‘Divergent’: Did Shailene Woodley Do Her Own Stunts?

Over the course of the three Divergent movies, Shailene Woodley’s character, Beatrice “Tris” Prior, proved that she was Dauntless time and time again. The teen underwent brutal physical and mental training in order to conquer her fears. Despite being born and raised in the Abnegation faction, Tris was able to push herself to become a true warrior. But is Woodley as physically adept as her character? Was the talented actor responsible for her own stunts in the blockbuster film?

Shailene Woodley leads a very physical lifestyle

Fans of the Divergent movie may not realize that Woodley was always the first choice to play Tris. Given that the actor spends a good chunk of time in the great outdoors and has excellent survival skills, casting her seemed like a no-brainer. Of course, playing such a hyperactive character meant that The Fallout actor still had to undergo some training before and during filming. This allowed her to feel more comfortable when she was performing her stunts.

The actor got candid about doing most of her own stunts for ‘Divergent’

While speaking with Vanity Fair, Woodley got candid about some of the stunts she did while filming Divergent. “Well, I was kind of an adrenaline junkie before!” the Endings, Beginnings star shared. “I am such a physical person, so having the opportunity to zip line, climb a Ferris wheel, and fight Theo [James], who is a really intense boxer in life, was fun.”

Like Tris, Woodley even got to jump on and off a moving train. However, when Tris was required to make the big leaps, the Divergent production team called in the big guns to help keep Woodley safe. “My stunt double made me look badass,” Woodley explained. “She did the major jumps on and off the train, but I did the smaller ones and the running.”

Woodley suffered a few injuries while filming ‘Divergent’

Woodley may have had fun doing a lot of her own stunts, but they were hardly a walk in the park. There’s always a risk of injury, even for someone as athletic as her. While filming one of the iconic train scenes in Divergent, Woodley fell off and ended up with two hernias. She also ended up with a black eye while she was shooting the films. But even the injuries didn’t deter her from wanting to do her own stunts. In a separate interview with Vanity Fair, she went into more detail about the specific logistics of her stunt work.

“I tried to do as many stunts as they would let me,” Woodley recalled. “I got to zip-line, which is pretty fun. I didn’t get to do the whole distance, but I got to do part of it. I got to be, like, 40 feet up over Chicago streets. We got to climb a Ferris wheel, [which] was not as cool as it seems. There was a ladder at about 45 degrees, and we were essentially just climbing the ladder. But it was a full moon, a super moon, so it was cool.” Clearly, Woodley invested a lot into the Divergent movies. It’s too bad that she never got to finish Tris’s story.