Shailene Woodley very nearly quit acting before being cast in “Big Little Lies”.
The 26-year-old is on the cover of this week’s PorterEdit, and she revealed she almost turned down her role in the smash hit HBO series.
“There was a point in my life, right before ‘Big Little Lies’, where I had hit a wall with acting. I felt it was time to do something different,” she recalled. “I called my agents and said, ‘Please don’t send me any more scripts; I need to explore other avenues.'”
Even when the offer for “Big Little Lies” came up, Woodley’s initial reaction was to refuse it.
“They respected me and didn’t send me anything for almost a year until ‘Big Little Lies’,” she said. “I didn’t know what it was or who was involved, I just said, ‘Thanks, I’m still not interested.'”
Woodley said the pressure of being a woman in Hollywood was becoming too much for her at the time.
“I can’t half-a*** anything, so when it came to me having to look a certain way or speak a certain way for this image I was meant to create, it turned me off. We often see a pattern with young women in this industry: They lose a bit of weight after they become successful, their hair changes or their skin becomes clear.
“There’s a lot that goes into the behind-the-scenes that, if that’s not your thing, can itch at your soul.”
The decision to do “Big Little Lies” only came after getting a call from one of her eventual co-stars.
“I read [‘Big Little Lies’], fell in love with it, and Laura [Dern] called me and that was really the push,” Woodley said. “I don’t know that I’ve ever worked with a group of women where competition didn’t get in the way of sisterhood. Every single person was championing the other members.”
