This story contains heavy spoilers for Paradise season 2, episode 4, “A Holy Charge.” When Hulu's Paradise returned for its highly anticipated season 2 on February 23, instead of checking in with the lead character, Xavier (Sterling K. Brown), it opens with a departure episode about a woman named Annie Clay. Primarily set after the super volcano eruption that upends society in the series, the premiere titled “Graceland” follows the med school dropout turned Graceland tour guide (played by Shailene Woodley) as she finds the will to survive. It’s arguably the show’s best installment yet.

Thanks to Woodley's exquisite performance and the telling glimpses of her life before the apocalypse—her mother’s death, the panic attack that brings her career to an end, and the comfort she finds in teaching strangers about her mother’s favorite singer—we quickly come to care for her. It's all the more heartbreaking—and frustrating—then, when it's clear three episodes later that the character was introduced only to die.

When Annie and Xavier’s paths inevitably cross by the end of “Graceland,” it seems to signal a new future for her and an important allyship for both of them. Strong-willed and pragmatic, Annie could’ve seen Paradise’s mysteries with new eyes, and without the complacency of the average bunker dweller. However, no matter how well-written she appears to be, she was never meant to be the hero. Instead, she’s just the latest victim of a misogynistic plot device that has plagued female characters for decades.

The beginning of Annie’s plummet from compelling character to emotional-manipulation device comes via a plot twist near the end of “Graceland”: She’s heavily pregnant. A year before Xavier’s plane crashed, Annie met Link (Thomas Doherty), a charming biker who gate-crashed the museum two years after the eruption, in search of vintage car parts. Though she was initially guarded, Annie bonds with Link during his time at the mansion, and they sleep together before he leaves. Link, who’s determined to get to the mysterious Colorado bunker, asks Annie to join him, but she's too afraid to leave her familiar shelter. So by the time Xavier falls from the sky, Annie is very late in her pregnancy.

It makes little sense beyond melodrama. Shrewd Annie and mature-beyond-his-years Link are both extremely smart, careful people, and they didn’t once think of contraception? The odds of getting pregnant from one instance of unprotected sex range from 3 to 42 percent within a woman’s fertile window, but you wouldn’t know that if your sole source of sex ed is this exhausting postapocalyptic trope. (See A Quiet Place, The Walking Dead, Children of Men, etc.)

Though some viewers may have hoped that Annie and her baby would survive—after all, the concept of the entire show requires some suspension of disbelief—what we get is much more lurid. After Annie stitches Xavier back up in the March 2nd episode, “A Holy Charge,” the pair have two weeks together while he heals before setting out to find his wife, Teri (Enuka Okuma), in Atlanta, and eventually reach Colorado. But, to appear travel-ready, Annie had been hiding the severity of her condition, so it’s not long before she experiences preeclampsia and is pushed into early labor. In the 25 minutes of screen time before that labor begins, her interiority takes a back seat. The show doesn’t explore whether she regrets locking herself in Graceland, if her feelings for Link have evolved since their separation, or what she thinks about motherhood outside of their dystopian circumstances. Save for flashes that hint at her condition and urgency to leave, we only see her with Xavier, who centers himself in the moment, dadsplaining the joys and fears (and swaddling tips) of parenthood. Every conversation between them rehashes the same existential dilemma: Nihilist Annie can’t see the future as anything but bleak, but, to optimist Xavier, the baby inside her is a symbol of hope.

Before Annie ultimately dies in childbirth, she tasks a crying Xavier with “A Holy Charge”—delivering the baby to Link—in a prime example of fridging. The bane of every feminist fangirl, the trope coined by comics writer Gail Simone in 1999 is when a secondary character (usually female) dies or goes through grievous harm so a more significant character (typically male) can experience growth or change because of it. Not every instance of a male character’s sorrow over a female character’s death is fridging, but Annie’s death caps off the end of an episode that treats her like the trope’s most notorious examples. Her own character arc and potential are pushed aside so she can serve as a plot device and conduit for two men. Link—the specter in Xavier’s dreams whose past is tangled in the existence of the bunker itself—becomes the lynchpin holding the series together, giving it momentum. Annie’s discarded, and her only legacy is a letter to her child that echoes Xavier’s message.

Television has made major strides in its depiction of nuanced female characters, but even the best shows can’t avoid all pitfalls. Over the past few years, speculative-fiction shows like House of the Dragon, The Handmaid’s Tale, Yellowjackets, The Last of Us, and even Bridgerton season 4 have explored pregnancy trauma and traumatic childbirth in scenes more graphic than Annie’s. While some of these have been controversial, they’ve also treated the death of the mother with gravitas, not glossing over the cruelty and sorrow. Instead, “A Holy Charge” joins Squid Game season 3 as a recent show in which a mother's death is sidelined for the male hero to find a new purpose as her baby’s caretaker. Considering how reproductive harm is a longstanding sci-fi trope, it’s troubling to think that a portion of mainstream Hollywood could be regressing in their approach to these stories. It’s also telling that this episode’s flashback juxtaposes Annie’s childbirth with a bunch of men (and Julianne Nicholson’s Sinatra) more concerned about the bunker’s first newborn than the mother who carried him to term.

