Sugar Slam Exclusive Interview: Shailene Woodley

When you find out you’re going to be chatting with the star of a hit TV show, it’s easy to get nervous. But interviewing Shailene Woodley, of The Secret Life of the American Teenager, was more like talking with an old friend! She was polite and well-spoken and was careful to respond to each question with the most truthful answer! Check out all of this Sugar Slam exclusive below!

SS: Now that you’ve kind of made it, has your life changed a lot? Are you able to do normal teen things like go to movies, go to the mall?

Shailene: Oh, definitely. I still actually only go back on hiatus in February. I’m going to go back to my high school and graduate because I’m a junior. It’s definitely different. When you go to a grocery store and you go anywhere there are people staring or pointing or whispering, and every now and then you have a brave girl come up and be like, “Are you the girl from Secret Life?” It’s neat to have that happen, but it’s also a little bit awkward because I feel like I should have a conversation with them, like, “Hello, I’m Shai. What’s your name?” versus just being like, “Oh, yes. Here’s my autograph. Bye.” I feel like I need to make it more personal. It happens.
As far as just my friends and where I can go, I still go all the places that I normally went. I might have to wear a hat or something, but other than that it’s no different because my friends, they treat me the same. They known I’m goofy, spontaneous, weird Shai and they accept me for that. They don’t put any pressure on me to just seem like if I’m different or … my personality has changed.

SS: Very cool. Also, you were honored by being on Entertainment Weekly’s Breakout Star list with stars like Robert Pattinson and Demi Lovato. Were you surprised? I mean does that feel like the moment when you say, “I’ve made it”?

Shailene: Yes, I was definitely shocked. I mean Entertainment Weekly there were only ten people in that. It was – I can’t even put it into words. Acting has always been like a hobby and a passion of mine. I’ve never really thought of it as a career. I still want to go to college and get a degree in interior design and psychology, but just to have that was almost like – I can’t even explain it. It was just such a great relief, like someone else is noticing. Do you know what I mean?

SS: Right. One more question for you. Where are you looking at for college?

Shailene: It’s been my dream since I was like – I don’t know – real little to go somewhere on the East Coast, preferably like NYU or Boston; somewhere where it’s cold and where you actually get seasons.

Thanks, Shailene!

Secret Life of the American Teenager, airs all new episodes next Monday, January 5th on ABC Family!

Be sure to check out the rest of the Interview!

On what made Shailene want to be a part of the show: Well, I feel like the show has original concepts, just based on the fact that it does tend to explore unique things that other TV shows don’t. It tends to explore the concept of divorce, first boyfriends, first kisses, and a pregnant teenager in a Christian family. There are so many different aspects of life that it definitely dives into and I thought that was really interesting to be able to portray that to kind of America’s teenagers and teenagers all over the world and saying you’re not alone; this happens to pretty much everyone. Everyone goes through trials and tribulations as a teenager and this is how we’re dealing with it.

On the most memorable moments of filming: … I guess any scene with Molly; any crying scene with Molly – let me rephrase that. We just connect and every time we have a crying scene, whether it says to cry in the script or not we both start bawling. It’s just one of those weird … things you have with other people…. But, we definitely have it and that’s really neat. And just, I guess, behind the scenes with the cast. Everyone is so great and everyone gets along so well. We’re all so close and we have kinds of things like parties and dinners for each other for our birthdays and we all kind of play guitar, so we’re always jamming in the trailers. It’s a fun environment.

On where Season 2 will pick up: All right. So, it does skip a little bit of time between the first season and the second season. There’s definitely a wedding that’s being talked about between Amy and Ben. There are lots of different things happening with all of the families. Of course, Amy’s parents are still going through a rocky time and they’re trying to figure out if the dad is going to stay or move out or what’s going on with that. Amy is trying to decide if she needs to get a job or if she shouldn’t get a job to pay for insurance and stuff for the baby. She’s going to find out if it’s a boy or a girl. She’s going to find out if she’s going to give it up to adoption or if she’s going to keep the baby. There’s like a gay couple involved who might adopt the baby, but might not depending on what Amy feels is right for the baby at the time.
There are lots of different things. Apart from my character, Grace’s character kind of goes through; she’s debating on whether she really likes Jack or really likes Ricky or if she really likes being single. Ben is going through still again the first love and how he should handle that and how much he should be in control of her life or not. So, there are tons of different things that are going to happen, lots of new drama

