{"id":511784,"date":"2026-03-03T14:50:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T14:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/511784\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T14:50:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T14:50:12","slug":"shailene-woodley-on-annies-death-babys-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/511784\/","title":{"rendered":"Shailene Woodley on Annie’s Death, Baby’s Future"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t[This story contains major spoilers from the fourth episode of season two of Paradise<\/a>, \u201cA Holy Charge.\u201d]<\/p>\n

\n\tAny savvy viewer could have guessed that Annie would play an important part in the world of Paradise after the Dan Fogelman<\/a>-created series centered its entire first episode of season two<\/a> on her introduction. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe former medical student, who became a Graceland tour guide after the death of her mother survived the show\u2019s near-apocalypse for years at Elvis Presley\u2019s famous home, only to recently cross paths with another survivor named Link (Thomas Doherty<\/a>), who she spent one beautiful night with that ended up getting her pregnant. Annie, however, had refused to leave Graceland with Link and his group, and is nearing her due date when Xavier (Sterling K. Brown) shows up wounded after leaving the bunker at the end of season one<\/a> in search for the wife he mistakenly thought had died, Terri (Enuka Okuma).<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the newly released fourth episode (the first three episodes released together, before season two moved to a weekly release), Annie, who is played by Shailene Woodley<\/a>, wants Xavier to bring her to the bunker so she can reunite with Link. But fate has other plans when Annie goes into labor and dies after child birth. Her last wish is to charge Xavier with keeping her baby safe, and to bring her to her father Link, who she hopes made it to the bunker.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was the quickest turnaround I\u2019ve ever been a part of,\u201d Woodley tells The Hollywood Reporter of her season two casting, and having one week of prep before filming. She likens filming her emotional episodes to being in a short film, since the majority of her scenes are spent quietly at Graceland, especially with scene partners Doherty and star Brown. \u201cWe were able to create this reality that I think is a very rare reality to see on television, that just gave silence permission,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat all changes, however, with Annie\u2019s death in episode four. Below, Woodley unpacks the emotional episode as she talks about her attraction to telling Annie\u2019s Paradise story. She also teases her upcoming Janis Joplin biopic <\/a>and shares what she knows about Big Little Lies season three<\/a>, but she remains largely in the dark about where Paradise goes after her exit: However, \u201cDan did tell me the extension of [the Link] storyline and where the baby goes,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tCan you tell me your casting story? I\u2019m wondering if Dan Fogelman had you in mind for this role of Annie? <\/p>\n

\n\tI don\u2019t think so. I don\u2019t know. Dan did reach out. We Zoomed with one another, and I was a fan. I have been a fan of his for so long, and Sterling\u2019s as well \u2014 and Julianne [Nicholson]\u2019s and Paradise season one. I didn\u2019t know exactly what Dan had in mind for my character. I knew there were a certain amount of episodes, and I knew a brief landscape. After our Zoom once he laid out the idea of Annie and who she was, I said I would be honored to be a part of this. And he was like, \u201cGreat, see you in L.A. In seven days, we start rolling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tI was in Europe at the time and I was flying back to the States to start prepping, and I was reading the episodes on the plane. There was no time to prepare, which I think actually lent to a lot of the intuitive process, specifically with episode one. But it was the quickest turnaround I\u2019ve ever been a part of.<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019ve seen you speak about how intentional you are<\/a> with choosing your characters. Annie is another strong woman who is a survivor. What clicked or attracted you to playing her from the start?<\/p>\n

\n\tThe first time I read the episode, I was so struck by the space that existed in it. There was so much silence, because she does spend so much of the episode alone. I always get excited to play with the texture of space and solitude, because that\u2019s where I think we become the most ourselves, and where we\u2019re also the most challenged because we\u2019re stuck in our heads. <\/p>\n

\n\tAlthough Dan and his writers had created such a brilliant character, I didn\u2019t know what Annie\u2019s in was and what my point of relation was [in the show]. I thought we were very different, and by the end, I realized we had a lot of similarities. But I think the adventure of going into something quite blind and not having all of the answers allowed \u2014 I used the word \u201cintuitive\u201d earlier, but it just felt so intuitive from the moment we started filming. <\/p>\n

