Shailene Woodley Reveals This A-Lister Was the Reason She Joined 'Big Little Lies'

If you’re anything like us, you might need a friend, a family member, or even a coworker to motivate you to keep going sometimes. For Shailene Woodley, Oscar-winner Laura Dern became that person when she almost turned down her role as Jane in Big Little Lies.

“I got a call, I’ll never forget it,” Woodley said of the opportunity in an interview with Vanity Fair. “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.”

“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,” Woodley remembered. “And I was desperate to work with him, I thought he was such an incredible artist and filmmaker.”

But, despite the incredible opportunity, Woodley wanted to take a break. “I was really dead-set on ‘finding myself,'” she said.

Before officially turning down the opportunity, however, Lonely Plant star Laura Dern reached out. “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,” Dern said of Woodley. “And I think it’s a massive mistake for you to walk away from this opportunity that you really should lean into.'”

With such a convincing speech, Woodley promptly turned around and accepted the role. “It forever changed my life,” she said.

For her role as Jane, Woodley was nominated for an Emmy and a Golden Globe for Outstanding Supporting Actress in 2017 as well as winning Best Television Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television in 2018.

“And so, in so many ways, I’m grateful for Laura, but that was a massive moment of courageous friendship to say, ‘I think that you’re making a mistake and I’m gonna be brave enough to tell you why, cause I really see you and I see something you can’t see in your own life right now,'” Woodley said of Dern, whom she also starred with in The Fault in Our Stars.

But while this A-list friendship is indeed enviable, Woodley revealed she too has no clue about Big Little Lies‘ promised season three. “I keep being told that there’s going to be a season 3, but I haven’t read anything yet,” she said.

Whether it takes long or not, we can’t wait to see Woodley and Dern onscreen together again!

Before you go, click here to see our favorite movies and TV shows about imperfect, complicated women.