Tragic Details About Shailene Woodley And Why She Nearly Left Hollywood

Shailene Woodley has been a staple in Hollywood since she broke into the industry in the early aughts. Though it may look at first glance like Woodley took to stardom like a duck to water, her days in the spotlight haven't always been easy to navigate. She has starred in some impressive projects, such as the "Divergent" movie series and "Big Little Lies" (alongside Zoe Kravitz, Nicole Kidman, and Reese Witherspoon), but that doesn't mean that things haven't been tough at times. In fact, Woodley has had to face a lot of hardships that other actors don't know anything about, including some serious health problems as a child that followed her into adulthood. 

At times, Woodley has seriously thought about leaving Hollywood behind for good and putting an end to her acting career. Though she was able to pull herself through it, there's no denying that these experiences have left a mark on her that can't be easily erased. Let's take a look at Woodley's life and the pitfalls she's had to endure to keep afloat in show business and beyond. 

When Shailene Woodley was just a teenager, she discovered that she had scoliosis, in which the spine curves to the side. She told Us Weekly in 2008 that initially, she felt she could cope with the treatment, which included wearing a back brace to correct the spine, though it became harder as time wore on. "It's like wearing a tacky, disgusting, plastic corset for 18 hours a day," she told the publication. "In the beginning, it was hard to eat or breathe. And I had to give up cross-country running. But I needed to have it to realign my spine." Woodley had to wear the brace for two years before she was able to remove it. 

Especially considering how young she was at the time, it couldn't have been a pleasant experience. Years later in 2015, Woodley spoke to Movies Online to elaborate on her condition. Thankfully, she explained that she could always remain active, and it wasn't enough to hold her back from experiencing life to the fullest whenever she could. "Every now and then you get a little bit of pain, but everyone has their stuff to deal with. Everyone has their own pains and obstacles to battle with," she explained (via Avala Spine). Woodley's determination to continue with her acting pursuits is to be admired. At the time she had the brace, Woodley was starring in the TV show "The Secret Life of the American Teenager." 

The stunning transformation of Shailene Woodley may have had us all fooled for a while. As if having scoliosis wasn't enough, Woodley suffered through a period of poor health in her 20s. Though she has never revealed exactly what her condition was, she did speak about her symptoms on the podcast "SHE MD" in 2024. "I was losing my hearing," she explained. "I couldn't walk for longer than five minutes at a time without having to lay down for hours and hours and hours and sleep. Everything I ate hurt my stomach." Woodley sought medical attention, but no one could seem to figure out what was causing the problems. Woodley explained that this was confusing because she lived a healthy and active lifestyle. 

As a result, her mental health suffered, and she began to avoid eating food because of the pain. This led to body dysmorphia, and coming out on the other side of this was an arduous task. Woodley looked at the trauma she had experienced in the past and began doing the work to heal her mind as well as her body. She also realized that she had been living in a heightened state of anxiety — fight or flight — for several years. "[I was] constantly approaching every single moment with high alert and with red flags because I hadn't yet established what a calm nervous system could look like and what true safety in myself could look like," she admitted. 

For any young actor, the opportunity to work with one of Hollywood's biggest stars isn't one to miss. Landing roles opposite icons can instantly boost a hopeful's profile, so it's understandable that Shailene Woodley fought tooth and nail to keep a role in George Clooney's "The Descendants" in 2011. Woodley played the daughter of Clooney's character in the film, but she was lucky to have made the cut. During an interview with Vanity Fair in 2024, Woodley rewatched a scene from the movie and explained, "I walked out of [the audition] feeling like, 'I slayed it, I'm gonna get this movie.'" She may have been confident she nailed the part, but that wasn't the case at all. Her determination to land the job wasn't to be underestimated, and she begged her agents to explain what went wrong. 