Beyond the simplistic writing and lost potential, the most frustrating thing about Paradise’s discarding of Annie is that we know the show can do better. The fourth episode of Paradise’s first season, “Agent Billy Pace,” also ends with a central character’s tragic death. Over the course of an hour, we learn the titular assassin’s (Jim Beavers) tragic backstory and empathize with him as quickly as with Annie. But we also get to see Billy grow: his redemption arc, his feelings for Jane, and how his friendship with Xavier and love for Xavier’s kids inspire him to be better. Billy gets to be a whole person, not a character in a fable. Annie and all the other female characters coming to TV deserve the same courtesy.

It used to be taboo for celebrities to match, especially within days of each other. Nowadays, with the rise of archival fashion, the tables have turned. It's common for A-listers embrace already-worn designs—even at star-studded events like the Venice Film Festival. As a Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants fan, I couldn't be happier.

On August 28, Shailene Woodley arrived at the Jay Kelly premiere in a familiar little black dress. After staring at its scooped neckline, tank-ish straps, and skintight skirt, it finally hit me: Zoë Kravitz, her Big Little Lies co-star, wore a similar mini dress to the Caught Stealing premiere just days ago.

On August 26, the Caught Stealing star attended an after-party in New York wearing Kallmeyer's Eloise dress. Instead of the online black or ivory colorways, stylist Danielle Goldberg tapped the New York label for a Barbie pink version.

Kravitz's only sparkler was an east-west button-back ring, courtesy of Jessica McCormack, the jeweler behind the five-carat old mine cut Zendaya said "yes" to. Silver peep-toe mules finished her after-hours attire.

Normally, I'd say it was just a coincidence; two stars styling the same silhouette. The circumstances are different here. Kravitz and Woodley starred alongside each other in Divergent and Big Little Lies. In February 2017, Kravitz told Access Hollywood the two have "grown up together in a lot of ways." So, Woodley channeling Kravitz wouldn't be out of the question.

Similar to Kravitz, Woodley kept her accessories to a minimum in Venice, popping on sky-high Gianvito Rossi stilettos. To finish, she sourced Bulgari for an 18-karat gold Serpenti necklace. The ruby-encrusted choker is one of the rarest pieces in the Polychroma collection—its stone count and price tag aren't even public knowledge.

Based on the rate of a similar Viper Necklace, I can infer it hits the six-figure range or beyond. Since her necklace was quite the jaw-dropper, Woodley paired it with small diamond stud earrings.

Big Little Lies fans (myself included) are holding onto hope for a Season 3 renewal. In June, creator of the HBO series David E. Kelley shared with People, "We had a great time doing the first two seasons and we all want to do it again."

Maybe Woodley and Kravitz's matching mini dresses are actually a Season 3 Easter egg? They did reunite at dinner together last October. I might be heading into delulu territory, but what can I say? That's the Swiftie in me.

Shop Styles Inspired by Shailene Woodley

Spoilers for the first three episodes of Paradise season 2 ahead. Hulu's must-watch TV series Paradise is a mind-bending political thriller—and it also happens to be a This Is Us reunion. Created by Dan Fogelman and executive-produced by Sterling K. Brown, the dystopian series stars the three-time Emmy winner as Xavier Collins, a Secret Service agent whose world is thrown into chaos when he finds President Cal Bradford (James Marsden) dead one morning. Xavier's investigation into Cal's death powers the twist-and-turn-filled series.

To fill out the show's world of political intrigue, Hulu has recruited a cast of beloved television stars, from a longtime heartthrob to a familiar face for Netflix fans. Now that the series returned for season 2 on February 23, here's what to know about the returning and new cast of Paradise.

Sterling K. Brown as Agent Xavier Collins

At the start of Paradise, Agent Xavier Collins is the head of security for President Cal Bradford and a devoted father to his children, Presley and James. Xavier and Cal have a complicated relationship, which puts a spotlight on the agent when he finds the president dead one morning.

Sterling K. Brown, 49, is an award-winning actor best known for starring in shows such as American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson, This Is Us, and Washington Black, as well as the films Black Panther, Waves, and Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. In 2024, he received an Oscar nomination for his role in the satirical comedy American Fiction. He also hosts the podcast "We Don't Always Agree" with his wife, Ryan Michelle Bathe.

Instagram: @sterlingkbrown

James Marsden as President Cal Bradford

President Cal Bradford is a charming politician who led the nation through a troubling time while hiding his estranged relationship with his wife and son. At the start of Paradise, he's mysteriously found dead, leaving Xavier to investigate the murder.

James Marsden, 52, is best known for starring in films such as the X-Men franchise, movie musicals like Hairspray and Enchanted, The Notebook, 27 Dresses, The Butler, and the Sonic the Hedgehog movies. On the TV side, he appeared in HBO's Westworld, Netflix's Dead to Me, and Prime Video's Jury Duty.

Instagram: @james_marsden

Julianne Nicholson as Samantha Redmond (a.k.a Sinatra)

Samantha Redmond, A.K.A. Sinatra, is a tech billionaire closely intertwined with Cal and the government. Ever since tragedy struck her family, she has been dedicated to her work. Though she's committed to saving humanity, it's often unclear whether her decisions are for the good of the people or herself.

Julianne Nicholson, 54, is an Emmy-winning stage and screen actress best known for appearing in shows like Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Boardwalk Empire, Masters of Sex, Mare of Easttown, and Hacks. She also starred in the movies Tully, August: Osage County; I, Tonya, and Janet Planet.

