Shailene Woodley on Why You Can’t Expect 1 Person to Bring You Joy
Shailene Woodley certainly has been making headlines as of late. In addition to receiving great reviews for her acting work and her passion for the environment, her whirlwind relationship with Aaron Rodgers has also captured the public’s attention. Woodley has been candid about the fact that her relationship with her fiancé caught her quite off guard as the speed at which their relationship progressed is fairly staggering. But Woodley’s gut instinct that the pair were meant to be together allowed her to be a bit less cautious and the couple moved in together almost immediately.
As Woodley is far from a football fanatic, she never expected to click with Rodgers right off the bat. However, when they were finishing each others sentences during their very first conversation, she quickly realized that they had very similar world views. Their initial connection was only escalated by the COVID-19 pandemic because they were forced to get to know each other very quickly. This was especially true after they chose to move in together. As they were quarantined together, they couldn’t merely leave whenever they hit a rough patch. In an interview with Shape, the Big Little Lies star got candid about the progression of her relationship with her soon-to-be husband.
Shailene Woodley gets candid about her relationship with her future husband, Aaron Rodgers
“Starting a relationship where you immediately move in with someone — because it’s a pandemic and you can’t just get on a plane and go back and forth on weekends — taught us a lot about each other very quickly,” Woodley admitted. “We jumped in headfirst and got some of the sticky bits out of the way early.”
Though Woodley and Rodgers may be madly in love, the actor has been candid about the fact that she never relies on a romantic partner to be her source of happiness. Instead, she maintains that the most important relationship a person can have is with themselves. This was a lesson that she deepened when she was working on her film Endings, Beginnings. According to Woodley, playing Daphne allowed her to see the importance of self-love and not be dependent on a romantic partner to create a vibrant life.
Why the movie star doesn’t believe that one person should be responsible for your joy
“The greatest thing I could take away from this movie, as someone who’s watching it, is the sense that we’re conditioned to look for one person in our lives,” Woodley shared with Interview Magazine. “We expect them to bring us joy and happiness, and it’s such a falsity. That will never happen. In this movie you witness that through this woman’s journey. I hope people take that and apply it to their own lives, whether they’re in a relationship or not. The most important relationship you can cultivate is with yourself. I crave the sincerity of presence that we had on our movie.”
To be fair, Woodley made that statement before she even met Rodgers, so it’d be interesting to see if her perspective has shifted at all since she’s met her partner. However, cultivating a relationship with herself likely helped lead to the actor’s relationship with the quarterback, so clearly she had the right idea.
