Shailene Woodley Was Once Glad That the Romance in ‘Divergent’ Wasn’t Like ‘Twilight’
Shailene Woodley was attracted to many aspects of the Divergent films. She especially gave credit to the movie’s depiction of romance, which she felt was considerably different from another franchise’s.
How Shailene Woodley ended up in ‘Divergent’
It wasn’t too difficult for Woodley to get the lead role in Divergent. The young actor didn’t necessarily have to do a traditional audition for the role. All it took was for her to have a personal conversation with the film’s director, Neil Burger, to land the part of Tris.
“I had a meeting with the producers and told them about my interests—which involve survival skills—and then I met with Neil, and he said, ‘I think you’re Tris,'” she told Daily Beast in 2014.
Woodley went into detail about the survival skills that convinced Burger and the producers to cast her.
But one of the things that sparked her interest in the franchise was its treatment of women. Woodley felt Divergent portrayed relationships between women in a different and more refreshing way than other films she typically saw. Especially since Woodley enjoyed seeing empowered women in stories.
“Oftentimes in films, even if you do have a really strong woman, there’s jealousy and envy among her sisters,” Woodley said. “So you’ll have this really empowered leader, who’s a chick, and then she has some sort of envious relationship with another woman in the movie. And in this movie, there’s no envy and no jealousy—no ridiculous girl-fights.”
Shailene Woodley was glad that the romance in ‘Divergent’ wasn’t like ‘Twilight’
Woodley wasn’t only impressed with how Divergent handled relationships between women. She was impressed by how the movie handled relationships in general. Woodley was disappointed in seeing so many young adult relationships not being portrayed in an authentic way on film. Divergent, however, delivered a love story that more than met her expectations.
“One of the main aspects that attracted me to Divergent was their relationship. It’s not one of those teenage dramatic relationships where it’s love at first sight and she’s swooning over him and he’s there with her and then he withdraws and she has to chase him. There’s no drama. I feel like it’s very real and very personal and realistic to how a lot of relationships are,” she said in a 2013 interview with Collider.
It was a sentiment that her co-star, Theo James, agreed with. Woodley also made a quick point on how Divergent’s romance differed from Twilight’s, whose romantic elements she wasn’t too fond of.
“Of course there’s drama but it’s not, it’s very different than the Bella/Edward relationship. They’re completely on the opposite sides of the spectrum,” Woodley added.
Why Shailene Woodley felt ‘Twilight’ was unhealthy
Woodley has expressed strong feelings towards the Twilight franchise and the example she believed it set. In a resurfaced interview with Teen Vogue (via Glamour), Woodley explained why she felt Twilight was potentially a bad influence.
“Twilight, I’m sorry, is about a very unhealthy, toxic relationship,” she said. “She falls in love with this guy and the second he leaves her, her life is over and she’s going to kill herself…What message are we sending to young people? That is not going to help this world evolve.”
