Shailene Woodley Initially Turned Down “Big Little Lies” but Says a Call from Laura Dern 'Changed' Everything

Woodley recalled being "really dead-set on finding myself" and "exhausted by the act of Hollywood" but she's so "grateful" Dern convinced her to join the show

Big Little Lies' Monterey Five could have looked completely different.

Shailene Woodley, who played Jane Chapman in the HBO series alongside Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Laura Dern and Zoë Kravitz, just revealed that she was initially hesitant to take the role in the show — so much so that she came close to turning it down.

"I got a call, I'll never forget it. It was November or October of 2015. I was really sick at the time and I was not at all exhausted by acting or the artistry and the craft of storytelling, but I was really exhausted by the act of Hollywood," Woodley, 32, said in a video for Vanity Fair while looking back at the show.

Related: Reese Witherspoon Teases an Added 'Element' to Big Little Lies Season 3, Says Updates Are Coming 'Very Soon'

"And I got a call about Big Little Lies because Jean-Marc Vallée — our beautiful creator, director, who has since passed — had wanted me to play Jane. And I was desperate to work with him, I thought he was such an incredible artist and filmmaker," she said.

The only thing holding her back? "I was really dead-set on 'finding myself.'"

It was her soon-to-be costar and friend that changed her mind. "I got a call from Laura [Dern] the day before I left for India — or maybe I was actually already in India and I hadn't turned my phone off yet. And she just said, 'Listen, I know where you're at in your life. I've been there before too. It's a lot. This world is an illusion, but what isn't an illusion is what you love to do," she remembers Dern, 57, telling her.

"'And what I see in you, Shai, is your purpose — at least in this moment in your life — is to be a storyteller. And I think it's a massive mistake for you to walk away from this opportunity that you really should lean into.'"

Woodley has Dern to thank for that call, which she said made her "leave India and come back to the United States" to take the job. "It forever changed my life."

"And so, in so many ways, I'm grateful for Laura, but that was a massive moment of courageous friendship to say, 'I think that you're making a mistake and I'm gonna be brave enough to tell you why, cause I really see you and I see something you can't see in your own life right now.'"

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Woodley called Dern "my sister" as she recalled the conversation that convinced her to take the role of Jane, and she also told Vanity Fair about her lasting friendships with her other castmates.

"The beautiful thing about Big Little Lies is that we're all actually friends in real life," she said of herself, Dern, Witherspoon, 48, Kravitz, 35, and Kidman, 57 before weighing in on the upcoming third season of the show, which comes more than five after season 2 premiered.

"We have a text chain going and it's constantly a check-in, every few weeks, 'Hey, what's the update?' 'It's still happening,'" Woodley said. "I keep being told that there's going to be a season 3, but I haven't read anything yet."

In August, Kravitz told PEOPLE she also knows "nothing" concrete about season 3 — which Kidman accidentally spilled the beans on last year — but she's "excited to do it."

"I'm waiting to see, like everybody else, the third season that's happening ... waiting by the phone, waiting for the script to be done."

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Seasons 1 and 2 of Big Little Lies can be streamed on Max.