Instagram: @juliannenicholsonofficial

Sarah Shahi as Dr. Gabriela Torabi

Dr. Gabriela Torabi is a therapist and close advisor to Sinatra, who has also become involved in the government.

Sarah Shahi, 46, was a former pageant queen and Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader before the late director Robert Altman convinced her to try acting. She's best known for starring in the Netflix series Sex/Life, as well as her supporting roles on The L Word, Life, Fairly Legal, and City on a Hill. She also recently appeared in the movies Black Adam and Red, White, and Royal Blue.

Instagram: @sarahshahi

Jon Beavers as Billy Pace

Billy Pace is Xavier's most trusted subordinate and friend, who helps ensure the president's safety and well-being.

Jon Beavers, 42, began his acting career playing Twist on Nickelodeon's The Fresh Beat Band. Recently, he has appeared in the movies Licorice Pizza and Horizon: An American Saga - Chapters 1 & 2. He has also had supporting roles on the shows The Long Road Home, Animal Kingdom, Bel-Air, and Sugar.

Instagram: @jonnybeavs

Nicole Brydon Bloom as Jane Driscoll

Jane, another of Xavier's subordinates with a mysterious past, is played by Nicole Brydon Bloom, 31. The rising star made her acting debut in an episode of Showtime's The Affair, and she has since appeared on HBO's The Gilded Age and Hulu's We Were the Lucky Ones. In March 2025, she married fellow actor Justin Theroux; the pair is now expecting their first child.

Instagram: @n.brydonbloom

Krys Marshall as Agent Nicole Robinson

Xavier's boss is Agent Nicole Robinson, who has a special relationship with Cal. She's played by Krys Marshall, 37, who has appeared on dozens of shows, including One Day at a Time, This Is Us, Supergirl, Shameless, and Bad Monkey. She's best known for playing Danielle Poole on For All Mankind.

Instagram: @krysmarshall

Shailene Woodley as Annie Clay

Big Little Lies alum Shailene Woodley, 34, joins Paradise season 2 as Annie, a med school dropout who's a tour guide at Graceland on the day the world ends. Two years later, Annie's used to being alone, until a group of gate-crashers pops her post-apocalyptic bubble.

Emmy-nominee Woodley rose to fame starring on ABC Family's 2000s hit The Secret Life of the American Teenager, before appearing in major movies including The Descendants, The Fault in Our Stars, and the Divergent series. In 2024, she both starred in the Starz drama Three Women and made her Broadway debut in the revival of Cult of Love.

Instagram: @shailenewoodley

Thomas Doherty as Link

In the season 2 premiere, we also meet Link, the charming leader of a biker gang that has traveled around the country decommissioning nuclear plants. Though his tenure on Paradise so far has focused on his time at Graceland with Annie, the mysterious scientist also has deep, unknown ties to the bunker.

Thomas Doherty is a 30-year-old Scottish actor who began his career starring in Disney Channel projects like The Lodge and Descendants 2, before rising to fame as Max Wolfe on the Gossip Girl reboot. Most recently, he played Leo in the hit Hulu series Tell Me Lies and made his Off-Broadway debut as Seymour in the musical Little Shop of Horrors.

Instagram: @thomasadoherty

Enuka Okuma as Dr. Teri Rogers-Collins

At the start of Paradise, Xavier believes his beloved wife Teri is dead. After receiving proof that she's alive in the season 1 finale, he's set to spend season 2 searching for her.

Enuka Okuma, 49, is a prolific film and TV actress who's best known for her roles in Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye, Rookie Blue, Impulse, and Workin' Moms. The Pitt fans may also recognize her from her appearance as Natalie Malone, the surrogate who gives birth in season 1, episode 11, "5:00 P.M."

Instagram: @enukaokumaofficial

Aliyah Mastin as Presley Collins

Xavier's teenage daughter, Presley, is played by Aliyah Mastin, a 20-year-old actress who got her start on Broadway with roles like Young Nala in The Lion King. In addition to Paradise, she has also appeared in an episode of And Just Like That....

Instagram: @aliyahmastin

Percy Daggs IV as James Collins

The younger Collins sibling, James, is played by Percy Daggs IV, who's best known for playing Pity in Apple TV's The Last Days of Ptolemy Gray. His other notable credits include starring alongside Halle Berry in the 2024 horror movie Never Let G, and voicing Oliver in the Prime Video series Undone.

The child actor is also from a Hollywood family; his father, Percy Daggs III, played Wallace Fennel in Veronica Mars.

Charlie Evans as Jeremy Bradford

Cal's teenage son, Jeremy, had a difficult relationship with his father before his death, and disagreed with the president's handling of the end of the world. In season 2, the headstrong teen leads a rebellion against the secretive leaders of the bunker.

Charlie Evans is an Australian actor and musician who may be a familiar face to Netflix fans. Before Paradise, he played Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke's son in the 2023 film adaptation of the disaster novel Leave the World Behind.

Instagram: @charliebluejay

Shailene Woodley has opened up about her relationship to her sexuality.

Appearing on the SheMD podcast with Mary Alice Haney and Dr. Thais Aliabadi, the actress discussed her new show Three Women, adapted from Lisa Taddeo's novel by the same title.

On the show, sexuality is a major theme, so the podcast hosts asked Woodley about her own.

She began by explaining that she takes issue with the way the U.S. approaches sexuality as opposed to Europe, where she lived for a while. For her, America sells a version of sex that is "fabricated" and "performance" as opposed to "true intimacy and vulnerability and connection."