\n\tIt was just me and our directors in episode one, Glenn [Ficarra] and John [Requa], for the first two weeks of filming. Thomas hadn\u2019t come yet, Sterling wasn\u2019t there yet. It felt like we were making this contained short film. I believe the first episode came in at over two hours long for the director\u2019s cut. Obviously they had to condense it, but we had so much footage of Annie just interacting with her environment and herself, looking at her own hands, talking to herself and interacting with Elvis. That isn\u2019t in the final cut, but it did inform a lot of, \u201cHow does someone spend years alone without going insane?\u201d That was the question I woke up with every day and went home with every day: \u201cHow does one contain their sanity?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd for me, a lot of the answers revealed themselves to be through play and wonder and silliness. Annie, knowing that she was safe within the confines of her mind, I think, really challenged her ability to feel safe once Thomas\u2019 character Link shows up, and once Sterling shows up. We were able to create this reality that I think is a very rare reality to see on television, that just gave silence permission.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tAnnie (Shailene Woodley, here with Sterling K. Brown\u2019s Xavier, right) dies after giving birth to her daughter. \u201cI think Annie was able to leave with a sense of peace,\u201d says Woodley of Annie\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo you did not know her full arc in detail. Did you know how many episodes you were going to be in, and that she would die?<\/p>\n

\n\tI knew how many episodes and I knew what was going to happen [in broad strokes] \u2014 I knew that she was going to get pregnant. I knew that she was going to give birth, and I knew that she was going to pass away. But I didn\u2019t know exactly how that was going to look, and what the timeline was going to be, until I read episode four. It\u2019s so profoundly and poignantly written, that reading it in and of itself evoked every emotion that we needed to bring it alive on the day. I credit the writers who are so brilliant and so in touch with their own humanity, which made our jobs a lot more seamless.<\/p>\n

\n\tGiven your environmental activism and attraction to the show\u2019s first season, did you have moments talking with your co-stars or the writers where you shared your fears for the planet or\u00a0what this role was bringing up for you?<\/p>\n

\n\tThere really was no time. I got cast, I did wardrobe fitting. We had a couple conversations with hair and makeup. I got a haircut, and the cameras were rolling. And then, as we were shooting, there were so many montage sequences and so many small beats to capture that there wasn\u2019t a lot of downtime on this set. A lot of the conversations that we had kind of had nothing to do with the show. Also, I still don\u2019t know exactly what happens at the end of this season because I haven\u2019t asked. I have a rough idea, and I know more than I even want to know, as a fan of the show. But I wasn\u2019t trying to go deep with Dan or the writers on what was to come. I am excited to have it be revealed in real time with my friends on the couch watching Paradise, because once Annie\u2019s out of it, I don\u2019t really know what happens.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo what you know about Link is where you left him?<\/p>\n

\n\tI know more about Link than I know about Xavier or Sinatra [Nicholson]. Only because of the nature of our relationship in the show and the baby, Dan did tell me the extension of that storyline and where the baby goes. But I had purposely not asked a lot of questions.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat do you think held Annie back from going with Link that day when she stayed in the closet?<\/p>\n

\n\tI think that when Annie lost her mom, she was so accustomed to feeling out of control in her life, that she couldn\u2019t help her mom. And as a caretaker, going to med school and not being able to fulfill her dreams and help others, she had a lack of control that caused suffering for those around her. That was the story she\u2019d created in her head. And suddenly, at Graceland, once the disaster hit, in her days of survival, she had control that she had never experienced before, which was that she knew how to contain her environment. She knew how to keep herself safe. It was after [her friend] Gail passed away, that her control, I think, really set in, and the comfort set in.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen Link showed up, he was a reminder of all that she had already lost. The idea of leaving Graceland, being out of control again in her life, and possibly losing him, or losing the security net and the safety and comfort she found in him was scarier than potentially dying alone at Graceland by herself, because at least that was something she chose. Annie\u2019s greatest fear is something being taken away from her that she had no control of and no agency over. So the idea for her to let Link go was an idea of autonomous agency. Even if it was a false story that she had fabricated, it kept her safe. <\/p>\n

