Shailene Woodley Takes on Clooney in "The Descendants"

You probably know pretty Shailene Woodley from her role as teen mom Amy in “The Secret Life of the American Teenager”. In our interview, Shailene describes TV as “you have zero room for creativity because you have only a few takes”. As a contrast, she loved playing George Clooney’s rebellious teen daughter in The Descendants and is telling us about her own teen rebellion. 

Never a diva, Shailene is sans make-up and wearing a gray wool sweater over a beige and black stripe shirt and casual pants. She reminds us of Natalie Portman today as she fools with putting her long brown hair up in a ponytail while she chats, telling us funny stories about George Clooney and choosing her cool casual wardrobe for the movie.

Her popular director Alexander Payne says about the just turned 20 actress “Boy, she’s the cat’s pajamas! She’s such a positive person and what a good actress”. He wanted someone who had “equal parts fire and vulnerability” and Shailene fit the bill. He made her audition with the toughest scene in the movie in which, as daughter, she tells dad George that his dying wife, her mom was cheating on him. Heavy stuff in this really good dramady. Let’s let Shailene tell it. [Warning: This film is rated “R” for language].

TeenHollywood: Since you are a busy working actress but also a young person, have you ever had a rebellious period in your life like your character in this does?

Shailene: I think every teenager goes through their angst. People who are like “No. I had a perfect adolescence block”.  I just wonder how that is possible. For me, I was probably between 14 and 15 is when I went through my angsty period. I was never very rebellious. I never did things to rebel against society or against my parents but I did think I knew everything. I thought I knew it all and had it all figured out and that was it. Then, one day, I woke up and realized I was a dot in this universe and that quickly dissipated.

TeenHollywood: What brought you to the role?

Shailene: I read the script before Alexander or George were attached and I fell in love with it because it was real and human and it wasn’t artistically licensed and it wasn’t glamorized or beautified. So often I read scripts and you are like “This would never happen in real life. It’s not trying to be funny. It’s trying to be serious”.  But, this movie was real and it was messy and I really responded to that.

TeenHollywood: What did you think about her character arc.  She grows up in the course of the movie really.

Shailene: I loved her arc because she was a 17-year-old going through an angsty period in life and she had taken on the victim role and thought the world was out to get her as so many adolescents and many adults do [she laughs]. Throughout the movie, there are a lot of tragic scenarios and she had to rise to the occasion and break down her walls that she had so thickly put up and I think there is a point in every teenager’s life where they are forced to come into themselves. So, it’s fun to play this arc with her while she had to deal with such tragic occurrences in her life.

TeenHollywood: What was the hardest scene for you to film?

Shailene: From a very humble point of view, there weren’t any hard scenes to film because we had such a brilliant screenplay. There wasn’t a lot of guessing for us as actors to do. We had it all written down for us and we just had to show up with our lines memorized and on time and with a strong sense of professionalism and play. Alexander gives us the room to play. He gives you the freedom to play and I think that’s why every actor wants to work with him.

TeenHollywood: You grew up swimming so was the underwater screaming scene easy for you then?

Shailene: I did. I thought it was fun to get to scream underwater.  I thought it was beautifully written that she recedes under the water and is able to be vulnerable for the first time after hearing such hard news [that her comatose mom won’t make it]. But, there actually was one hard scene to film logistically speaking. It was a scene in the hospital where George gets mad at me and spanks me and the little sister goes “You got served”. That was a hard scene to capture without making it all cheesy or preconceived like something that we knew was coming. So, that took a while between Alexander, George and I just figuring out the logistics of it.

TeenHollywood: You’ve got some great scenes with Nick Krause (who plays Sid, her semi-boyfriend).

Shailene: Yeah. He’s amazing.

TeenHollywood: You two have great chemistry on camera. Did you hang out to prepare?

Shailene: George, Nick and I arrived [in Hawaii] three weeks prior to filming to get to know the island and get to know the vibe of the whole island culture because Alexander was keen on authenticity. Nick and I were the same age so we bonded immediately.