"I'm a very sexual person. I always have been," Woodley said. "And I was very lucky in my life, as a person discovering myself and my body, to have a partner at the time who loved to dance. I always call it a dance.

"Sometimes the dance is a really fast tango and sometimes the dance is a really slow groove and sometimes it's loud and sometimes it's really soft. And I had somebody that helped me discover myself because there was a sense of comfortability together. And I think that I probably did the same for him."

The Big Little Lies star expressed how she would love to change the way sexuality is taught.

"I wish in a way I could just do sex ed sometimes," she said.

"Not me personally, but go into sex ed curricula and go, 'Okay, how can we fix this and change it a little bit?'

"I was talking to somebody else about this yesterday, about how if people knew what was possible with sex, they would look at porn and go, 'Oh God, this is like junk food. Really? This is what we're being sold when all of these other things are possible with my body because I'm like a magic machine?'"

She continued, "Pleasure is so important, and we just rip each other off of it because I think we don't necessarily even know what's possible. And that's my big beef with porn, is I'm like, 'You're selling everybody McDonald's. When you could have like, whoa.'"

Three Women is out now on Starz and Hulu, and also stars Betty Gilpin, Gabrielle Creevy, and DeWanda Wise.

Shailene Woodley recently opened up about how heartbreak has shaped the person she is today—leading to speculation that the heartbreak in question might be a reference to her high-profile split from her ex-fiancé, NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

In a new interview with Bustle to promote her movie Three Women, the 32-year-old actress reportedly described a "disinterest in pretense" that she told the outlet was the result of "a broken heart." Woodley added that she's not the same person post-heartbreak.

“I give all of myself,” the actress explained. “I used to be a person who, if you crossed me and disrespected that, would continue to give and give. And now you cross me, I respectfully go, ‘Thank you so much for that information. Have a beautiful life. I wish you well.’ Not interested.”

Woodley didn't give any details about the person involved in her life-changing heartbreak, but speculation quickly pointed to Rodgers. The pair were first linked in summer of 2020 before getting engaged in February 2021 and ultimately splitting a year later in February 2022.

“I love easy and I care easy, but I do not love lightly, and I do not care lightly," she said. "It’s really taken me a lot of time to understand that it’s not on me to fix or heal or do anything about [a relationship] other than protect the deep care and love that I have for the world and for my people."

Heartbreak may have changed Woodley, but she seems focused on the way those changes have been for the better.

“Ultimately, that has helped me walk away without the need to understand why certain things didn’t play out the way that I may have desired them to," she added.

• Shailene Woodley spoke about the "debilitating" health condition she's been dealing with for years, in a new cover interview with the Hollywood Reporter.
• Woodley said the illness made her feel "isolated and alone," and forced her to turn down work.
• "Unless someone can see that you have a broken arm or a broken leg, it’s really difficult for people to relate to the pain that you’re experiencing when it’s a silent, quiet and invisible pain," she said.

In her cover interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Shailene Woodley spoke candidly about the "pretty debilitating" health condition she's been privately dealing with for years, reflecting on feeling "isolated and alone" and being forced to turn down work as a result of the illness.

"I said no to a lot of projects, not because I wanted to but because I physically couldn’t participate in them. And I definitely suffered a lot more than I had to because I didn’t take care of myself," Woodley said. "The self-inflicted pressure of not wanting to be helped or taken care of created more physical unrest throughout those years."

Happily, Woodley's health is improving: "I’m on the tail end of [the illness], which is very exciting, but it’s an interesting thing, going through something so physically dominating while also having so many people pay attention to the choices you make, the things you say, what you do, what you look like," she said.

"It spun me out for a while. You feel so incredibly isolated and alone. Unless someone can see that you have a broken arm or a broken leg, it’s really difficult for people to relate to the pain that you’re experiencing when it’s a silent, quiet and invisible pain."

Woodley also shared a lesson she learned while sick: "It made me learn the incredibly difficult life task of not caring what people think about you very quickly," she said. "The more I paid attention to the noise that was surrounding me, the longer it was taking my body and my mind to heal because I wasn’t focused on myself, I was focused on an image of myself via the lens of everyone around us."

• In a televised speech Saturday for the NFL Honors awards, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers announced that he's engaged.
• The announcement comes amid recent rumors that the 37-year-old NFL player has been dating 29-year-old actress Shailene Woodley, leading to speculation that she's the woman he referred to when thanking, "my fiancée."
• On Feb. 23, Woodley confirmed that she and the football star are engaged.

Update, 2/23: Weeks after Aaron Rodgers confirmed that he's engaged—but not to who—Shailene Woodley confirmed that she and Rodgers have been engaged "for a while." "Yes, we are engaged. But for us, it's not new news, you know, so it's kind of funny...Everyone right now is freaking out over it and we're like, 'Yeah, we've been engaged for a while.'"

She added: "I still have never been to a football game because we met during this wacky, wacky time and all the stadiums were closed that he was playing in. So, I have yet to go to a football game. I don't know him as a football guy. I know him as like the nerd who wants to host Jeopardy! That's the dude I know. He just happens to be very good at sports."

She also shared a glimpse at the engagement ring:

Original post: Aaron Rodgers and Shailene Woodley *might* just be engaged. In a speech during the NFL Honors awards on Saturday, the quarterback announced that he's engaged—news that comes amid a flurry of rumors that he and Woodley have been dating.

