Years after starring together in two major young adult franchises, Shailene Woodley is opening up about the bond she still shares with longtime friend and frequent co-star Ansel Elgort.
The actress recently reflected on their relationship in a new interview with Variety, revealing that despite years passing since The Fault in Our Stars and the Divergent films first reached audiences, their connection remains one of the most important relationships in her life.
“Ansel Elgort is to this day one of my best friends,” Shailene shared. “I feel like he transcends the label of best friend. He is like family to me. I love him so, so deeply.”
Woodley and Elgort first met while filming Divergent, released in 2014. Ironically, their first on-screen relationship wasn’t romantic at all. The pair portrayed siblings Tris and Caleb Prior, creating a dynamic that Woodley says quickly extended beyond the cameras.
“When we were doing the first divergent movie, we really connected, and we became sort of instant siblings,” she recalled. “The dynamic between us is always very sweet, and it was very supportive, and he would come over to my house, and we would cook and just talk for hours after work.”
That off-screen closeness later created an unexpected situation when the actors found themselves attached to another adaptation beloved by young audiences: The Fault in Our Stars.
The emotional drama, based on John Green’s bestselling novel, required the pair to shift entirely from sibling energy to portraying one of modern YA fiction’s most memorable romances: Hazel Grace Lancaster and Augustus Waters.
For Woodley, she initially thought that casting scenario seemed impossible.
“When I heard he was auditioning for Fault in Our Stars, I was like ‘Oh that’s sweet, but like obviously it’s never gonna happen because he’s my brother in Divergent, like there’s no world where [that happens].’ And then he was cast,” Shailene said. “You know, he’s kind of the only person on Earth who could’ve played Gus.”
Their chemistry eventually became one of the film’s defining strengths and helped transform The Fault in Our Stars into both a commercial and emotional success with audiences.
According to Woodley, that chemistry existed because it was built on something genuine rather than manufactured.
“I think actually what made our relationship in that movie as tender as it was and as truly like unconditionally loving as it was [because] Ansel and I do genuinely love one another,” Shailene explained. “It’s so rare that you get to see love explored without intimacy, and although there is intimacy between Hazel and Gus, the core of it is just unconditional love. It’s two people walking each other home. It’s two people who have a desire to only be supportive to one another, and make the other person feel a little less lonely in a chaotic world.”
Still, even strong friendships apparently have limits when cameras start rolling.
Woodley admitted filming more intimate scenes created some awkward moments between the two longtime friends.
“Of course it was awkward when we had to do intimacy scenes together, cause I remember [us] laughing in between takes a little bit together,” Shailene said. “I know everything about you, that is so weird that we have to take our shirts off.”
