Shailene Woodley allegedly left bruises on Sterling K. Brown’s arm during the birth scene in Episode 4 of Paradise. She held him throughout the birth, willing his breath to leave her body, as if she was actually giving birth for the last time. Woodley didn’t even see Brown’s face at that moment, but only realized it later while watching the finished episode at home in tears.
“At that moment, I felt like even if I died, it would be okay because Sterling had my back,” she told Variety. “It was a raw, honest exchange.”
That scene was the culmination of a guest arc that Woodley created in less than 10 days with a barely finished script in hand. She had just completed five months on Broadway when her agent received a call from creator Dan Fogelman to discuss a role in Season 2.
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By the time it was over, she had booked a flight to Los Angeles. Fogelman’s plan was straightforward: Woodley’s character, Annie Clay, a former medical student turned tour guide at Graceland, falls in love with fellow survivor Link (Thomas Doherty), becomes pregnant, and dies during childbirth. “I was like, ‘Dang! Oh my god,'” Woodley laughs.
It may seem counterintuitive, but a lack of preparation may be what makes a performance work so well. Five months of live theater taught her what she’s been told since she was a child. It’s about “slowing down.”
“Theatrics ingrained this slowness in me,” she says. “I had a calmness and a sense of stability that I was okay with taking my time. The coaches gave me that.”
The Season 2 premiere, Graceland, revolves entirely around Annie, tracing her life from the day a disaster forced the Season 1 cast underground to the years she spent surviving alone above ground, asking viewers to abandon familiar characters and invest in someone new. Using a replica set of Graceland, Woodley constructed Annie’s indoor life in near silence, walking around the room during her lunch break and asking herself what a woman would actually do during two years of complete isolation. She created a scene in which Annie spoke to a portrait of Elvis on the wall, imagining that she began to believe he was real. Most of them weren’t shortlisted, but we subtly let everyone who was shortlisted know that.
“Annie is very down-to-earth, very linear, very Type A, whereas I would be weird and overly emotional. She didn’t cry because she was scared,” Woodley says. “Sitting in those rooms, staring at the walls, asking myself what I would do, that’s how I created her.”
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For the birth scenes, director Ken Olin gave Woodley and Brown the space to find the moment rather than doing something predetermined, and some of the women hired as midwives were real nurses. One was a doula. For actor Brown, Woodley reaches for a word he borrowed from fellow actor Ben Foster: “beast.”
“There are people who aren’t afraid to look a certain way, sound a certain way, do things a certain way. That’s really what transcends the screen,” she says. “Sterling K. Brown is a beast.”
At its heart, Annie’s story is about a woman who has spent years confusing control with security, and what happens when love makes that trade impossible. “With this baby, Annie was finally able to face her deepest fears,” Woodley said. “And by facing her fear, she gave her baby a chance to live.” She paused. “I truly believe that we all help each other. Sometimes it may seem difficult or trivial, but that’s what helping shows.”
As for whether Annie would return for Season 3 through one of the show’s many flashbacks, Woodley quickly responded: “Of course I’d like to come back. Somebody give me a call.”