The confirmation came during a televised speech Saturday. While accepting the 2020 AP Most Valuable Player award, Rodgers thanked several people, including, "my fiancée." [Insert wide eyes emojis here.]

"2020 was definitely a crazy year filled with lots of change, growth, some amazing, memorable moments, 180 straight days of having my nose hair scraped, playing for very little fans or no stands the entire season," Rodgers said in the speech, according to Us Weekly. "I got engaged and I played some of the best football in my career. So I’d like to thank, first and foremost, my teammates for their support, their inspiration, protection, incredible play on the field…off the field I’ve got a great group of people that support me, so I’d like to thank my team."

Neither Rodgers nor Woodley has formally confirmed anything yet, but congratulations go out to Rodgers regardless, obviously. We'll just have to wait and see if those congratulations extend to Woodley, too.

• In a new interview with the New York Times, Shailene Woodley revealed that she was "very, very sick" in her early 20s, while filming the Divergent series.
• Woodley said she was forced to "let go" of her career, and pass on several major roles.
• "I feel very grateful to have walked that line of fire, because now I know what I don’t want to ever go back to," she added.

At the height of her blockbuster career, Shailene Woodley was grappling with a "very scary" illness, the actor revealed to the New York Times in a new interview. "I haven’t spoken much about this yet publicly, and I will one day, but I was very, very sick in my early 20s," she said. "While I was doing the Divergent movies and working hard, I also was struggling with a deeply personal, very scary physical situation."

"Because of that, I said no to a lot of opportunities because I needed to get better, and those jobs ended up going to peers of mine who I love," Woodley continued. "They went on to a lot of success, but there was a mix of people saying, 'You shouldn’t have let that go!' or 'You shouldn’t have been sick!'"

At times, she feared her illness would end her career: "Am I going to survive what I’m going through right now and ever be healthy, or even have the opportunity to work on projects I’m passionate about again because of the situation I’m in?" she recalled thinking.

"I was in a place where I had no choice but to just surrender and let go of my career, and it brought out this negative voice in my mind that kept spinning for years and years afterward," Woodley said.

She told the newspaper she's now "on the other side" of her illness, adding, "A lot of the last few years has been about focusing on mental health for me, and it’s a slow process. But because of that work, I feel very grounded and rooted in who I am and very clear about everything in my life, whether it’s my career or my relationships or my own internal worth."

"I feel very grateful to have walked that line of fire," she said, "because now I know what I don’t want to ever go back to."

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Last night, Shailene Woodley joined the cast of Big Little Lies to celebrate season 2 of the show in New York City. For the special occasion, Woodley chose a black Dior dress that featured a bodysuit underneath a layer of tulle and mesh material. The sheer dress was reminiscent of one Bella Hadid wore recently, though Woodley had long sleeves with a dotted print. The actress paired the dress with Christian Louboutin black pumps.

In short, she looked amazing. The self-proclaimed "hippie" definitely stole the spotlight on the red carpet and looked like a glamorous Hollywood movie star. Her costar Laura Dern also seemed to pick up on the sheer memo, opting for a see-through blouse underneath a white blazer. The duo stood arm in arm with the rest of the BLL cast while smiling and posing for the cameras. (So cute!)

At one point, Woodley even took off her black heels to dance inside:

Season 2 of Big Little Lies will premiere on HBO June 9 and here's what to expect (pssst: Meryl Streep!!).

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Shailene Woodley was one of the most vocal protesters of the Dakota Access Pipeline, and was arrested while at Standing Rock—an event that she chronicled on Facebook live. While the news was upsetting at the time, nothing could have prepared us for how awful the actual circumstances of the star's arrest were.

"I'm like, 'This is some Divergent shit,'" she told Marie Claire UK, explaining that the police told her to "get naked, turn over, spread your butt cheeks, bend over. They were looking for drugs in my ass."

Obviously strip searches are common, but—at least from an outside observer's perspective—this seems like a gross violation, and a disturbing decision on the part of whoever conducted the search. "When you're in a jail cell and they shut that door, you realize no one can save you," Woodley continued. "If there's a fire and they decide not to open the door, you'll die. You are a caged animal."

Shailene has talked about her arrest previously, and tried to step back from being to focus of the protest: "The day I was detained, 26 others had to dress in orange as well, as they were booked into the Morton County jail," she wrote in an essay. "Did you hear about them?"

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In an essay for Time magazine, Shailene Woodley tells her side of the story, AKA being arrested while peacefully protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline.

After criticizing Americans for "romanticizing native culture, native art, native history...without knowing native reality," Woodley pointed out that much of the public had been ignorant of the issue at hand until she was brought in on charges of criminal trespass.

"So much so that it took me, a white non-native woman being arrested on Oct 10th in North Dakota, on Indigenous Peoples' Day, to bring this cause to many people's attention. And to the forefront of news publications around the world. The day I was detained, 26 others had to dress in orange as well, as they were booked into the Morton County jail. Did you hear about them?"

She concluded by thanking her fellow protestors and urging others to take up the cause. "To all the people who know that if not we, then who? And if not now, then when? Simply feeding off the hype of a celebrity's arrest ain't going to save the world. But, standing together will."

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When Lionsgate announced its intention to make Ascendant, the final film in the Divergent series, a TV movie that would pave the way for a TV show, fans were more than a little worried that the actors from the films wouldn't be interested in following the series to television.

