it would have been significant. I dunno. It's not a case where I'm dumbfounded to the point of frustration about why she's being cast in things. Both she and her career are very young, so I'm open to having my mind changed about her. As it stands, other than The Spectacular Now, I haven't been hugely impressed.
I haven't seen any of her work, but I do have an abiding trust in Alexander Payne's affinity for helming well-cast movies. For now, that's all I have to go on. And if I do see Insurgent, it will be for Theo James.
I haven't seen any of them. I remember seeing her give an interview on TV before seeing any of her work and thought she was so dull that I couldn't be bothered paying money to see her on screen. I generally like Clooney so she must have really left me cold to miss that film.
She's turned out to be a better celebrity than expected.
" I have only seen her in The Descendants", and that pretty much sums up this demographic.
Some stars grow up in the public eye better than others. Sometimes we get the likes of Keira Knightley, Anne Hathaway, and the Harry Potter trio (Radcliffe, Watson, Grint) who seem to be naturally mature. (and others)
And on the other side of the spectrum we get the more "troubled" and sometimes spoiled teen stars. The worst being Lyndsey Lohan.
Shaileen Woodley needs to star in a film with Julianne Moore aka "God" - that would probably settle her down.
You left our her best performance! As American Girl doll come to life Felicity Merriman in "Felicity: An American Girl Adventure." ;)
But Shailene has also been confused by numerous wings of feminism that have many different approaches and beliefs. For instance, Gloria Steinem and Camille Paglia are both self-proclaimed feminists, yet with extremely different viewpoints and approaches. So when you're a young woman being asked about the term, you are exposed to all these different wings of feminism, and maybe you don't subscribe to certain ones, so you choose not to identify and instead be a person. The obsession with identity politics is problematic too, and Shailene is simply saying that she doesn't want to be labeled. I don't see the problem with that, and in fact admire her for explaining her point of view and accepting that others won't agree instead of apologizing like every other celebrity. She also has a GREAT point about outrage and how most people spend more time on what public figures say than the atrocities in the world.
I think the misunderstanding is that although feminism means equality between men and women, it really isn't that simple in practice and there are many different sects of feminism that often don't agree with one another. Some, like Shailene, might not want to say they're a feminist so they don't have to be lumped with a certain sect they disagree with.
Having said all of that her best performance still is The Spectacular Now.
She was outstanding in The Descendants. The backlash the movie engendered was ridiculous.
Don't know if anyone remembers this, but in the early aughts (somewhere around 2001-2004) she was making the rounds in a bunch of television shows, making guest appearances on The District, Without a Trace, Cold Case, Jack & Bobby and most notably The O.C. (she was Marissa Cooper's little sister Kaitlin, before the character got sent to boarding school and came back portrayed by Willa Holland in Season 3). So, it's funny to see her as such a big star right now when I remember her as this pre-teen girl who would pop up on telelvision, pretty much everywhere.
As for her current roles, I haven't watched The Divergent Series and only saw a couple of episodes of Secret Life, but I've seen the rest of her movies, and I can see why she's been called upon to be a star. If nothing else, she has enough charisma to carry a movie and is believable whether she's called upon to be innocent and naive (The Spectacular Now), a mess (The Descendants, though I feel like the script didn't give her a chance to demonstrate what it says this character is like), or battling hopelessness (The Fault in Our Stars). She'll probably follow the same route as Kristen Stewart, once she's done with these franchises that are getting her money, she'll do some more risky projects (and, folks around here really need to see Clouds of Sils Maria to see what I'm talking about with KStew, she's terrific in that)...
I've seen The Descendants, The Spectacular Now, Divergent and The Fault in Our Stars. I thought she was excellent in The Descendants + TSIOS, was outshined by Miles Teller in Spectacular Now, and alright in Divergent. But she annoys the hell out of me, and I lost all respect after her feminism comments. I'm not going out of my way to avoid her (I'll see Insurgent, because I'll see anything for Octavia Spencer, and Theo James's abs), but I also didn't see White Bird in a Blizzard because there's only so much I can take.
I've seen Descendents, The Specatacular Now and Divergent. She was very good in Descendents, and did a capable job in Divergent. I thought she was very one note in Spectacular Now. She's somewhere between Kristen Stewart and Jennifer Lawrence, effectively naturalistic but not so much so that she can't carry a patently phony blockbuster like Divergent (see: Stewart in the Twilight movies), but also not charismatic enough to elevate the material through sheer force of will (see: Lawrence in Hunger Games).
I frankly don't understand why anyone gives a shit what she thinks of feminism, or dislikes her because of it. Have none of you ever met a young adult? This is what hey do - reject things they don't fully understand so they can feel like they're asserting their own identity. It's not hurting anyone, so just leave her alone. Seriously, you know who is taking their cues on feminism from Shailene Flipping Woodley? No one. There are more important things in the world. Move on.
Chantal Akerman also refused the feminist label, and she is one of the greatest female (even feminist!) artists of the 20th century. It's really not a big deal.
