Shailene Woodley Was Put in 'A Lot of Uncomfortable Situations' for Biopic

3 weeks ago 3

Shailene Woodley has been working on a biopic of Janis Joplin for close to a decade.

The actress, who appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, spoke for the first time publicly about her highly anticipated new role.

"I'm really excited. We've been working on it for seven years now. She's such a groovy chick, man. She really brought the light to this planet in a really singular way, and it's been so much fun to dive into her story."

Woodley, who shot to fame with 2014 doomed romantic drama The Fault in our Stars, admits she had no formal singing training prior to taking on the role as the iconic singer/songwriter.

Praising music producer Linda Perry, Woodley revealed she was "put in a lot of uncomfortable situations" where she was told to show up in an empty warehouse with a full band and have fun. "I was like, 'I don't know how to sing anything. Like, Christmas carols? Like what do I sing?'"

Requiring Woodley to deliver not only the performance, but the vocals too, can have only increased the project's development time, especially given the uniqueness of Joplin's sound. There's no release date for the movie yet.

See Woodley's full interview with Fallon below (the biopic discussion happens at 1:50).