Those worries, it turns out, were totally justified.

Shailene Woodley, who stars as Tris in the Divergent films, has become the latest actor from the franchise to say publicly that she would not be on board for a TV movie.

"From what I know, they want to proceed with a television show, which is not something that I signed up to do," Woodley told E! News. "Out of respect to the whole scenario, there could be things that have changed, but I didn't sign up to do a TV show."

Woodley's statement echoes that of costar, Miles Teller, who told The Hollywood Reporter in August that he hadn't signed on to continue the Divergent story on television.

"At this point, it's a different set of circumstances. We'll see. I honestly haven't talked to anybody," he said. "We all signed on for it in hopes that it'd be released in theaters, and we all had every intention of finishing [the franchise]."

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A couple of weeks ago, Brooklyn Decker became the latest celeb to clue us in on the supreme awkwardness that is the Hollywood sex scene. But Shailene Woodley, ever the endearing black sheep, would like you to know that actually, hers was pretty awesome. And her parents even thought so, too. (Which is just...er...still not awkward?)

Related: My Day in the Life as Shailene Woodley

Woodley filmed said scene for her latest movie, White Bird in a Blizzard. And during a New York City screening last night, she had no problem divulging why it was ultimately NBD. "[It's] crazy. And sort of wrong. But I felt great doing it," she said. "I was not fully robed. And our bodies had no makeup. Who needs makeup? I'm only 22. My boobs are great. They don't need any help. My parents saw the film. I thought it might be awkward, but they both loved it."

Hey, if you've got it, flaunt it, right? But really, it's nice to see a young actress speaking candidly about being proud of her body. Plus, it makes us think that perhaps all of our favorite on-screen love scenes weren't quite so face-clutchingly mortifying to film. Maybe.

Related: 8 of the Best Losing My Virginity Scenes

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Image via Getty

Our April cover girl Shailene Woodley may be a total badass, but she's also one of the kindest young actresses in the business. Instead of feeling competitive towards Hollywood peers, she heaps praise on them!

In an interview with Vanity Fair, The Fault In Our Stars and Divergent star listed the names of the female entertainers she loves most including Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst, Laura Dern, Stevie Nicks, and Miley Cyrus.

Woodley might be more inclined to make medicine from wild plants or eat clay than get turnt up, but she has nothing but respect for Miley in all her brazen glory.

"Miley isn't rude or mean or cruel to anyone in her actions," she explained. "She just does herself ... She's not in the world doing mean things. Why are all these parents or all these people freaking out about Miley being herself?"

Individually above all else? That's a notion we can get behind. Keep spreading the love, girl!

The stars of the much anticipated blockbuster, Divergent, chatted us up (and posed with our April issue!) before the New York premiere of the film. Some of their answers will surprise you...

On what the cast did off-set: "There was definitely a lot of partying happening and I think even the cops were called sometimes."

On her outfit: "Heels, I mean they look cool, but how unrealistic!"

On what makes her happy: "Everything makes me happy, man! We're alive right now so doing this, or sitting in a bath, or hanging with my best friends. Having a glass of wine always makes me really happy. I also really love cashews."

On comparisons to Jennifer Lawrence: "It's totally flattering, Jen is a strong, empowered female."

On working with Shailene Woodley: "It's enriching to watch her as an actor, Shailene is so good. I want to work with her as much as I can. This is the type of movie where a performance could get overshadowed by the spectacle of it all, but there's some really emotional points in the movie. It's like she'll have ten seconds to blow you away and she'll just turn it on."

On his favorite places to hang out in NYC: "I love Brooklyn Boulders. I like to eat at Fish, it's in the West Village, but don't tell anyone! I don't want the line to get longer.

On what faction he'd belong to IRL: "I think that's the problem with the system. Everyone is divergent, we're not meant to choose. That's sort of the message of the movie. But, if I had to, I'd probably choose Amity because they're kind and peaceful."

On a surprising hobby: "I paint miniature figurines. I'm totally into it. Little 20mm tiny figurines, and I'm not going to stop if I get really famous."

On staying grounded: "As fun as it is, it's not like we're solving world peace."

On his love scene with Shailene Woodley: "The very last scene of the whole movie was a love scene. My brothers got into town and they literally walked from the plane on to the set to see me getting funky with Shai."

On his hidden talent: "I can play the harmonica. I know the song, Do You Know the Way to San Jose."

On what every person should try at least once: "Skydiving. I went in New Zealand and it was absolutely amazing."

More for the Divergent-Obsessed

Shailene Woodley: This is What Badass Looks Like

Quiz: Which Divergent Faction Do You Belong In?

Shailene Woodley's Beauty Secret

Follow Marie Claire on Instagram for the latest celeb news, pretty pics, funny stuff, and an insider POV.

It's a week before her 22nd birthday, and Shailene Woodley is living out of a suitcase containing all of her remaining possessions: some old clothes, a few trinkets, crystals and altarpieces to remind her of home, herbal supplements, a jump rope. "I've only been home nine days this year," she says in her room at London's Soho Hotel, "which is sort of what inspired me to get rid of everything."

Woodley has her soaring popularity to blame for this accelerated work rate. Having spent most of her teenage years playing the lead in ABC Family's TV series The Secret Life of the American Teenager, in 2011 she was cast in Alexander Payne's The Descendants and immediately proved what she could do on the big screen. Wise, grumpy, heartbroken, and mesmerizing, she stole the show from none other than costar George Clooney. Since then, she has shot four movies and become the girl everyone wants on the other side of the camera.

