Shailene Woodley Was Once Against Being Compared to Jennifer Lawrence
Actors Shailene Woodley and Jennifer Lawrence were often compared in the past due to their similar career trajectories. But it was a comparison that Woodley didn’t appreciate.
Shailene Woodley once went to Jennifer Lawrence for career advice
Similarly to Lawrence and her Hunger Games franchise, Woodley became the face of her own young adult franchise with the Divergent films. Before the sci-fi movies, Woodley was already a well-known star in her own right. She received much attention for her starring role in the television show The Secret Life of the American Teenager. From there, she steadily increased her profile with roles in films like The Descendants and The Fault in Our Stars.
But leading the Divergent films saw Woodley becoming the focal point of a potentially blockbuster series. It was a life-changing responsibility she wasn’t sure she was ready for, so she turned to Lawrence for help.
“She asked, basically, ‘If you had the opportunity to do this again, would you? Because it’s scary. It’s life changing,'” Lawrence once recalled to Access. “And I said, ‘Yes. As many things change, as many things are horrible and scary, it’s worth it if you love the movie,’ which she did.”
Shailene Woodley was against being compared to Jennifer Lawrence
Woodley was already a huge fan of the X-Men star. Still, the actor felt it was a mistake to constantly compare her to Lawrence. But her feelings on the matter was once met with hostility. In an interview with Vulture, it was mentioned that Woodley stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. At one point, Fallon asked Woodley how she felt about the constant Lawrence comparisons.
“Well, comparisons always lead to despair,” Woodley said.
Many in the audience booed Woodley for her opinion, leading to that segment on the talk show being cut. Woodley would later stand by her position and explain why she was so put off by the comparisons.
“As women, we are constantly told that we need to compare ourselves to a girl in school, to our co-workers, to the images in a magazine,” she said. “How is the world going to advance if we’re always comparing ourselves to others? I admire Jennifer Lawrence, but she’s everyone’s favorite person to compare me to. Is it because we both have short hair and a vagina? I see us as separate individuals.”
And although she admitted being booed for her opinion got slightly under her skin, Woodley didn’t let the incident stay with her.
“It bothered me, because it’s human nature to feel bad if you are booed by an entire audience,” she added. “But in these few moments that we have here on Earth, are we going to torture ourselves? Or are we going to allow our lights to be dimmed? How do we expect men to respect women or women to rise to more power when we don’t respect our queendom in the same way that men respect their kingdom?”
Why Shailene Woodley considered herself a feminist
Woodley believed that women shouldn’t let the media and other outside sources dictate how they felt about themselves. This kind of influence also had the potential to breed a rivalry between women due to insecurities. The Adrift star labeled herself a feminist because she was willing to help change these kinds of issues that women still faced.
“I would today consider myself a feminist. If females start working through the false narrative of jealousy and insecurity fed through a patriarchal society, then not only will we have more women feeling confident in themselves and supportive of one another, but we will start introducing a type of matriarchy, which is what this world needs. We need more softness and more silence and more pause through the chaos,” she once told The New York Times.
