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Interview: Shailene Woodley from The Secret Life Of The American Teenager
Submitted on 01.06.2009 - 12:00:00 am by Emma
Interview: Shailene Woodley from The Secret Life Of The American Teenager
Interview: Shailene Woodley from The Secret Life Of The American Teenager

I was reading a blog on the official site and most of the responses were positive, but I wanted to know what you thought of the people who were in there basically saying this show promotes teenage pregnancy and it glorifies it and it probably shouldn't be on TV.

S. Woodley: I personally don't read the blogs, but I feel like people who say that the show glorifies it, I don't believe that. I don't feel like this show glorifies pregnancy, because if you see my character she's obviously not jumping up and down, she's in the bathroom crying 24/7. Definitely there is an emotional spin on everything. Her best friend... they kind of grow apart because her best friend's mom won't let her come over and she has a boyfriend and she has the dad of the baby she can't stand, and she has a mom that she's dealing with and her dad that's she's dealing with, so I don't feel like it glorifies it at all. If anything, I think it makes it seem like a very hard and difficult situation to go through, especially as a teenager.

In season two, for instance, also you'll see the other aspect of having a baby, like if she should get a job or not. The baby is actually going to cost money and she's actually going to have to take care of it herself. So, I don't feel like it glorifies it. I feel like it handles it in a very mature and real life way as far as if a teenager got pregnant and how she would react.

Do you think getting married at 15 is a good idea?

S. Woodley: Personally, I don't think I would ever get married at 15. I don't know if I'd ever even tell a guy I loved him at 15. But it works for Amy and Ben and they're in a different situation. Who knows; if I was pregnant and I was 15, if I was Amy, if I was the kind of person she is and had the same personality as her, if it was the right time and the right day, who knows? It all depends on situations and it's all relative.

You'd probably have to have a lot of family support too.

S. Woodley: Definitely.

Actually, I was also speaking to Jason Priestley a couple of months ago and he mentioned that he was directing a few more episodes. I just wanted to know what he's like to work with.

S. Woodley: He's great. He's hysterical - oh, my God. Every time he's onsite, he never says, "cut," so it just keeps rolling and rolling and rolling and you get like great outtakes because we start bursting into laughter. He's a great guy. He's super funny and really nice and he gives great tips and tells great stories. He just exudes this positive vibe into the studio and it's really great. Everybody responds to it.

How have your real life high school experiences compared with the show?

S. Woodley: Well, let's see. Let me go back to freshman year. As a freshman, me and my friends; every teenager on the show is talking about sex and talking about picking their friends and all of that, picking their boyfriends, being the next level or whatever, as a freshman, me and my friends definitely talked about that. We talked about more mature things than we did like in middle school.

Actually, my parents got divorced when I was a freshman. So, I can definitely relate to Amy as far as what she's going through and how hard that is to balance. The first year in high school is just totally different than middle school and your first boyfriend while having your parents divorce and your family life kind of crumble. So, I can definitely relate to a lot of things on the show and there is always the Christian girl at our school who preached God... and who preached happiness and purity and everything. Then there is always the girl who is kind of thought of as the provocative one, who people were usually intimidated by, but really didn't know that she was a nice, smart girl. I think it is right on cue with all sort of storylines as far as how they relate to normal high schools.

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