Shailene Woodley Reveals a 'Big Little Lies' Co-Star Convinced Her to Do the Show After Saying No

justjared.com:

Shailene Woodley nearly didn’t star in Big Little Lies! The 32-year-old actress initially turned it down, but one of her co-stars talked to her and convinced her to join the show, which she is now grateful for. “I got a call, I’ll never forget it.

It was November or October of 2015. I was really sick at the time and I was not at all exhausted by acting or the artistry and the craft of storytelling, but I was really exhausted by the act of Hollywood,” she told Vanity Fair. “And I got a call about Big Little Lies because Jean-Marc Vallée — our beautiful creator, director, who has since passed — had wanted me to play Jane.

And I was desperate to work with him, I thought he was such an incredible artist and filmmaker.” Keep reading to find out more… However, she was “really dead-set on ‘finding myself.” But, Shailene received a phone call from Laura Dern, who would become her co-star, that changed everything. “I got a call from Laura the day before I left for India — or maybe I was actually already in India and I hadn’t turned my phone off yet.

And she just said, ‘Listen, I know where you’re at in your life. I’ve been there before too. It’s a lot. This world is an illusion, but what isn’t an illusion is what you love to do,’” she recalled. “‘And what I see in you, Shai, is your purpose — at least in this moment in your life — is to be a storyteller.