To exaggerate the extent to which films are "hotly anticipated" is standard in Hollywood, but in the case of Woodley's next two roles, that sense is genuine and palpable. She has become the screen incarnation of two adored characters from monster-selling young-adult novels. In this month's Divergent, touted as the new Hunger Games, she plays Tris, a girl coming of age in a dystopian regime, too human to fit neatly into just one of its five social factions—Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Dauntless, and Erudite. (The second in Veronica Roth's trilogy, Insurgent, starts filming in May; the third, Allegiant, has yet to get an official release date.) In June's The Fault in Our Stars, based on John Green's book, she portrays Hazel, a teenager who falls in love as she is dying of cancer. The slick mega-explosion of the Divergent franchise, for which Woodley trained in martial arts, hand-to-hand combat, and knife-throwing, is one thing. The implacable, eloquent heartbreak of The Fault in Our Starsis another. That Woodley can do both is, somehow, incrementally incredible.

Those who know Woodley comment on her seemingly infinite capacity for warmth, which is not to say she's soft. In fact, by all accounts, she's pretty tough. Theo James, her costar in Divergent, tells me, "Shai's empowered—she's a strong actress and intuitive. She's not like a 'girl' in the Hollywood sense. Once there was a complex stunt we had to do—running next to this train and jumping on and off. She fell off the train and smacked her head. But she was up five minutes later, going, 'I'm good.'"

Dressed in black leggings, a black tank top, and no makeup, Woodley is like an advertisement for yoga (her preferred form of exercise). She folds herself up effortlessly, like a rare, long-legged bird, and runs a hand through her hair, sheared for The Fault in Our Stars. One day, she says, she'd like to shave it or have a Jean Seberg style: "That would be so badass."

If Gloria Steinem's famous line—"This is what 40 looks like," in response to being told she didn't look 40—changed the way women of that age were perceived, then you could say Woodley has done the same for young adults. Not since the '50s have teenagers been at the forefront of entertainment culture, and Woodley is about to become Hollywood's best symbol of that rite-of-passage phase. "I think there's this big rise right now in giving teenagers the worth that they have," she explains. "For so long they were—and still are—depicted in movies and TV shows as codependent whiners or rich, beautiful, diamond-clad daughters or dumb cheerleader types. But teenagers are so smart. I was probably smarter as a 16-year-old than I am today. There is a zest for life that you have at that age that is so beautiful."

On Shailene: Tommy Hilfiger swimsuit and pants.

Ironically, Woodley has just begun to feel she has definitively left her teenage years behind. "For the first time, I feel like I'm entering my womanhood," she says. "I've decided to take a few months off, just to see who I am as that woman in the world, because I've never been able to experience it outside of this industry."

All this time, Woodley has been boiling water in a kettle and going back and forth to the bathroom, where she has prepared some herbs so we can treat ourselves to a DIY joint facial. She has brought sachets of organic grains, French clay, and kelp, put together by a company called Mountain Rose Herbs, which organized the 2011 Rootstalk Festival ("a celebration of plants, people, and planet") in Oregon, where Woodley met the people who are now her best friends. This is what she loves: herbalism, barefoot running, living in a house in Topanga Canyon (until she gave it to her grandmother). She'd like to live off the grid if she could and raise chickens and sheep.

Woodley is remarkably relaxed about exercise and food (though she's addicted to raw chocolate and makes her own). Unless it's for a yoga class or a 5Rhythms session, she doesn't go to the gym. "My whole life I've been so self-conscious about being skinny. And just recently I don't care anymore. All insecurities are projected because of what you think others are saying about you, but they don't really matter at all. My only real insecurities in high school were having such long legs and thick hair—things I'm so very grateful for now." We put towels on our heads over steaming basins dotted with dried rosebuds and chamomile. "It's funny being in this industry," she continues in a muffled voice under her towel, "because everyone I talk to is like, 'What diet are you on? What thing do you subscribe to?' It's like, 'Dude, diets are not the healthiest things in the world.'" Her calm is all the more remarkable for the fact that she suffers from scoliosis. As a teenager, she had to wear a brace 18 hours a day for two years. "It didn't faze me," she says with a shrug. "I was like, 'Some people have crooked teeth, some people have broken fingers, and I've got a back that—'" she laughs a little—"'has my initial on it.'"

"How do you stay so grounded?" That, according to Woodley, is everyone's favorite question. But she has only to think about the way she was brought up to respond: "There's no choice." Both her parents are psychologists—her mother is a middle school counselor, and her father, a former school principal, is a family therapist. Though they are divorced, they all spend Christmas together with their respective partners. "We're like a big Greek family, but we're not Greek," says Woodley, who was raised with her younger brother, Tanner, in Simi Valley, California.

Her parents' response to an agent's approach when Woodley was 5 was, by her account: "What's an agent? Who are you?" But Woodley, who went to acting classes as a form of day care, was passionate about it. "I loved that it was a challenge. I loved that I got told 'no' 500 times, because it was something I had to work hard at. It was never a competitive thing for me, and it still isn't."

Credits: Dress, price upon request, Leggings, $2,890, Saint Laurent by Hedi Slimane; Sneakers, $47, Vans.

