Shailene Woodley stars as Annie in the apocalyptic TV show, and the programme has had a lasting effect on her.
Shailene Woodley loved the “major message” of Paradise so much that signing up for the show was a no-brainer.
The 34-year-old actress stars as Annie in the apocalyptic TV show, and the programme has had a lasting effect on her.
Struggling to hold back her tears, Shailene said: “I found there to be a lot of hope in Paradise. I’ve spent a lot of time around in a lot of different communities, in and out of my own life, where when there’s great suffering, there’s also great potential for deep love and deep support if you have a community around you.
“It’s one of the major messages of this show. Goodness exists in the human heart.”
Shailene also found she was able to relate to her character because of having experienced so much loneliness in her life.
In the first batch of her episodes, Shailene was alone on screen – as Annie holed herself up in Elvis Presley’s Graceland.
She told the TV Topics podcast: “In my own life, I’ve experienced loneliness in different, obviously very different, ways than Annie.
“But loneliness is this very relatable feeling that can either take someone down or can serve as a reminder of resiliency.
“Because within loneliness, there can always exist a hope for something better, a hope for the antidote for being alone. To me that was what kept Annie going.”
One of the most intense scenes Shailene filmed was when she gave birth to a baby girl, initially aided just by friend Xavier, played by Sterling K. Brown.
In the interview, Shailene admitted that shooting it left a lasting mark, due to the power behind the scene.
She recalled: “I remember getting in my car after that day, calling the person that I was dating at the time and just saying, like, I am so present.
“I felt so present because the adrenaline of having such an emotional experience really kind of cuts through it all.”
Shailene ended up signing on to the show “very late” – with just nine days between having a Zoom meeting with show writer Dan Fogelman and the start of her filming.
But having the process go so quickly meant that it was “intuitive” for the star.
She said: “The whole thing for me felt a little bit like a whirlwind in the best way. It was very intuitive, the whole process.
“I learned a lot from her, maybe more than I’ve learned from other characters. It felt kind of like a meditation playing her because the first two weeks of filming was just me in Graceland.”
Shailene Woodley on Paradise’s ‘major message’
