Hollywood actress Shailene Woodley talks about her role on HBO’s new TV series Big Little Lies
ON film, she is known as the kickass heroine in the Divergent series of films. But for her latest role in the HBO TV series Big Little Lies, Shailene Woodley plays Jane Chapman, a young mother struggling to provide the best life for her child.
Based on the book of the same name by Liane Moriarty, the seven-episode limited drama series is a subversive, darkly comedic drama that weaves a tale of murder and mischief as it explores society’s myth of perfection and the contradictions that exist beneath our idealised facade of marriage, sex, parenting and friendship.
Also starring Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman and Laura Dern, it is directed by Jean-Marc VallÈe (of Dallas Buyers Club fame) and written for TV and created by David E. Kelley (Picket Fences, LA Law, The Practice and Ally McBeal).
Nothing is quite as it seems in the tranquil seaside town of Monterey, California. Fuelled by rumours and divided into the haves and have-nots, conflicts and secrets are exposed, leading to betrayals that compromise relationships between husbands and wives, parents and children, and friends and neighbours.
Below, the 25-year-old Californian, and Bafta and Oscar nominated actress, for her role in the 2011 drama The Descendants, talks about playing Jane.
WHAT WERE YOUR INITIAL THOUGHTS ABOUT JANE?
There are movies about young mothers or pregnant teenagers but not many I’ve seen that authentically capture the motherhood aspect of someone that young. She’s probably 19, when she got pregnant and is now in her mid-20s, with a 7-year-old. She’s trying to navigate the chaos between being an adult for her son and trying to grow up for herself.
I happen to know somebody who was in that position, when she was younger, and wearing those two hats can be completely contradictory for the person — trying to command authority and knowing what to do, while nurturing the gaps within life, dealing with hormonal changes, wanting to be in love or not be in love, and wanting to be noticed and seen and not necessarily, noticing or seeing yourself because there’s no time for that.
WORKING AS AN ACTRESS SINCE YOUNG, DID YOU FEEL THERE WASN’T TIME FOR THOSE THINGS WHEN YOU WERE GROWING UP TOO?
I worked really hard but I enjoyed myself too. Being an actor, you have to experience life outside your career for you to be someone who can bring authenticity and human experience to a character. So I try to find the balance between the many different worlds that I find fascinating in this life. Be it acting, activism, pottery or writing, or survival skills, whatever piques my interest.
It’s important that I dive into those things, for my own evolution and for my own growth, and it just happens to benefit what I do as a career too.
THE SHOW HAS A HUGE NUMBER OF INCREDIBLE FEMALE ROLES.
Reese is really profound in the way that she speaks about women in Hollywood and women in this show, in particular.
I’ve been fortunate that most films or projects that I’ve been a part of have had other very strong women on board with me.
What’s really special about this one is that you had females from different demographics and lifestyles, and that’s rare.
You see the cattiness, the jealousy, the envy but you also see the camaraderie, the compassion and the generosity, and the ability to forgive.
It was told from a very authentic truth-based reality of what it’s like to be a woman in 2017.
JANE DOESN’T SEEM TO GET EMBROILED IN ALL THE COMPETITIVE MOTHERING THAT THE OTHER FEMALE CHARACTERS DO.
It takes place in Monterey, California, which is a predominantly white area, privileged and a financially stable area. One thing I loved about Jane is that she is not those things. She’s privileged because she is white, she’s privileged because she can afford to live in Monterey but she’s just scraping by — she’s sleeping on a couch.
It just goes to show that we have so many judgments, based on facades that can be applied to this year, with what’s going on with our political system. We’re so quick to judge the other side without actually understanding the other side.
Until you remove those walls to say: I don’t relate to you but can we have a conversation, because maybe, at the end of the day, all you want is what’s best for your child, and all I want is what’s best for my child, and you think that A, B and C is going to get you the best future, and I think A, B and C. But let’s just have that dialogue. And that’s what Jane and Renata are able to eventually do, that’s what Jane and Madeleine do, and Celeste and Renata.
And metaphorically, that can be applied to any situation, because the struggle is real for everyone, and just because life may be more comfortable for some people, it doesn’t mean they’re not hurting just as much.
YOUR PARENTS HAVE WORKED IN EDUCATION. WERE THEY HELPFUL TO PREPARE FOR THE ASPECTS OF THE STORY ABOUT SCHOOL LIFE?
My mum is a parent coach — that’s one of the things she does now, she coaches parents. She doesn’t disclose many stories, just for confidentiality reasons, but from what I’ve witnessed and some of the stories that she has told, there’s a real phenomena of giving your child so much power that she has parents coming to her and saying: ‘My child won’t go to sleep, I don’t know what to do!’
And my mum would say, ‘have you told your child that it’s time to go to sleep?’ And they would answer, ‘I can’t do that, because then my child would hit me or my child would yell at me.’ And my mum would say, ‘your child is 5, you are in control.’
There’s a difference between being a controlling, dominant parent who is unkind, and being someone who expresses boundaries and restrictive natures so that when this child is nurtured into adulthood, they don’t enter the world and realise that they don’t have feet to walk on.
Social media is catering to that problem, and the Internet and technology and reality shows are catering to that too — we’re just feeding false narratives about society. I’m excited to have a child one day but I want to be very cautious and aware — you need to give your child power, empower them to be an individual but at the same time, not give them a false reality of what the real world is like.
With this whole helicoptering parenting scene or giving a child everything he demands, they grow up and they realise that the world is not like that, and they have a really hard entrance into adulthood.
I know some people who were raised that way and their years between 18 and 27 were really difficult. HBO
Big Little Lies premieres same time as the US tomorrow at 10am on HBO (Astro Channel 411 and Astro HD Channel 431) and Astro On The Go.