\n\tAnd ultimately, the reason why she did end up leaving is because she realized that the unknown is actually where the most growth and the most comfort can lie. But it took a tremendous amount of courage for her to arrive there, and I think getting pregnant was the catalyst for her to put herself in a place of discomfort in order to gain comfort \u2014 even if it was something that she had to believe before seeing.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe has this moment of acceptance in her death, where she\u2019s almost walking Xavier through it after she gives birth and is bleeding out. Everyone in the room is in denial, but she knows it\u2019s happening and seems OK. How did you play that moment; how much did becoming a mother change her?<\/p>\n

\n\tThere wasn\u2019t a lot of time for her to be intellectual about it. I think that a lot of her experience in her final moments, she had been preparing for. Because she was medically trained, she knew what the consequences of giving birth could be. But seeing her daughter, looking her in the eyes, holding her young body, and seeing that she was healthy and that she was going to have the fortitude to move forward in life in a way that Annie didn\u2019t, I think, gave her a peace and an acceptance that\u2019s so primal and deeply rooted. I don\u2019t have children yet, but I would imagine it\u2019s deeply rooted in the womb of a woman, this idea of carrying life forward and giving life forward. I think Annie was able to leave with a sense of peace, and because her nature is to be a nurturer, she left on a high note because she was able to be of service to those around her even as her last breath was being taken.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tSterling K. Brown with the late Annie\u2019s baby at the end of episode four.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDisney\/Gilles Mingasson<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s rare to have one episode with two characters and totally fall in love with them, like with Annie and Link, and then even with Annie and Xavier. Did you have time to prep with Thomas or Sterling?<\/p>\n

\n\tWe were thrown right in! Thomas and I had met once. We spent maybe 15, 20 minutes together before we did our first scene. The first thing we filmed was the one where we come together and touch one another\u2019s hands for the first time, and we have this very intimate moment. We didn\u2019t really talk about it. I think I went up to him and said, \u201cAre you cool if we just play?\u201d And he was like, \u201cYeah, are you cool?\u201d And I was like, \u201cYeah, let\u2019s just see what happens.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tThe directors gave us the space to explore the nuanced moments and the silence that existed in that scene, because it wasn\u2019t written with a lot of silence, but we really took our time. We trusted each other. We kind of intrinsically decided to share. I shared all of myself with Thomas in those moments, and I felt like he shared all of himself with me, and we really imagined and allowed ourselves to believe that was the first time we were having human contact and physical contact in a very, very long time. And the fear that can come with being truly seen, I think, sometimes is greater than the fear of being alone, even if it means loneliness. We really leaned into it. <\/p>\n

\n\tAnd with Sterling, it was the same thing. Right off the bat with Thomas and with Sterling, we all naturally had a chemistry. We were having deeply personal conversations and sharing ideas about the world offscreen, which then allowed us to be, I think, more comfortable in silence with each other onscreen.<\/p>\n

\n\tNext for you, you have two big projects, including the Janis Joplin biopic<\/a>. How are you approaching that and where are you in development?<\/p>\n

\n\tI don\u2019t think I\u2019m allowed to say that part of it, but I\u2019m very excited about it! The prep has been a lot of musical prep, which has been wonderful and so fulfilling, and exciting and nerve-wracking. But I\u2019m such a fan of hers because of the way that she approached the world. She had this audacity to be so clearly herself with the mask of who she wanted others to believe she was that it\u2019s been really fun to learn more and more about her. The more I read about her, and the more time I spend with her, either musically or by way of hearing stories that other people have to share about her, the more enthralled I am.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd then there\u2019s Big Little Lies season three<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tIf I knew anything, I would spill every bean, but I literally know nothing! That is not me pretending. I know nothing \u2014 apart from that we are doing a third season. For all I know, Jane could live in Australia. I have no idea what\u2019s to come!<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tParadise releases new episodes Mondays on Hulu<\/a>, and is now streaming the first four episodes of season two.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[This story contains major spoilers from the fourth episode of season two of Paradise, \u201cA Holy Charge.\u201d] Any…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511785,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,47946,75,4700,203246,38557,43179,12690,127399],"class_list":["post-511784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-dan-fogelman","tag-entertainment","tag-hulu","tag-julianne-nicholson","tag-paradise","tag-shailene-woodley","tag-sterling-k-brown","tag-thomas-doherty"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}