NEW YORK, March 2 (UPI) — Divergent and Big Little Lies actress Shailene Woodley makes a big entrance as former med school student-turned-Graceland tour guide Annie in Season 2 of writer-producer Dan Fogelman’s post-apocalyptic drama, Paradise.
“The way that he marries these big themes and stories, specifically with Paradise, the post-apocalyptic world, with so much humanity and human heart and relatability is really inspiring and creatively intoxicating,” Woodley, 34, told UPI in a recent Zoom interview. “He makes you laugh, he makes you cry, he makes you angry, he makes you feel happy.”
Woodley’s first few episodes of the Hulu series show her hiding out alone in the Memphis estate where the late rock ‘n’ roll legend Elvis Presley once lived.
She initially has mixed feelings when handsome Link (Thomas Doherty) and his band of survivors temporarily move in, but, before long, Annie and Link fall in love.
When Link and his crew move on, Annie can’t bring herself to leave the relative safety of Graceland for the uncertainty of the outside world. After they part ways, Annie discovers she is pregnant with Link’s child.
When a plane crashes, Annie, almost full-term, heads out on horseback to help who she thinks is Link returning to her.
In fact, it is the show’s main character Xavier (Sterling K. Brown), who has left his high-tech underground bunker home in Colorado to try and find his wife Teri (Enuka Okuma) in Georgia.
The third episode of Season 2 ends with Annie holding Xavier at gunpoint and demanding he take her to the bunker where she believes Link might be.
“I play someone named Annie who survives after the wild natural disaster in Season 1 and we watch as she navigates her internal resources of human willpower and strength and a sort of irrepressible desire for survival,” Woodley said.
The actress emphasized that she and Brown got along well, even though their characters got off on the wrong foot with one another.
“The thing about Sterling is that he plays this really intense character and, then, the minute that the camera stops rolling, he’s blasting music, he’s dancing, he’s joking around with people. He’s just sort of the life of the party and he brings a really full, big, abundant energy to set,” Woodley said.
“When the cameras are rolling again, he was kind of this intense, scary guy, but that’s not at all who he is or a reflection of Sterling K. Brown as a person. So, it’s a lot of fun and we also went deep with each other. We had lots of really wonderful conversations and I just think he has a beautiful heart and a beautiful soul.”
Tell Me Lies, The Lodge and Descendants alum Doherty, 30, plays Link.
“I’m kind of a mysterious figure. We don’t know who he is. But then, over time, he is very transparent about what he is trying to achieve and who he is as a person and that’s all I’ll say on Link,” Doherty said.
“With Link, he’s got his boys and he’s got this goal. He’s got this purpose in life. But with you,” he said, addressing Woodley, “it’s purely just survival.”
“It’s pure survival without any education on what that looks like or ‘a how to.’ There was no ‘How to Survive for Dummies’ book,” Woodley agreed.
Before he leaves, Link tells Annie about rumors that there is a life-saving bunker out west.
“She wants to believe that it’s real, but she also doesn’t know for sure that it’s real. So, I think that she is just taking the information she receives at face value,” Woodley said.
Her doubt isn’t the reason why she stays at Graceland instead of leaving with Link, however.
“I don’t think she could fathom losing one more thing that she wasn’t in control of,” Woodley said.
Doherty added: “Link is dead set [on going there]. He had his purpose and I think that kept him alive.”
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