Shailene Woodley is making big news for her role in The Fault in Our Stars, but she was terribly saddened and confused when she learned she had been cut from The Amazing Spider-Man 2. When the film went in another direction and her role was eliminated she wondered if she simply wasn’t cut out for acting in an action film.
“For a few hours it was literally like, ‘Oh, my God, was I awful? Why did they cut me? What are people going to think?’” Woodley’s said in recent Vanity Fair article.
“I woke up the next morning and I was like, ‘OK, it makes total sense.’ I’m a pretty spiritual person, so I can just sit back and trust that everything happens for a reason, even if my ego doesn’t like it,” she explained.
Now that Shailene’s career is doing so incredibly well, she is starting to feel a different kind of pressure rather than the pressure of defeat. Some might call it fear of extreme success–something the young actress is very clearly headed for.
The wait is finally over! #TFIOS is now playing! Get your tickets w/ a free side of #feels: http://t.co/7CNQuqTdcD pic.twitter.com/dZLH9aJ3Xj
— The Fault Movie (@TheFaultMovie) June 7, 2014
“Somebody came to me and said, ‘I can’t wait to see what you do next.’ I took that as pressure – that I had to live up to somebody else’s expectations. There were a few months where I was like, ‘I don’t want to act anymore.’ And then I got over it and realized it’s none of my business what other people think of me,” she added.
George Clooney doesn’t think Shailene Woodley will succumb to any kind of pressure, however–because she’s just that good.
“Shailene can do whatever she wants. If she wants to be a movie star, she has it. If she wants to change the world, she will. Her talent and kindness go hand in hand,” George said to Vanity Fair. “We’ll be talking about Shailene Woodley 40 years from now. I’ve never seen anyone so young that has so much together.”
Hopefully hearing this from George Clooney–with whom she starred in The Descendants–doesn’t add pressure to Shailene Woodley who seems a bit overwhelmed these days. Once she gains a bit more self-confidence (could that come in the form of an Oscar nomination for The Fault in Our Stars?) she will no doubt come to terms with all the stress that accompanies success. In the meantime she should try to let go and enjoy what will likely soon become a pretty exciting and often incredibly wild ride.
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