Shailene Woodley

LAURA BROWN: Would you characterise yourself as an ambitious person?

SHAILENE WOODLEY: The word “ambition” has so many negative connotations for me because I feel like it can be cruel in a lot of ways. I think of people using other people. Often, the word “ambition” can easily be “get out of my way because I have a goal, and anything standing in front of me is going to be completely eradicated.” But every word has a polarity and we can all define things differently. People always talk about ambition in terms of dreams and goals and success, but ambition can also be humble.

LB: Yeah, you can be ambitious to love someone, to effect a change. So how driven were you when you were young?

SW: I’ve always been driven. But I’ve been driven by…listen, I have to be careful about the words I choose