He’s from Texas and I’m from here (L.A. area) and we’re very different in a lot of ways and very similar in a lot of ways so it was great. We had a lot to teach each other and a lot to learn from each other. Our similarities were; we love to be outdoors and be active and explore. So, in every spare second on that movie we were hiking or kayaking or snorkeling or doing some crazy thing like jumping off waterfalls and things we shouldn’t have been doing. It was a very organic process; Nick and my bonding. We became like brother and sister.

TeenHollywood: What kind of backstory or research did you do for your character?

Shailene: I’m not an actor who approaches films doing a lot of research. I do zero research unless it’s a film where I’m playing a mock version of someone who already existed. Then you’ve got to do a lot of research or if it’s a time period piece, you’ve got to do research but, I think, on this film I did think a little about her back history but maybe I spent an hour thinking about it and that’s it.

I think you get the most honest performances when an actor shows up to set with their lines memorized. That’s a very important thing that a lot of people seem to forget, and on time. And you have kind of a preconceived nothing of what you want the scene to be but, once you get there, that kind of goes out the window and it turns out being a way that you never imagined. When you’re on set and you professionally listen to what the other actors have to say, then, the emotion is naturally evoked, especially with this screenplay.

So many times you get a script and it says “And then the character cries”.  Then you read the lines and you’re thinking “That would never make me cry. Those (lines) are so untruthful”. But, with this script, if our characters were supposed to be emotional, we would be overly emotional because the words were so thought-provoking and emotion-provoking. So, my approach is just to be honest to the situation.

TeenHollywood: Did you read the novel the movie is based on?

Shailene: I did read the book after I had booked (the job) but before we started filming and that was incredibly helpful because a screenplay is 90 pages and a book is 300 so it kind of fills in the blanks. I did get that luxury on this film.

TeenHollywood: What is the transition from working on your TV show to shooting a movie?

Shailene: It felt like just going to a different school. You don’t really notice the transition when you’re in the moment because there really isn’t that big a transition. I’d always wanted to do a film because film is always where my heart has been. I like diving into the character for a few months then leaving it behind. I love the idea of that.

They’re very different film and television. On the TV show, we do 7 or 8 scenes a day so time is of the essence, money is of the essence and we have zero room for creativity really because you’ve got to do each scene in only five takes. It’s boom, boom boom whereas, on a film, you have an entire day to film one scene, maybe only half a scene so you have so much time to go on the swings for a while and go down the slide and play in the sandbox; so many different colors you can choose to fill in a scene. If it’s working, you keep going down that route and, if it’s not, you try a different route. So, just from a creative standpoint, television and film are very different. That being said, they both have their advantages and disadvantages.

TeenHollywood: Can you talk about working with George Clooney?

Shailene: I’ve said this before but he’s a superhuman. That is the only word I can use that will truly encompass everything about him. He’s just amazing. The thing about George Clooney is you never hear about him being a very philanthropic man. You hear little bits of sweet things he does but you don’t hear a lot about it. I have never met a more generous, philanthropic human being in my entire life.

He will do anything for you whether you are crossing the street and can barely walk, he’ll help you or someone who is having a hard time and can’t feed their family, he’ll give you a generous amount to help you feed your family. It’s small things he does on a daily basis to anyone and everyone that just blew me away. He so incredibly down to earth.

On set, he was never in his trailer. He never used hair and make-up. There was one scene where, in the morning, he had to be clean-shaven and, in the afternoon, he was supposed to have like scruff.  Instead of using a normal make-up article, he used a ballpoint pen and stabbed his face for an hour and a half. I’m not joking. I was like “Why are you doing that? Why don’t you just use make-up?” He was like “Because I can. Why not? I’ve got two hands. Might as well do it.”  I was like “You’re the coolest guy ever!” He’s so normal.

Someone asked me about George Clooney’s image. He has no image. He has the image of what materialism has given him but, as a human being, he has no image because he is just so normal and so human. Talk about a professional. He’s a great actor because he’s a great actor. Not because an editor makes him look good. I think a lot of people don’t realize that about him. I literally could talk about him for hours. It’s a dangerous subject.