Kate Winslet, who plays the bad guy in Divergent as Erudite faction leader Jeanine Matthews, makes a point of praising Woodley's even-keeled sense of self. "There's an honesty and an openness to her that is really rare in young women of that age, let alone young women in a fast-paced business that can chew you up and spit you out as soon as it's said hello to you. You see young actors and actresses coming up and doing well, and then suddenly they start to unravel a bit and they forget themselves. With Shailene I get the sense that the more she does and the more of the world she sees, the more well-rounded she becomes."

Woodley says she's constantly asked if she feels weird about her newfound career. "In my mind, it's new but not new. I mean, it took 13 years to get a feature film, which was The Descendants. It took 10 years to get a series. Nothing was overnight for me. And I feel very lucky that it was all baby steps, because if I'd seen this side of it before I was an adult, I probably would have been like, 'No, thank you, I'm done.' As a kid I was like, 'I never want to be on magazines. I never want to go to the Oscars.' Now it's easier to rationalize and have fun with it. When I was young, I thought, 'That's not acting!'"

Once we clear our faces of mud and honey, Woodley suggests we go to "this amazing gelato place" down the block. She pulls on black rubber riding boots perfect for the English weather, and we set off. I wonder how she's preparing for the onslaught of public attention bound to hit her. "I don't pay any attention to the fan thing, because I think it's a very strange culture nowadays," she says, suggesting that Twilight tipped that over into something more extreme than it had been before. "People have always been fans of people, but I can't relate to any of these girls or boys who scream. It's idolizing someone you don't know. None of those people know me." Social media exacerbates that "100 percent. It's so much easier to get on with a bunch of people you don't know and to gang up on people you don't know over the Internet. It's such a beautiful gift, but the whole social media thing is…"—Woodley breaks into a whisper—"just a little too weird for me."

We're in Snowflake on Wardour Street now, where the gelato-makers have gotten to know Woodley over the past few days. She opts for pistachio with a scoop of fior di latte and explains that she recently deleted her Instagram account. "Everything I was posting was for a story—like, 'Look how interesting I am'' It felt disgusting to me. It feels as though we're so detached from actual human connection. And I got rid of my phone, too. We're all such narcissists, and that's what social media caters to. Our society conditions us to be our own planets, which is great. Independent thinking is so important. But we expect everyone around us to be our moons."

A couple of months later—after she has been traveling in Italy, gone home to "soak up" her family, and generally checked out of the movie industry for a spell—Woodley calls me from the Sundance Film Festival. The thriller she's showing there, White Bird in a Blizzard, has had mixed reviews and much chatter over her nude scenes. I bring up the rumors that she's dating Shiloh Fernandez, her White Bird costar. "Oh, no, God! Shiloh's my buddy," she replies, laughing. "You take a picture with somebody and all of a sudden you're dating. That's so funny." She knows that this is the kind of gossip that will inevitably attach itself to a beautiful young actress. Woodley repeats what she told me when we met: She's been single for four years. "I just haven't met anyone where I was like, 'Wow, I could definitely see myself spending a season of my life with you.' I don't even know if humans are genetically made to be with one person forever." I ask if she made any New Year's resolutions. "I prefer to call them New Year's evolutions," she replies. "This is the Chinese year of the horse, and I always thought the horse was a very strong, playful creature. So I kind of look at this year as a year to have fun and to exercise your power. Now that I've had all this time not working, I definitely feel I exist in the world with a new set of eyes. I feel very alive right now. More alive than I've ever felt."

Credits: Jacket, price upon request, Bra Top, $1,850, Briefs, $260, Emilio Pucci; Long Gunmetal Ring, $175, Alexis Bittar; Arrow Ring, $3,090, AS29; Star Ring, $1,940, Djula; Sneakers, $995, Giuseppe Zanotti Design; Silver Square Ring, Editor's own.

ON LETTING GO OF NEGATIVE FEELINGS
: "Nothing teaches you that worry is the product of a future we can't guarantee, and guilt is a product of a past that we cannot change."

ON WORKING OUT: "I lost a lot of muscle for The Fault in Our Stars—I lost my butt. I'm used to being athletic, and now I walk up stairs and my legs are aching. I didn't exercise for three months. The one thing I did do was walk. I love it! I try to walk two hours a day."

ON THE DIVERGENT SERIES FILMING SCHEDULE: "I like the idea of knowing that for a few months of the year—for the next few years if the movie does well—I'm going to have an action movie to do, and then all of this free time to do indie films or travel or be a waitress or whatever I want to do."

ON HER FIRST KISS: "I was the latest bloomer there ever was. I was still playing with Barbies at 14 and didn't have my first kiss until 15-and-a-half. He had big, beautiful lips, and I was like, 'I don't know what I'm going to do with those.'"

ON GEORGE CLOONEY: "He's still one of my favorite human beings. The things he talks about in the press, like going to Africa, are about one-thirtieth of the things he does. My mom and George are probably the only two people I've ever met who are truly genuine givers."

ON MILEY CYRUS: "I don't really know anything about twerking. I admire that she's doing what she wants to do. I wasn't really a fan of hers before, and now I'm just so fascinated by her. I love how everyone's throwing a fit about something that isn't their life."

Credits: Top, $2,100, Skirt, $2,600, Céline; Cuffs, $125 each, Alexis Bittar; Shoes, $575, Giuseppe Zanotti Design.