"I emailed them every week and said, 'Please just get me notes. Please get me notes. What did I do wrong? I know I'm supposed to do this film,'" she said. To put it simply, the audition didn't go down well with the casting directors, who thought that she overacted what should've been a simple scene. After many tears and lots of begging, they gave her a second chance. The rest is history, but Woodley will always remember just how difficult it was. "I, like, went in and I cried, and it was this whole thing," she said.

We know that the iconic role Shailene Woodley regrets doing was earlier in her career, but what about "The Amazing Spider-Man 2"? Woodley was originally hired to play Peter Parker's love interest, Mary Jane Watson, in the second installment of Andrew Garfield's superhero movie, but fans never saw her take on the role. Woodley even shot some scenes, but it wasn't to be. The decision was made to go in a different direction, and her efforts were left on the cutting room floor.  

As director Marc Webb told the Los Angeles Times, "Shailene is a brilliant actress, and she did a great couple of days of work. But it was very difficult to introduce someone as a competing love interest when so much is on the table with Peter and Gwen." When asked about the situation at San Diego Comic-Con, Woodley looked visibly downcast as she explained that including Watson in the story ultimately didn't make sense. Though she was adamant that it turned out to be a smart decision, her body language was tense. In an interview with Vanity Fair (via Grazia) the following year, Woodley admitted that when she first heard her scenes were cut, she was shocked. "For a few hours it was literally like, 'Oh, my God, was I awful? Why did they cut me? What are people going to think?'" she explained. 

Shailene Woodley's inspiring activist career means that she isn't afraid to be vocal about supporting causes she believes in. While that's admirable, in 2016, she found herself in the back of a police car headed to jail when she participated in a protest against the pipeline project at the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota. She soon spotted two U.S. military tanks and realized something was up. Speaking to Marie Claire in 2017, she said she initially thought, "This is some 'Divergent' s***.' The only time in my life that I saw a tank like that was on set in Atlanta." Amazingly, her arrest was captured on Facebook Live, where around 40,000 people watched as she was escorted away to Morton County jail. 

Things only got more traumatic from there. After being stripped naked and searched, Woodley came to a harrowing realization. "When you're in a jail cell and they shut that door, you realize no one can save you. If there's a fire and they decide not to open the door, you'll die. You are a caged animal," she told the magazine. She was charged with criminal trespassing and engaging in a riot but later managed to avoid a conviction by pleading guilty to a lesser charge. Had the case gone to trial, Woodley could've faced jail time. 

Shailene Woodley's career got a boost when she landed the role of Tris in the "Divergent" film series, opposite dashing British actor Theo James. The first and second installments of the franchise were box-office hits, but the third and final outing was a major flip. "Allegiant" was split into two parts, with the first taking $179 million  worldwide against a $110 million budget. What the studio had hoped would be a tremendous financial hit like "The Hunger Games" soon became a disappointment for fans everywhere. Instead of releasing the second part of "Allegiant" in theaters, the studio opted to put it on TV, hoping it could claw the revenue back by creating a subsequent spin-off series. Neither happened.

What's more, Woodley was as surprised to find out any of this as the public was. She was on a plane when the news broke and didn't hear about it until landing. After ending on this sour note, Woodley considered quitting acting. "['Allegiant'] was a bit of a hard experience for everyone, and that was really what made me think I need to have some human experiences outside of this industry and fall in love with acting again," she told Net-A-Porter. As a result, she told her agents to stop sending her scripts as she considered what she would do if she wasn't an actor. It wasn't until she was persuaded to consider "Big Little Lies" that she changed her mind. 

From the outside, it's easy to think that actors must have an overwhelming amount of self-confidence, but that's not always the case. For Shailene Woodley, confidence hasn't come easy. While promoting Season 2 of "Big Little Lies," Woodley and her castmates sat down for an interview with InStyle. While talking about confidence, she explained (via People), "The honest answer to that is so many things are changing for me at the moment. I recently started therapy, and it has dramatically altered my life." Prior to seeking help with her mental health, Woodley admitted that she didn't feel much self-worth at all. 

