-Our first guest tonight
is an Emmy- and Golden Globe-nominated actress
you know from the "Divergent" films franchise
and the hit series "Big Little Lies."
She stars in "The Last Letter from Your Lover,"
which is streaming on Netflix on July 23rd.
Let's take a look.
-Come. Mr. Booth, dance with me.
-Have fun, my friend.
-♪ Is slowly going on the rocks now ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪
♪ Tell me, tell me, baby ♪
♪ Whatcha gonna do 'bout it? Whatcha gonna do 'bout it? ♪
♪ Oh, tell me ♪
-Please welcome back to the show Shailene Woodley.
Hello, Shailene. How are you?
-Hi. I'm so good. How are you?
-I'm wonderful.
I mean, we've talked in the past about the fact
that you are not particularly good with new technology,
and seeing you there in a film that takes place in the '60s,
that must have been one of the many draws to the project.
-Yeah. The fact that there was no cellphones and no laptops
was a major bonus.
It's so funny just watching that clip right now,
seeing, like, those dance moves and the music. It really just --
There's something that was so transformative
about pretending to live in that space
and that era where you actually had human connection.
You had two people touching one another
instead of everything being through this 2-D screen.
-And it's interesting, you know,
it's also obviously about letter writing.
And you are someone who even in this modern day and age
will write a letter. Is this true?
-I love letters. I love me some letters!
There's nothing better than opening your mailbox
and putting a letter in
and having the anticipation of, "When's it going to get there?
What are they going to think?
Are they going to like what I wrote?"
And then also receiving them.
I just -- I'm a hopeless romantic,
and there's something that's just very, very romantic to me
about letter writing.
-I think I have two friends who to this day
will still write a handwritten thank-you letter.
And they're like the only two friends
that I want to be at my funeral, 'cause they're the only ones
that were nice enough to take the time.
-[ Laughs ] I think that's what it is.
When somebody writes me even an e-mail --
I know that's not a handwritten letter,
but when someone takes the time to write something out,
write their feelings out
and express what they're experiencing in life,
it just hits a different part of my core than, "Hey, how are you?
Ha, ha. Did you see that game last night?"
-I think as long as they spell it Y-O-U
instead of just a solitary "U" --
-I can't. I cannot. Thank goodness --
Do you remember when texting first started,
and it was like "TTYL," "BRB"?
"LOL" is still a thing, but those ones -- Whew!
-Well, the heartbreaking thing now is
there are just new ones that I would have no idea.
I think the saddest thing is when I google,
"What do these letters mean?"
-It's so true.
-You know, obviously this is -- This show is about --
This film, I should say, is about romance. Did you have --
Were there romantic films that you were drawn to growing up?
Do you have favorites?
-So many. I didn't really --
We didn't watch a lot of TV when I was growing up.
But my mom, whenever she'd be folding laundry
or doing the dishes or some sort of benign task,
she always had "Pretty Woman" or "Dirty Dancing"
or "Romancing the Stone" or "Notting Hill" on.
And so those were kind of the movies that I was raised on.
That was my filmography when I was a child.
-Yeah, I just watched --
My wife made me watch "Notting Hill" for the first time.
I had somehow missed it, and just an A-plus.
It really holds up incredibly well.
-It's so good, right? -Yeah.
-Oh, it's just so --
It never gets old. The music, it's so --
The cast. It's perfect.
-You also -- Speaking of romance, you managed to do,
on a year where so many relationships ended
during a pandemic, you managed to start one.
Congratulations on your engagement.
-Thank you so much.
Thank you. Yeah, I always laugh with my friends.
I'm like, "Y'all either got divorced, engaged,
married, or had a baby."
Like, that summed up everyone's quarantine experience.
[ Laughs ]
-You -- Now, I've been fortunate enough
to meet Aaron Rodgers a few times.
And I, of course, have read that you are not a giant sports fan.
I know that he is not someone
who is only interested in sports.
He has a giant breadth of interests.
But have you felt the need
to sort of bone up a little bit on your sports terminology?
-I mean, I guess I haven't felt any pressure to,
but it's exciting, you know, to get behind --
The Packers games are the only ones I find really interesting,
'cause I have people to actually root for.
But it is a whole new world, learning all of the different --
I still am always like, "Oh, you scored a goal!"
He's like, "It's a touchdown."
Or I'll be like, "You crossed the line,"
and he's like, "It's a yard," or whatever.
I still can't -- I still can't get it right,
but I'm learning, slowly but surely.
