Throwback: When Shailene Woodley Revealed She Was 'Very Sick' While Filming Divergent Movies
Shailene Woodley, who has been acting since 5 years old, disclosed amid the pandemic that her 20s were consumed by health issues whose effects infiltrated into her professional career.
![Shailene Woodley (YouTube/Divergent Trailer) Shailene Woodley (YouTube/Divergent Trailer)](https://www.pinkvilla.com/images/2024-08/251672916_untitled-design-2024-08-10t183346-365.jpg)
Shailene Woodley once reflected on how she almost lost her Hollywood career due to a personal health battle. While filming the Divergent movies, the actor was quietly dealing with a severe health condition that eventually forced her to surrender later on.
Woodley, who has been acting since 5 years old, disclosed amid the pandemic that her 20s were consumed by health issues whose effects infiltrated into her professional career. “I haven’t spoken much about this yet publicly, and I will one day, but I was very, very sick in my early 20s,” the 31-year-old star told The New York Times in 2020.
She continued, “While I was doing the Divergent movies and working hard, I also was struggling with a deeply personal, very scary physical situation.” In the aftermath of her health scare, which she didn’t name, Woodley had no choice but to step back from acting for some time and lost several considerable opportunities on the way.
Guided by the hopes of recovery, Woodley’s rejection prompted the projects to go to her peers, whom she mentioned she loved, and achieve great success. “but there was a mix of people saying, ‘You shouldn't have let that go!’ or 'You shouldn't have been sick!’” The Fault in Our Stars actress recalled.
More so, the California native barely had any hope left for her future and simply “let go” of the reins of her career at one point. Even years later, she was tormented by a negative voice in her head that limited her from leaving it all behind.
Woodley believed she nurtured a strong sense of identity in her late teens but the health scare, an abusive relationship, and her commercial success in Hollywood gravely affected her mental health and inner strength.
It was only after many years that the star was able to recover from both the physical and mental struggles of her situation. Woodley’s confession surfaced while promoting her 2019 romcom, Endings, Beginnings. By then, she had fully recovered and claimed to be in a better place with herself. Knowing her strengths now, Woodley felt grateful to be aware of her internal worth and the places, metaphorically, she would never run back to.
Shailene Woodley rose to fame with ABC’s The Secret Life of the American Teenager and made her Hollywood debut with 2012’s The Fault in Our Stars. Her recent works include The Fallout, Robots, To Catch A Killer, and Dumb Money.
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