On relating to her character, Amy, who gets pregnant in high school: I feel like my initial reaction would be the same, like “Oh, my God. What did I just do? How did this happen?” But I’m more of an extroverted, outgoing, where Amy keeps things to herself and is more of a quiet introvert. So, I definitely would have told my best friend right away and I would have told my best friend right away if I had even had sex and indeed if I got pregnant. I’d tell my parents right away. I’d totally be just as scared and emotionally unstable as Amy was, but I think I’d go a bit differently as far as the way I spoke to people and who I told. I’d definitely sit down and plan out what I want to do with the baby. I think we’d be a little bit different just because our personalities are so different.

On working with John Schneider and Molly Ringwald: Definitely. I don’t get to work with John that often, but Molly I get to work with almost daily and she’s such an inspiring woman. I mean just to see how much she got done as a child and even in her like early 20s, 30s –everything, and she’s still so humble and down to earth and she has a family. I love just to see people like that who have accomplished a lot but still remain normal and sane and down to earth. She’s taught me so many things. Just in the beginning I was confused about interviews and she helped me with those and then it turned into personal issues I talk to her about and she’d help me with things like that. She’s an amazing woman.

On whether or not getting married at 15 is a good idea: Personally, I don’t think I would ever get married at 15. I don’t know if I’d ever even tell a guy I loved him at 15. But it works for Amy and Ben and they’re in a different situation. Who knows; if I was pregnant and I was 15, if I was Amy, if I was the kind of person she is and had the same personality as her, if it was the right time and the right day, who knows? It all depends on situations and it’s all relative.

On how her own High School experience relates to the show: Well, let’s see. Let me go back to freshman year. As a freshman, me and my friends; every teenager on the show is talking about sex and talking about picking their friends and all of that, picking their boyfriends, being the next level or whatever, as a freshman, me and my friends definitely talked about that. We talked about more mature things than we did like in middle school.

Actually, my parents got divorced when I was a freshman. So, I can definitely relate to Amy as far as what she’s going through and how hard that is to balance. The first year in high school is just totally different than middle school and your first boyfriend while having your parents divorce and your family life kind of crumble. So, I can definitely relate to a lot of things on the show and there is always the Christian girl at our school who preached God … and who preached happiness and purity and everything. Then there is always the girl who is kind of thought of as the provocative one, who people were usually intimidated by, but really didn’t know that she was a nice, smart girl. I think it is right on cue with all sort of storylines as far as how they relate to normal high schools.

On which character she relates the most to: I guess a little bit of every character. I’m definitely not … like provocative person who walks around wearing bras at school or whatever, but I’m definitely not Amy who is quiet and introverted and I’m not Grace who goes around preaching the gospel and everything. So, I’m a little bit of everyone, I feel like, kind of combined together.

On what Shailene would like to say to ‘Secret Life’ fans: I guess that as a supporter of the show, thank you, first of all, because the ratings and the amount of response that we got from the show, I could never have imagined; nobody in the cast could have ever imagined. So, thank you for putting in the time and watching the show.

Then, I guess, fans of Amy and her character and everything, thank you for responding the way that you’ve responded. Stay strong. Life is hard and especially if you’re a teenager. There are so many emotions that you go through, whether it’s when you’re going through puberty and you have all these hormones going through your mind and you don’t even know what to think, or whether it’s a breakup with the boyfriend or divorcing parents, just stay strong and remain like who you are because the only thing that will keep you in check and keep you the person that everybody knows and loves is if you stay true to yourself. Just follow your gut instinct and keep your confidence up and know that you’re super special.

Thanks again Shailene!!!

Related Articles:

1. Shailene Woodley smiles at HBO Lounge!
2. Sugar Slam EXCLUSIVE Interview with Someone Like You
3. Sugar Slam Exclusive Interview: Sariah
4. Shailene Woodley is a holiday cutie in NYC!
5. Shenae Grimes, Shailene Woodley, Shawn Johnson at A Time For Heroes Event