Shailene Woodley Gushes About How STARZ’s Three Women Brought Up Her Own Memories Of Living On The Road
The actress has a lot of mileage on the road.
Do you have Three Women’s premiere circled? The STARZ series is on the 2024 TV schedule and premieres next Friday, September 13. As someone who has seen the show early, I can say it’s not a drama series to be missed. Based on the book by Lisa Taddeo, the series tells the true stories of multiple women from different sides of the United States and each of their unique connections with pleasure. When CinemaBlend spoke to Three Women’s Shailene Woodley, she shared with us just how the series related to her upbringing.
In the series that moved from Showtime to STARZ last year, Shailene Woodley plays a fictional stand-in for the book’s author Lisa Taddeo, who road tripped across the U.S. to formulate her 2019 New York Times bestseller. During my interview with Woodley and Three Women author, Woodley spoke about collaborating with Taddeo. The actress specifically discussed meshing her own experiences with the notes from the novelist:
Three Women tells the true stories of a trio of women: a mother living in Indiana, a high school student living in North Dakota and a restaurant owner residing in the Northeast. Lisa Taddeo protected two of the three's identities by changing their names. The third is known to be Maggie Wilken, who took her high school teacher to court for having a sexual relationship with her when she was 17.
The series delves deeply into each of the women’s lives, detailing their fears and desires. Shailene Woodley’s Gia is at the center of the story and is a writer who buys a van and travels all over on the hunt for a good story to tell. As mentioned above, Woodley could identify with the character because she has her own experience being on the road.
Back in 2014, the same year she was in Divergent, The Fault in Our Stars and was cut as Mary Jane Watson from The Amazing Spider-Man 2, the A-lister spoke about her experiences on the road. She told USA Today that she had combined her things into a single suitcase and was homeless purposefully after she spent only 15 days at her home the year prior.
In 2016, Shailene Woodley also went on the road with her mom’s 17-year-old motorhome to lead a cross country road trip from Los Angeles to Philadelphia to the Democratic National Convention to support Bernie Sanders. She ultimately ended up keeping it going for two months. She previously revealed on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that she would often stop at Walmart parking lots and on the sides of the road. Aside from the roadie memories the show gave her, she also said this during our interview:
This is an upcoming book adaptation that’s totally worth your time, even if you have yet to read Lisa Taddeo’s novel. As the Descendants alum shared, she feels the series may encourage people to realize there’s a breadth of experiences occurring across America -- many that aren't typically examined but can allow audiences to see new perspectives. As she continued:
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This is definitely one of the best Shailene Woodley performances I’ve seen, and the role fits the actress so well. If you’ve been waiting for Big Little Lies Season 3, you’ll enjoy this series. Except, rather than the drama focusing on residents of Monterey, California, there are several unique experiences at play here. Please do yourself a favor and check out STARZ's Three Women!
Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.