TeenHollywood: Did you have a say in your wardrobe because you have some great swimsuits that I wish I could wear?

Shailene: Totally. Part of the three weeks of research we did on the Hawaiian culture was going on little field trips around the island and going to malls and seeing what the teen life was like and what they wore. Not only did I do that, the costume designer did that. She’s amazing. Her name is Wendy Chuck and she’s just really good on finding the authenticity of a certain era and demographic. For me, she was like “I noticed every Hawaiian girl has an anklet on” and I was like “Yeah, you’re so right.

I noticed the same thing” so we put a little piece of hemp around my ankle. Then, with the clothes no one had make-up on in the film. Everyone was just in normal attire. Wendy and I agreed that my character should wear basic clothes you could find at any mall, like a t-shirt and cutoff jeans. That was what her style turned out to be.

TeenHollywood: You seemed to really get along with Amara, the actress who played your 10-year-old sister. Was that easy for you? Do you have a younger sister?

Shailene: I don’t. I have a younger brother. Amara Miller was 10 when we filmed. She’s almost 12 now. She had never been in a school play. She was a friend of a friend of Alexander’s and was cast a week and a half before we started shooting. It’s crazy. She’d never even thought about acting. She’s from northern California and her mom was like “Amara, let’s put your audition on tape” and she was like “What’s an audition? Okay”.

She has such a strong sense of self. She’s an old soul in a 10-year-old’s body but also very much a 10-year-old so we’d be filming and she’d be swinging her arms around and scratching her ear. You’re like “Oh my God! We’re making a movie” but sometimes it worked because she wasn’t jaded. There is one scene where we’re in a hotel room and she starts rolling around on the couch and doing this [she indicates stretching her arms in the air] and no one told her to do that. She just did it and it’s brilliant in that scene. Other times we’d have to be like “Okay, take it down”. But she’s incredible and we bonded very quickly in a very natural way. Nick Krause, Amara and I just became a little family.

TeenHollywood: You’ve been working since 8 years old. What keeps you going and attracts you to this industry?

Shailene: Nothing really attracts me to this industry to be perfectly honest.  I look at acting as an art and that’s all it is for me. It’s just fun. I’ve been doing it since I was young because I wanted to. Not because my parents wanted me to. My dad’s a principal and mom’s a middle school counselor so acting, to them, is like “Eh, whatever. As long as you get good grades.”  It’s really fun and nothing more.

The reason I keep doing it is it fuels some kind of passion in me and the day that those butterflies stop is the day I’m gonna quit because I could care less about the magazines or the “famous” word or the money or the awards. To me, it’s just about being on a film set and making art. It’s like being an artist with paint and painting a canvas. The day it becomes something that I dread is the end. Obviously, why would you do something that you hate? I won’t do that.

TeenHollywood: Do you want to get a college degree at some point?

Shailene: Absolutely. I’m studying now independently. I’m really, really interested in herbalism and holistic practices so right now, I’m studying indigenous cultures.

TeenHollywood: Like you just did in Hawaii.

Shailene: Yeah, that’s home. Oh my God, Hawaii is home.

TeenHollywood: At your age, a lot of girls are into make-up, fashion and music. But, what are you really interested in? I have a feeling it’s not that stuff.

Shailene: [Working with] clay, I’m interested in spring water, the awful things Monsanto the company is doing with genetic modification. I’m interested in the giant plastic island floating in the middle of the ocean. I could care less about fashion and make-up but I actually do love music.

TeenHollywood: Who is your fave band right now?

Shailene: I have so many but I really love [folk band] Bon Iver. There’s a great musician called Antony and the Johnsons and he’s kind of out there and weird but I just love him.

TeenHollywood: Do you have another film lined up?

Shailene: No. Right now, I’m just working on “Secret Life”.  [She gets up to leave and, over her shoulder says] Hey, have an awesome day! At least you have windows and get to see the outside.