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Shailene Woodley is always chasing butterflies.
Not literal ones, of course. The metaphorical kind — the internal fluttering when she reads a script and immediately resonates with a character or finds out who’s attached to the project and knows with certainty that she needs to be part of it.
“Everything is butterfly-based for me,” Woodley tells Business Insider.
This intuition has been Woodley’s north star throughout her career, guiding her to roles as a teen mom in “The Secret Life of the American Teenager,” the brave protagonist in the “ that you were on J.J. Abrams’ shortlist of actors to play Rey in Star Wars? Did you even audition for that?
No, I don’t know that that rumor is true at all. I mean, if it is, cool, great, fun to hear it [laughs]. “Star Wars” is my favorite franchise of all time, so that’s cool if that’s real.
You’ve said before that you were interested in coming back as Jane in a potential third season of “Big Little Lies.” Any updates now that it’s in the works? Are you returning?
I know as much as you do. I don’t even know if it’s officially in the works. I thought it was still just a rumor, but everybody, all of us do want it to happen. We all still text each other quite often saying, “Can’t wait for season three.” It feels a little bit like a fun fantasy dream that hopefully happens, but I can’t say concretely whether it is or isn’t happening.
Reese and Nicole have been saying that it is actually happening. They said that the book is being written.
That’s the information that I have as well.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
“Three Women” airs weekly on Starz on Fridays at 10 p.m.