-I just like that there's something passive-aggressive
about saying, "You crossed the line."
that he'd be like, "Is this about the game
or something I did last night?"
[ Both laugh ]
He sort of -- His --
Great outside of, obviously, an incredible season,
his pandemic accomplishment was hosting "Jeopardy!"
Assuming he took it a seriously as he takes game prep,
how much "Jeopardy!" did you have to watch with him?
-Luckily -- I mean, I was filming in Montreal
when he was prepping for "Jeopardy!" And so I --
And he was quarantining.
So I would go to work at 8:00 a.m., 6:00 a.m.,
and he would start his Netflix "Jeopardy!" binge.
And then when I would get home at 8:00 or 9:00 p.m.,
he would still be watching "Jeopardy!"
And I would open the trash can,
and I would just see like a bunch of empty to-go containers
and milkshake cups that he had ordered on Uber Eats.
And I was like, "You literally just Uber Eated
and watched 'Jeopardy!' all day long today."
He's like, "Yeah, look at my notes."
And he had stacks of notebooks of notes that he took
and highlighted and went back through.
It was actually really inspiring
to watch his steadfast commitment
to learning every single part of the "Jeopardy!" game.
And we did a lot of rehearsing back and forth
where he would read some fake things that he had created
and be like, "Was my tone right?
Was the connotation of this right?
How is it all working?"
[ Chuckles ] It was fun.
-Well, the preparation paid off.
I want to ask you about a story I read recently.
You know, obviously, one of the fun parts
about being in show business is you meet new co-stars,
you build new friendships.
So, sort of after your acting career started,
you were backpacking around Europe,
and you had a co-star who helped you and a friend out
in a way that I don't think many co-stars could.
-Yeah, he really did.
He really -- He took --
We were backpacking through Europe. I was 19.
And I had just worked with George on --
George Clooney -- on "The Descendants."
And he was like, "If you happen to go to Europe this summer,
hit me up. I've got a place in Italy."
And I was like -- I remember being in Italy with my friend
going, "Do you think, like -- Should I? Should I not?"
Like, he's kind of like my dad in a weird way.
Like, he's just, like, you know, given me so much life advice,
and he's been there for me through so much.
And she's like, "Yeah, why not?"
And so he was like, "Send me your address. I'll send a car."
And I was like, "No, no, no, we'll take a train.
It's so easy." And he was like,
"Give me your frickin' address, dude.
Like, I'll send you a car."
And I remember we, like, came out of our hostel.
Like, we hadn't showered in maybe five days.
We stunk. We had our big backpacks and mud on our shoes.
And we get to this fancy Lincoln Town Car.
And then we get to his house.
[ Chuckles ] I remember that moment going,
"He is the greatest human being of all time
for not, one, commenting on our stench,
and, two, for taking us in
and being like, 'I'm going to bathe you.
I'm going to make sure you guys, like, have a European experience
that's different from the European experience
you've been having.'" And it was just --
It was really magical in all of the ways that it could be
for a 19-year-old seeing the world for the first time.
-Now, did you have to, after that, stay at a hostel
for the rest of your trip? 'Cause that would --
I would assume that would be the hardest part.
-Well, you know what's actually incredible?
I mean, he is the most incredible man
I've ever met in my life, period,
apart from I guess Aaron.
I guess I need to say that now.
-Good late save, Shailene.
[ Laughter ]
-That's how that works, right?
But, you know, he had to leave town early,
and so he was like, "I got you guys a hotel room down the way."
And I was like, "Don't worry about it!
We'll just go onto our next vacation, our next destination."
He was like, "No, go to the hotel."
So we show up to this hotel, and it's like a five star --
I want to say it's Hotel -- I can't remember the name of it.
But it's in -- It's on Lake Como.
And it was the first time my friend and I
had ever seen a menu like that, never slept in a bed like that.
And it just --
His, like, generosity and his thoughtfulness
was absolutely stunning. And from there, we did go stay
in a really [bleep] hostel again.
And, I mean, that's just part of the fun of it, you know?
The fact that we were lucky enough
to have both sides of the experiences at that age was --
I really think set us up for the lives
and the perspectives that we have now.
-I was really hoping that was going to be
one of those famous George Clooney pranks
where he booked the hotel but didn't pay for any of it.
[ Both laugh ]
-He was like, "Alright, girls, now it's your turn."
-Hey, thanks so much for being here.
Give our love to Aaron,
and hopefully next time, we'll see you here in the studio.
-I will. Have a great day, Seth.