From what I've seen from Woodley, she seems like a perfectly likable person and a very talented actress. Excellent in both "The Descendants" and "The Spectacular Now." Unusually, refreshingly casual during interviews and very much into the promotion of health and environmentalism. What other actor, let alone one in her early 20s, is so engaged in herbalism of all things, and always makes it a priority to bring up the benefits of eating clay and bone broth? That's kind of neat.
I've only seen Divergent and Fault; I took your advice and avoided The Descendants. Congrats to her for creating a career while not looking typically Hollywood but there's really nothing interesting about her for me to get invested in (plus I'm highly allergic to her male co-stars -> Clooney, Teller, Elgort)
I actually think I love Shailene. I do get that she comes off a little annoying in person. But I think it's compensation for maybe feeling awkward, her age, etc I agree with whoever said people used to be similarly disparaging of actresses like Keira Knightley and co when they were the same age.
It's like we expect them to be as poised as the older actresses who have had years to perfect their "persona" in the media.
She's the Boost Mobile Jennifer Lawrence.
Why do some of you care so much about her personal views? She's an actor, so discuss her in terms of her art; leave all that other stuff to the tabloids. I've only seen her in The Descendants and The Spectacular Now, and she was good, but not great, in both. There was nothing there that would make me run to see her next movie, especially not some franchise based on a series of young adult novels.
Sean D - OH. my god. Hahahahahahah. That's so perfect.
Jonathan, I see what you're saying and you do raise some good points. However, I don't think Woodley's rejection of the "feminist" label is what got under people's skin. Of course, anyone is free to reject any label if they so choose. Many people who uphold the ideals of feminism (Chantal Akerman, as you previously stated is a great example) reject the label. That's fine. People's quibbles came, I think, with her (frankly) ignorant characterization of what feminism actually is.
“I love men, and I think the idea of ‘raise women to power, take the men away from the power’ is never going to work out because you need balance…I think that if men went down and women rose to power, that wouldn’t work either. We have to have a fine balance.”
-Shailene Woodley
That is a patently false, though sadly rampant mischaracterization of what feminism is. I think that's what upset people. To say that it was the rejection of the label that pissed people off is a little short-sighted and doesn't take into account the factual incorrectness of what she said.
I am continually shocked by her ability to so naturally seem like a "normal" girl-next-door type onscreen when clearly she is anything but. I've seen Descendants, Spectacular Now, and Fault in Our Stars, and thought she was not that good in the first (which I despised), incredible in the second (which I kinda loved), and very good in the third, despite falling victim to the film's far-too-glossy direction. I like her onscreen, but think she's pretty much defined at this stage by the quality of the project she's in. She's not quite able to transcend or elevate the material yet. But she's still young. That could come.
I saw 3/6. The Descendant, Divergent and Fault. But I can't remember well of her. The Descendant were all about Clooney in the beach. Divergent was too busy on the set up. Fault, well Ansel and Dern kept my eyes on them.
Having seen far too many episodes of Secret Life, I've held an unfair grudge against her for quite sometime as she was indeed both terrible and unlikable on that show (I say unfair because just about EVERYTHING on that show was terrible). Her performances in Descendants, Fault In Our Stars and Divergent were certainly improvements over her work on that show but I still find her to be a bit bland and uninteresting. She could win me over in time but right now... Meh.
Pretentious Know-It-All, while her statement does read as ignorant, I think she has a point, and it's one I've been struggling with for a while. The term "feminism" has always been problematic because even though it's defined as "gender equality", the etymology of the word itself favors women, so when you hear that someone is a feminist, there's a switch in your brain that hears the etymology of that word and immediately thinks "put women in power". It's a term that is so easy to misinterpret or misappropriate, which is why we might get comments like that or people thinking that it's simply chauvenism with the sexes reversed (I know that it isn't, but having that "fem" in the word causes that problem)...
It's still too early in Woodley's career to make a fair assessment on her talents as an actress. With that said her fantastic work The Spectacular Now (and to a lesser extent grounding a film that is soaked in heightened melodrama such as The Fault In Our Stars) does seem to suggest her capacity in conveying the extremities of naturalism onscreen (a tool that is often lacking in young actors). I'm a potential fan.
Haven't seen the Divergent series, but I liked her in The Spectacular Now and thought she was admirable with above average teen-weepie material in The Fault in Our Stars, plus I admire her gumption to star in a Gregg Araki movie. However, she was pretty bad in The Descendants. My willingness to like her is there, but she needs to step up her game a notch or two if she wants to keep an interesting career and not just be an Orlando Bloom type who has some big early successes and then falls away in a pile of mediocre star vehicles tailor made for pretty-but-bland Hollywood causes.
I also have only seen her in The Descendants. That film plays constantly on TV now. It's surprisingly re watchable and Woodley is just right on it.
I've had little interest in the other movies she's made. When I think of the YA film adaptations, the actress that most stands out for me is Jena Malone. Now, she's interesting and looks like a clever actress with a wide range.
I really dislike her as a celebrity. She seems so dismissive and above everything. As an actress she's ok.
Am I the only one who thinks her performance in The Fault In Our Stars was exceptional and Oscar nomination worthy? Based on that performance, I'm excited to see her future work, especially Oliver Stone's next film.