Shailene Woodley reveals Laura Dern convinced her to join “Big Little Lies ”after turning it down: 'You're making a mistake'
Woodley reflects on the "massive moment of courageous friendship" that changed her life.
Because of Big Little Lies, Shailene Woodley now describes her relationship with Laura Dern as "sisters." But it took a good deal of work for Dern to even get Woodley to sign onto the series.
Woodley remembered being "desperate to work with" series creator Jean-Marc Vallée after he offered her the part of Jane Chapman. "I thought he was such an incredible artist and filmmaker," but Big Little Lies would have to wait, because Woodley was traveling to India, "really dead set on finding myself. And then I got a call from Laura," she said in a recent interview with Vanity Fair.
"She just said, 'Listen, I know where you're at in your life, I've been there before too. It's a lot, this world is an illusion, but what isn't an illusion is what you love to do. And what I see in you, Shai, is your purpose, at least in this moment in your life is to be a storyteller. And I think it's a massive mistake for you to walk away from this opportunity that you really should lean into.' It was because of that call that I decided to leave India and come back to the United States, and it forever changed my life," Woodley reflected.
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Next to industry titans like Dern, Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Meryl Streep, and even Zoë Kravitz, Woodley was a relative newcomer in the cast. But by the time she took Vallée's call in 2015, she'd already been acting for 17 years, anchored her own 120+ episode ABC Family series, The Secret Life of an American Teenager, had the popular young adult science fiction franchise Divergent designed around her, and worked with auteurs like Alexander Payne and Gregg Araki.
"I was not at all exhausted by acting or the artistry and the craft of storytelling, but I was really exhausted by the act of Hollywood," Woodley reflected on her mindset at the time.
Big Little Lies went on to become one of the most widely watched and lauded series in HBO's history. The role of Jane Chapman, the Monterey single mother and victim of rape by Kidman's character's abusive husband Perry Wright (Alexander Skarsgård), transformed Woodley from teen idol to serious actor. For her efforts she earned nominations from the Golden Globes, Emmys, and SAG Awards.
"In so many ways I'm grateful for Laura," Woodley said. "But that was a massive moment of courageous friendship to say, 'I think that you're making a mistake and I'm going to be brave enough to tell you why, because I see you and I see something you can't see in your own life right now.'"
"The beautiful thing about Big Little Lies is that we're all actually friends in real life. We have a text chain going and it's constantly a check-in every few weeks - 'Hey, what's up! It's still happening!'" Woodley revealed. "I keep being told that there's going to be a season 3 but I haven't read anything yet."
Big Little Lies season 2 aired from June to July 2019. Accounts of a potential third season have been in conflict ever since, with HBO President Casey Bloys saying another season is "not realistic" in 2019, to Kidman revealing that source novel author Liane Moriarty was working on a third season in 2020, to Kravitz again casting doubt after Vallée's death in 2021.
But as recently as June, Kidman and Witherspoon gave a positive update on the progress of the third season. "We're moving fast and furious, and Liane is delivering the book. We're in good shape," Kidman said. According to the Oscar-winner, all there is left to do is "shut up, because there's the whole thing that you should never talk about something until you've done it."
