Shailene Woodley Reveals the Three 'Rules' Her Parents Had for Her When She Began Acting at Age 5

"I love that they included having fun because I am a fun machine," the 'Three Women' actress said of one of her mom and dad's three rules

Shailene Woodley's parents had her back when she started acting as a young child — but she had a few guidelines she had to follow.

The Three Women actress appears on the September 2024 cover of Virgin Atlantic's Vera magazine, where she discussed her screen career and how her psychologist parents supported her from the time she began acting, at age 5.

"My parents had three rules when I was starting out," said Woodley, 32. "In order to be an actor, I had to stay the person they knew I was, do well in school and have fun."

"I love that they included having fun because I am a fun machine," she added of mom Lori Woodley and dad Lonnie Woodley. "I’m really good at playing."

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The Divergent actress heeded her parents' school rule, but fast-tracked it in a way that made sense for her career goals.

"I got the equivalent of my GED when I was 15 so that I could work legally as an adult during my junior year of high school," she told Vera.

But since Woodley "loved school so much and took pride in being an overachiever," she didn't distance herself too far from the formative parts of high school.

"I ended up staying to get a real diploma and go to prom," she said.

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Woodley previously opened up about her unique upbringing, revealing in a September 2016 issue of NET-A-PORTER.com‘s digital magazine The EDIT that her parents would sometimes force her and her younger brother Tanner to "hug it out" on their front lawn after having an argument.

It was even harder when the Big Little Lies actress was teased at school.

“It would hurt my feelings, and my parents weren’t on my side. They would be like, ‘I’m so sorry you’re feeling this way, but what do you think that person was feeling?’ Oh, I hated it,” she said at the time.

But years later, as an adult, Woodley said she understands what her parents were doing.

“It’s enabled me to recognize that no one’s evil,” she admitted. “They’re probably hurting and can’t express themselves, get no love at home, so it’s repeated. It gave me a broader outlook: just put yourself in another person’s shoes.”

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