"A few months ago I was the least confident in my self-worth. I don't beat myself up over it anymore, but I still feel like I don't fully trust myself to say no to certain things, to trust my discernment," she revealed. But Woodley always had one surprising name in her corner who helped her: Kate Winslet. When appearing on "The Drew Barrymore Show" in 2024, Woodley revealed that the "Titanic" actress offered her a lot of advice when she was coming up in Hollywood that she remembers to this day. "She's just real," she told Barrymore. 

In 2021, tragedy befell the cast and crew of "Big Little Lies" when the beloved director of the show Jean-Marc Vallée unexpectedly died at the age of 58. Several of the cast members took to social media to express their sadness, as did Shailene Woodley. She posted a photo of Vallée alongside a fitting tribute. "God, death is the worst," she wrote on Instagram (via Yahoo Entertainment). "But I guess somehow I know you will turn it into a grand adventure ... one for the books, one I can't wait to read and to watch when my time comes. It doesn't make sense though dude. It doesn't make sense."

Woodley's heartbreaking message also went on to say that she hoped she would wake up to the news it was all some sort of joke. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to share his condolences, proving just how beloved the "Dallas Buyer's Club" filmmaker really was.

It's not unusual for celebs to look drastically different after a role. After all, some parts require a total physical overhaul to make a story believable. However, in some cases, actors push themselves to the limit, even endangering their health for the sake of a good movie. In 2018, Woodley starred in "Adrift," in which she played Tami Oldham, a woman who gets lost at sea in a boat. Talking to The Times, Woodley revealed that she barely ate anything while preparing for the part. "For the last two weeks I had a can of salmon, some steamed broccoli, and two egg yolks every day — 350 calories," she said. "It was f***ing miserable."

Not only was Woodley impossibly hungry, but the starvation caused her some serious health problems. In order to sleep, she had to self-medicate with a glass of wine. Woodley's hard work and dedication may have put her at risk, but it was somewhat worth it when it came to the critical response. RogerEbert.com's Sheila O'Malley gave the film 3 out of 4 stars. 

In 2022, Shailene Woodley and Aaron Rodgers had sad relationship news for fans. Woodley and Rodgers had announced their engagement the year prior, with the actor telling The Hollywood Reporter, "When we announced that we were engaged, we wanted to do that only because we didn't want someone else to do it before we did." She explained that they waited months before they made their commitment public, but privacy didn't save their ill-fated relationship. The pair called it off the following year, proving that love can be tough in the spotlight. Though it may have looked like a healthy union, Woodley made some revealing comments in 2024. 

Referring to life after the split, Woodley told Outside, "I felt like I lost my soul, my self, my happiness, my joy. I really understood depression and anxiety and, like, complete soul detachment." She also referred to her time with Rodgers as a toxic situation that still brought her to tears. The star credited her friend, Kris Zero, for helping her get back to normal, saying that she would wake her up with music consistently in the tough mornings that followed the separation. Woodley and Zero would also then take to the water and surf or go and volunteer to distract the actor from dwelling on her broken engagement. Eventually, Woodley was able to piece herself back together again.

Many who are famous know how tricky interviews can be. It's not unheard of for the media to take a simple, throwaway phrase and spin it, taking it out of context and creating a PR nightmare for the star involved. Shailene Woodley knows this all too well, which is why she feels she has to record her interviews. When talking to Bustle in 2024, Woodley pulled out her phone and pressed record before she started talking. The journalist quizzed her on it, wondering if it was because of one of Woodley's recent roles in which she played a journalist, but the answer was much more complex — and saddening. 

Woodley didn't mince her words. "Journalists can be really f****** sneaky," she explained. "That's why I record everything now because I'm like, 'You say something I didn't say? I got proof.' But it's a weird world because I want to be genuine — and I am — and you never know how that's going to come across." It sounds like the actor, like many, learned this lesson the hard way.