Theo James Once Shared His Real-Life Relationship With Shailene Woodley Mirrored ‘Divergent’

Shailene Woodley and Theo James came together to star in the commercially successful Divergent franchise. Woodley and James developed a quick bond on set that James felt reflected their Divergent relationship in a unique way.

Theo James once felt his relationship with Shailene Woodley mirrored their romance in ‘Divergent’

Theo James and Shailene Woodley led the Divergent series as Four and Tris respectively. Because the film required the two to be intimate, chemistry was necessary between the co-stars. And James discovered that he and Woodley had plenty of chemistry to spare.

“She’s a very open and fun person, and that always helps,” James once told Elle about his co-star. “Especially if you have a bit of natural chemistry, inevitably, it’s going to make the scene better, and we definitely had good chemistry from that start, which is something you always hope for, whenever you get stuck in a love story for the next however long.”

Their real-life relationship might have further helped their romance in the movie.

“But also, especially with this kind of movie, it was kind of lucky in a way because our relationship naturally mirrors the relationship between Tris and Four,” James further explained. “When you start a movie, you don’t really know each other, you’re trying to feel each other out. There’s a bit of excitement, nervousness—who are these people?”

Theo James found working with Shailene Woodley refreshing

Working with Woodley was a nice change of pace for James. The actor confided that usually meeting another actor on set for the first time came with a bit of discomfort. But the chemistry between himself and Woodley was so instantaneous that there was very little awkwardness between them.

“She was very refreshing, actually. Inevitably you meet on the test and you don’t know each other, and it’s always slightly awkward because you’re doing a kind of intimate scene with someone you have never set your eyes upon. But she’s really refreshing and she’s very open to collaborating as two people and making the scene as good as possible,” James once said in an interview with Games Radar.

He also reflected on what made Woodley such a wonderful actor to team up with.

“When we were filming, what she is great at and what we managed to do a lot is really ground the work and, as pretentious as that sounds, bring it back to the fact the reason you are there is that you are trying to tell a story of two people or several people. She is so great with that, very emotionally intuitive, and able to bring a truth to something, even in the craziest circumstances,” James added.

Theo James felt the hardest stunt he did in ‘Divergent’ was kissing Shailene Woodley

Being an action film, the Divergent franchise has asked their actors to perform many thrilling stunts. But James felt the hardest stunt he had to do for the film didn’t involve anything dangerous. Rather, it was just being intimate with his co-star.

“Toughest stunt was, I guess… Genuinely the kissing scene Shai and I, in a real way, wanted that to be as good as possible because it’s the only time they get together and the only time really kissy smooshy scene and we wanted it to be good and to fulfill the things that it needs to fulfill and be real and not ebb on the side of lots of cheese,” he said.

James asserted that it took a couple of times for him and Woodley to get the kiss right.

“We actually shot that a second time because the first time it didn’t feel quite right, we really wanted to it in a way that it is earned,” he said.