Shailene Woodley had one strict requirement when it came to her romantic interest in Divergent. And fortunately, it seemed that her co-star Theo James ended up ticking off all the boxes.
Woodley and James turned out to be the perfect pairing for the popular Divergent series. But before he was cast, Woodley already had an idea of what she wanted her ideal love interest to be like.
"The thing about Four is that he has to be a man. No feminine actors, please," Woodley once told MTV News. "You cannot walk in that room in pretty little boots and pretend you're a man. I'm sorry."
Woodley felt the masculine quality she was looking for needed to be instinctive, which went beyond just looking strong.
"You need to walk in there, and you need to not have muscles that look good and not actually work. There have been a few guys that have this power about them. It's a natural masculine power that some people have and some people don't. There's nothing good or bad or wrong or right about it," she said. "This character needs to be extremely masculine, and his eyes need to scream vulnerability and sensitivity. It's really hard to find in a dude, especially a dude who can act."
Woodley was so determined to find the co-star because the relationship between Four, and her character Tris, could make or break Divergent.
"It's more just the chemistry between the two of us and seeing if we do have that chemistry or can work on that chemistry -- seeing if our back-and-forth dialogue makes any sense with each other," she said. "There's a lot of standards that have to be met."
Woodley was confident that she found her Four in James. In a 2017 interview with Daily Beast, the actor explained what separated James from the other male actors who she auditioned with.
"We auditioned a lot of guys, and a lot of these actors were playing male, masculine leaders. Even if they were good, they were still acting it. Theo walked in and just demanded it with his presence. Theo is smart as a whip -- he majored in philosophy and traveled the world before he even became an actor -- so he's had a full life before the industry, and he didn't feel like he had to prove his masculinity," she said.
It wasn't just obvious to Woodley that James was the right candidate, but everyone else a part of Divergent's team. Perhaps James' legitimacy was at its most apparent while they were kissing.
"With Theo, I think everyone knew. When we were filming, everyone said, 'You and Theo have such crazy chemistry,' but I didn't realize it until I saw the movie," she said. "Theo is in it for the right reasons. He's not in it for the glamour, the toys, or the excess, and neither am I, so we respect each other on that level. And we're good teammates and have each other's backs, and I think a lot of our chemistry stems from that."
It's easy to see why Woodley was so worried about casting Four. The relationship aspect of Divergent was incredibly important to capture in the film. Especially since it's one of the main factors that attracted her to the sci-fi franchise in the first place.
"It's not one of those teenage dramatic relationships where it's love at first sight and she's swooning over him and he's there with her and then he withdraws and she has to chase him. There's no drama I feel like it's very real and very personal and realistic to how a lot of relationships are," she said in an interview with Collider.
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