Shailene Woodley once shared that she nearly lost her Hollywood career due to a serious health issue she faced while filming the Divergent movies. Despite being a seasoned actor from a young age, Woodley struggled with a severe, personal health problem in her early 20s, which she has only recently begun to discuss openly.
In an interview with The New York Times in 2020, Woodley revealed that her 20s were overshadowed by health challenges that impacted both her personal and professional life. She described being “very, very sick” while working on the Divergent series, though she didn’t specify the exact nature of her condition.
Woodley’s health issues eventually forced her to take a break from acting, leading to missed opportunities and roles that went to other actors. Reflecting on that period, she mentioned that while she was facing significant health struggles, there was a mix of people criticizing her for letting those opportunities slip away or for being ill in the first place.
The actress admitted that the health scare, along with an abusive relationship and the pressures of Hollywood, took a toll on her mental health. At one point, she felt like she had lost hope for her future and struggled with negative thoughts that made it hard to move forward.
However, after years of dealing with these challenges, Woodley eventually recovered both physically and mentally. By the time she was promoting her 2019 film, Endings, Beginnings, she felt she had regained her sense of self and was in a much better place. She expressed gratitude for understanding her own worth and being able to move forward from past struggles.
Woodley initially gained fame with ABC’s The Secret Life of the American Teenager and made her film debut with The Fault in Our Stars in 2012. Her more recent work includes roles in The Fallout, Robots, To Catch a Killer, and Dumb Money.
