Being Shailene

Many Actors Say They Are Activists, but Few Would Put Their Careers on the Line for a Cause. Thankfully, Shailene Woodley Isn’t Most Actors. Here, She Talks Getting Arrested, Giving Away Possessions and Popping Her Political Hymen (Susan Sarandon’s Words, Not Ours)…

- Mickey Rapkin

Last October, Shailene Woodley found herself at the Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota, America, protesting against the Dakota Access pipeline, a controversial piece of infrastructure built atop the Sioux tribe’s sacred ground.

This protest wasn’t simply about respecting Native American sovereignty, though that was certainly top of mind for the actressturned-activist, who is horrified by 200 years of oppressive treatment of indigenous people. This was also a sustainability issue that threatened 18 million people’s drinking water. Woodley, an outspoken critic of the crude oil pipeline and a frequent visitor to Standing Rock, was walking to her RV for lunch when she spotted two US military tanks. “I’m like, “This is some Divergent shit,”” she recalls, referencing the postapocalyptic trilogy she’s best known for. “The only time in my life that I saw a tank like that was on set in Atlanta.”

Minutes later, Woodley was arrested for criminal trespassing and engaging in a riot. Some 40,000 people watched on Facebook Live as her hands were zip-tied behind her back. At the Morton County jail, she reveals, “I was strip-searched. Like get naked, turn over, spread your butt cheeks, bend over. They were looking for drugs in my ass.” She recently joked with US comedian Stephen Colbert about her mugshot (“I wish I’d known this was going to be as public as it was. I would have made, like, a face.” But there was nothing funny about her arrest. “When you’re in a jail cell and they shut that door, you realise no one can save you. If there’s a fire and they decide not to open the door, you’ll die. You are a caged animal.”