Shailene Woodley: New York as a Jungle, Life as Instinct

“Today I was walking through New York and thinking: it’s like being in the jungle. We’re a pack of slightly crazy animals, all different. Even just looking into each other’s eyes means reconnecting with nature,” says Shailene Woodley, the star of our new cover story.

These words capture her completely. Wild and tender at the same time. An actress who has never tried to be comfortable, “by-the-book fashionable,” or predictable. And perhaps that’s why millions of women around the world feel a strange, almost instinctive kinship with her.

Shailene has long moved beyond the confines of the classic Hollywood image. In life, she doesn’t play roles—she lives them. New York isn’t a metropolis for her; it’s a living ecosystem. People aren’t a crowd—they are beings full of instincts, fears, warmth, and inner wildness.

And in this view of the world lies a remarkable feminine strength: to feel, to notice, to not dull one’s perception.

Professionally, Shailene is experiencing that rare period where projects don’t just follow one after another—they paint the portrait of the actress of the future.

From February 23, she will appear in the series Paradise 2, streaming on Disney+. At the same time, the film world is talking about Motor City—an almost silent film presented at the Venice Film Festival. Minimal words, maximum emotion: a choice that perfectly reflects her nature.

But this is just the beginning.

Shailene will officially return in the third season of Big Little Lies, the series that has become a true manifesto of complex, authentic femininity. And next come roles that many dream of, but few dare to take on.

She will portray Janis Joplin in a film she is also producing: not a glossy myth, but a living, vulnerable, and challenging legend.
She will also bring Patricia Highsmith to life—the woman behind The Talented Mr. Ripley—in a biopic exploring the inspiration, fears, and darkness from which art is born.